1. Menu Planning

2. Menu Planning Factors to Consider

3. Menu
Your menu is the single most important factor in a foodservice operation.
A menu determines all aspects of operations and affects the success or failure of the department.

4. Food Preferences
Menu planning should take into consideration the food preferences of large populations within your district, including:
Cultural differences of students
Food habits and beliefs of different ethnic or religious groups
Current fads, such as gluten free, organic, sandwich wraps
While not required, you may want to plan menus around certain populations that are prevalent in your school district.

5. Target Audience
It is important to understand the groups that make up your target audience. The needs and preferences of your audience will be a determining factor in menu planning. Your school population could include any of the following groups:
High school
Middle school
Elementary
Vegetarian
Kosher

6. Trends Staying abreast of current food trends is important.
Students want foods that mirror current trends
Current trends include:
Foods with flavor profiles or pairings, where foods are paired together, based on their major flavor components
Sweet/sour is a common pairing of fruit and acid
Lemon/parsley is a common pairing in Middle Eastern foods
Lemon/oregano is a common pairing in Greek foods
Tomato/cumin/chili are common pairings in Mexican foods
Sandwiches made with tortillas (wraps)
Ethnic food choices

7. Types of Service
The types of meal service in your operation affect the menu items you plan and serve. You will need to consider the types of service, amount of labor and equipment available in your program when planning menus. Some examples of types of service are:
Cafeteria style
Self-service bars
Family style
Grab n’ Go
Kiosks
Vending machines
Breakfast in the classroom
Satellite
Vended meals

8. Types of Menus Standard Menus and Offering Choices
You will need to consider the types of menus you offer in your district.
Standard menus – no choice or straight serve
May be dependent on age of students.
Offering choices – multiple lines
Implementing Offer versus Serve.
Will need to make sure all students have access to all components of a reimbursable meal.
Offering multiple menu items to increase choices.

9. Types of Menus Salad Bar Menus
If students can select all components for a reimbursable meal, will need to have accurate Point of Service.
May need to consider pre-portioning items to ensure correct portion sizes are taken.

10. Cycle Menu Advantages
Cycle menus are carefully planned menus that are rotated according to a definite pattern
The use of cycle menus is the easiest method of providing interesting, well-accepted meals at minimum cost. Some advantages are:
Advantages:
Minimizes menu planning time
Increases labor efficiency through improved coordination & organization
Reduces repetition of menu items
Promotes standardization of preparation procedures
Simplifies purchasing (forecasting more accurate)
Takes advantage of purchasing seasonal variations in foods
Improves inventory and cost control

11. Cycle Menu Disadvantages
The use of cycle menus may cause some difficulties if not planned properly. Some disadvantages to watch out for are:
Disadvantages:
Menu cycle may be too short
Seasonal variation in food availability is not considered
Drafting seasonal cycle menu may be time consuming

12. Ingredients Access to key ingredients plays a role in menu planning.
Using USDA Foods (commodities) lowers the cost of foods in most instances.
Menus may need to be adjusted if USDA food items are not in stock or in the amounts you need for your schools.
Plan menus around produce that is in season.
Available from DOD
Available from Farm to Schools
Locally sourced

13. Facilities and Equipment
Menus are usually determined by the available equipment
Kitchens without proper equipment, storage, and prep space severely limit the possible menu choices that can be offered.
Lack of storage space (refrigerator/freezer space, storeroom space) limits the amount of food that can be kept on-site.
Limited storage space results in having to rely on more frequent deliveries.
Lack of equipment can limit ways to prepare and hold meals, e.g. hot or cold food items.
Inadequate prep space may mean scratch cooking is limited.

14. Preparation
The amount of time or equipment needed to prepare foods greatly impacts menu planning.
Amount of prep space is a determining factor in whether to use convenience foods or do scratch cooking
Batch cooking helps to provide the highest quality food items and can help control food cost.
Cooking too far in advance and hot holding can affect the quality of foods.

15. Number of Employees and Skill Level
Not having a skilled staff will limit the types of foods you may put on a menu.
If staff turnover is high, or you have a staff will little or no kitchen experience, you may have to rely heavily on convenience foods.
The more convenience foods you use, the less labor you will need.
The more scratch cooking you do, the more labor you will need.
Amount of labor used to prepare meals will affect food cost.

16. Food Costs
Menus should be “costed out” to determine food and labor costs. This helps you to decide what menu items to keep and what menu items to get rid of.
Evaluate your menu to determine high cost days. If a high cost menu item has low sales, you should replace the item with a more popular, lower cost item.

17. Type of Meal Service
With limited resources and staff, you may want to consider a simple serve menu.
Implementing Offer vs Serve is required at the lunch meal for high school grades.
Designing menus that allow OVS require more food choices.

18. Types of Meals
The type of meal you are serving will be a determining factor in your menu planning.
Breakfast
Lunch
Snack
Supper
Summer Feeding

19. Key Resources

20. USDA Website The USDA Menu Planning Tools is a great webpage.
You can browse by subject:
recipes, menu planning, best practices.
The site includes many resources that will assist you in menu planning.
Link to USDA Website

21. Link to USDA Food Buying Guide
The Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs has all of the current information in one manual to help you buy the right amount of food and the appropriate type of food for your program(s), and determines the specific contribution each food makes toward the meal pattern requirements.
Established base quantity for ingredients:
Raw
As purchased
Edible portion
Yield
Serving size
Link to USDA Food Buying Guide

22. Food Buying Guide Calculator
Link to Online Food Buying Calculator
This calculator figures out the amount of food you need to buy, based on the type of food and the serving size. It is extremely helpful in determining amounts of food to purchase.
To use the calculator, select the food from the Food Categories pull-down menu or choose from the Top 10 food item list.

23. Food Buying Guide Calculator Page 2
Use the Item Description to select the desired food item for your planned menu.
Because vegetables credit by cups, the Serving Unit as a cup has been chosen.
Notice that the fresh broccoli is already trimmed and ready-to-use. Therefore, in the notes section you see that 1 pound of broccoli is equal to one pound of ready-to-cook broccoli.
Next, choose a serving size and the number of desired servings.

24. Food Buying Guide Calculator Page 3
Because only one serving size is planned for the vegetable for lunch, ¾ cup is chosen as the serving size in order to meet the minimum vegetable serving size for grades K-5 or grades as the number of servings planned is entered.
After entering the serving size and number of servings, click on “Add to List”.

25. Food Buying Guide Calculator Page 4
The FBG calculator automatically calculates that you need to purchase pounds of fresh, ready-to use broccoli in order to serve 125 – ¾ cup servings of broccoli.
Notice that the FBG rounds up to the nearest whole purchase unit or next ¼ pound.
This creates a shopping list that you can print or . You can also add more food items, edit food items and remove food items.

26. Menus

27. Team Nutrition Menu Planning Tools
This USDA Team Nutrition webpage provides many sample menus from other states that are compliant with NSLP and SBP requirements. Many of them just need a slight tweaking to fit your needs in Michigan. If you are new and don’t want to start from scratch, you can use these resources as a great starting point.
Link to Menu Planning Website

28. Ohio – Menus That Move: Cycle Menus and Recipes
“Ohio – Menus That Move” are highlighted on the next slides. Ohio is one of our “sister states” in the USDA Midwest Region.
From this resource, you will find cycle menus for Fall, Winter, Spring ,and Summer, featuring local foods in season. Each season contains 5 weekly menus for grades K-8 and 9-12 with meal components and nutrient standards. Menus meet the Target One sodium levels.
Link to Menu Planning Website

29. Ohio – Standardized Recipes
“Ohio – Menus That Move” include standardized recipes that are available for the menu items listed.

30. Ohio – Nutrient Profile
A nutrient analysis, using approved USDA software, has been done on all the Ohio menus.

31. Ohio – Certification Worksheets
The 6 cents certification worksheets are all completed for the Ohio menus.
Depending on the menu item, you may need to adjust these numbers to match the specific item you are serving.

32. Recipes

33. Tips for Recipes There are many sources for recipes on the internet.
Because there are specific meal patterns and nutrient targets that must be met for child nutrition programs, you must ensure that all recipes are standardized and credit correctly for the school meals served.
Always remember:
Utilize USDA resources
Source carefully
Adapt as necessary

34. Recipe Resources There are many online resources for recipes…
Link to Michigan Team Nutrition Website
Link to Washington State “Scratch Cooking” Website
Link to Vermont FEED Website
Link to USDA: What’s Cooking? Website
Link to Recipes for Healthy Kids: Cookbook for Schools
Link to Provo District Farm To School Recipes
Link to National Dairy Council Website
Link to School Meals That Rock Website

35. Annual USDA Food Availability
Don’t forget to check yearly to see what USDA Foods (commodities) are available for you to use in menu planning.

36. Legislation Requirements
Sec. 9 of the National School Lunch Act
Meals must reflect the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs)
Sec. 201 of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010
Regulations based on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine (IOM)

37. Final Rule-Meal Patterns
Link to USDA Meal Pattern Nutrition Standards

38. Summary
Your menu is the single most important factor in a food service operation.
There are many factors to consider when planning a menu.
Use the many resources available when planning your menus.