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Back to School Time: The Changing Face of School Foodservice
September 4, 2008

In these health-conscious times it is only fitting that our schools become the front lines for wellness and good eating habits. If we can make students aware of the benefits of healthy eating habits and an all-around healthy lifestyle, we give them the tools to continue to be health-conscious into adulthood.

As foodservice designers, we see an increasing number of programs that require schools to remove fryers and, as a result, fried food from lunch programs. In their place, schools need to provide students healthy options in both the hot lunch and à la carte lines. These changes in menu options bring about more changes in design and equipment selection for design build and remodeling projects. 

Combi oven technology has become a staple in almost every school design that we currently undertake. The combi has become such a versatile piece of equipment that covers a vast range of cooking technology from steaming to baking and in some instances even “frying.” I am using the word frying in a loose sense because combi ovens don’t actually fry foods, rather they create a crisp product such as french fries or chicken nuggets by cooking with a combination of steam and dry heat. Most people would not be able to tell the difference between a truly fried product and that which comes out of a combi oven. The one major difference is the healthfulness of the product. By cooking in the combi, we have just reduced the fat content drastically and now serve young people much healthier products.

Foodservice directors we work with continue to look for ways to make a vast amount of healthy beverage choices available to students. Gone are the days of soda machines in a cafeteria. We see more frequent demand for air screen merchandisers packed with an array of juices, sport drinks and milk.  

Another very pertinent health food topic concerns organic foods and the “farm to table” movement, which encourages consumers to eat locally grown or produced foods rather than foods that have been trucked in from miles and miles away. This is an issue that we see going both ways at the moment. As some schools embrace the ideas of using fresh items from the local markets, others, in contrast, are focusing on the labor-saving benefits of using frozen foods that require only quick reheating before they’re served to the student.  

In many cases, the healthier option in this scenario is to serve fresh, rather than frozen food, although some flash-frozen vegetables offer important nutritional value as well. But regardless of what schools choose, both of these options call for very different design needs. A district that receives fresh produce from a local farmer will need far more prep area for washing and cutting fruits and vegetables than the district that is receiving pallets of frozen foods. In turn, the district that is receiving the large quantities of frozen foods is going to need a much larger walk-in freezer.  

Small changes in school foodservice programs, such as offering healthier options, can drive large changes in the way we lay out and design a facility. Adapting to these changes and providing the best facility is obviously the goal of all designers. But just as important is knowing we are taking part in promoting health and wellness to our youth. This makes for a great incentive to be better designers.   

Posted by Eric Norman on September 4, 2008 | Comments (0)