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It’s National School Lunch Week: Find Your Treasure!

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Ahoy school lunch lubbers: it’s almost time for National School Lunch Week!  The School Nutrition Association’s theme this year is one that beckons you to take your child nutrition program on an exciting adventure: School Lunch Pirates: Find Your Treasure . Are you ready? Thank goodness lunch has come a very long way since the Golden Age of Piracy! Back in those days, between roughly 1650 and 1720, refrigeration didn’t yet exist, and hygiene on the high seas was sketchy. Meals consisted of salted and dried beef and hardtack “bread” made of simply flour and water, while fruits and vegetables were a rarity at sea. Beer or grog were safer to drink than the water, and they typically provided more calories than what little food was available. A reimbursable meal is fine dining by comparison! Lucky for us all, we now have a pirate’s bounty of ways to store, prep, cook, and serve safe, nutritious, tasty, and vermin-free meals.  What’s your treasure?  Serving as Many Students as Possib
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6 Powerful Reasons to Attend Foodservice Industry Conferences

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How lucky are we that we live in a time with so many resources to help us learn better ways to do things? The internet is with us 24/7, and our teams and customers help us keep the communication and ideas flowing every day. But sometimes the best breakthroughs happen when we step out of our own “bubble,” talk to new people, and kick the tires, so to speak. That’s what industry conferences and trade shows are all about. Investing your time in trade conferences and expos can help you strengthen your foodservice operation in a wide variety of ways. Here are just a few: Discover new products developed to solve operational challenges you may be facing. See large equipment options in person before making purchasing decisions. Connect and share ideas and insights with peers and other industry experts. Get a deeper understanding of legislation and external forces impacting your operation now. Learn about industry-changing trends and technology that may affect your operation in the near f
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Wooden Foodservice Shelving: Friend or Foe?

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Wooden shelving. If you have it, you may not think twice about it or even know how long it’s been there, especially if you're only using it in dry storage. It may seem harmless and sturdy, but even if it doesn’t seem to be causing any problems, it may not be helping either. The following four questions can help you assess how your wooden shelving is affecting your food storage and kitchen operations. 1.      Is your team able to keep your food storage areas clean and sanitary? Coated or painted wood tends to peel or chip over time, especially with heavy use, regular cleaning, and friction from items like #10 cans.  One employee may overzealously scrub the paint off in an attempt to keep shelves clean, while another may clean too gently so they don’t damage it. Others may skip it entirely because it’s too much work, and it looks the same whether they do it or not. Unfortunately, if the paint or coating is chipping or peeling, there's no telling where it will end up.   2.     
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Is Scratch Cooking in Schools Making a Comeback?

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It’s true!  Scratch cooking in schools has recently been making a comeback in parts of the US.  It’s been found to increase participation, improve attendance, and strengthen academic performance.  Some have even discovered that scratch cooking has enabled them to better connect with their increasingly diverse student populations. The classic definition of scratch cooking is starting with raw ingredients such as meats, fresh vegetables, and whole grains to cook meals, rather than serving commercially processed and packaged meals or meal components. If you’re not doing any scratch cooking now, that may sound overwhelming. Fear not! Today’s scratch cooking doesn’t have to be all or nothing. We now also have speed scratch cooking and scratch-ready food products to help prepare fresher meals for students. Even if you don’t go all-in, you can still enjoy the opportunity to get more creative, enhance your program’s food quality, and develop your team’s culinary skills and job satisfaction
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In Hot Food Holding We Trust

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Have you ever struck up a conversation about hot food holding at a party? Probably not, but for such a boring-sounding topic, it sure is important. In essence, hot holding equipment is a guardian of a foodservice operator’s reputation. There’s a lot of money, time, and trust going into that holding cabinet, drawer, cart, case, or locker! Keeping hot food hot and out of the notorious danger zone (40° to 140° F) is critical for food safety, but not at the expense of flavor and texture. Temperature, humidity, ventilation, along with equipment materials and insulation, all play a role in holding food so it can be enjoyed as intended. Hot food safety and high food quality don’t need to be mutually exclusive. If your holding equipment is letting you down, read on. The following overview can help you match the right equipment to your operational needs to get results worthy of the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build. Crispy Menu Items The  Merco CrispyMax  Crisp & Ready Servi
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Re-thinking Foodservice Processes to Save Labor

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Getting the job done with a short staff is nothing new in the world of foodservice, but sometimes it feels like there just has to be a better way. Analyzing processes is a tried and true way to reduce costs and do more with fewer people. It requires taking the time, however, to stop, observe, and assess a process with fresh eyes. That’s no simple feat when you and your team are running full throttle and already feeling overwhelmed. How do you get yourself or key team members to take a step back to evaluate if your standard operating procedures are using more labor, space, or expertise than you can afford? Think of it like freeing a vehicle that’s stuck in the mud. If you’ve ever been in this situation, you know the first impulse is to gas it. Sometimes that works, but keeping the pedal to the metal can also make you spin your wheels deeper and get even more frustrated. Operations can’t slow down, but one person taking a pause to assess a procedural bottleneck is often all it takes
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