Food & Nutrition [Volume 12, Number 2]

              PROPERTY OfJ THE
liBRARY
AeR 191982
University of North Carolina
at Greensboro
Cutting Costs Without
Sacrificing Quality
Faced with the choice of raising
lunch prices or looking for other ways
to balance their budgets, most
school food service directors would
welcome cost-cutting alternatives.
Higher prices often mean lower par­ticipation,
making it even more dif­ficult
to keep a school lunch program
in the black. Higher lunch prices
may also put lunch financially out of
reach for some children.
How can a school cut costs without
sacrificing quality? Here are some
suggestions from school food service
people, the food industry, and
USDA. The food service managers
we've talked to come from schools
of different sizes and with different
resources. Their schools are not
necessarily large or fitted with the
latest equipment. But they've all
used creativity and cooperation in
finding ways to provide nourishing
meals to children.
~
a lowtU!!Uf···
Some schools do not make full use
of the USDA-donated foods they
get through the National School
Lunch Program. But even small
changes-like substituting cookies
made with USDA peanut butter for
more expensive commercially·
prepared baked items-can make
a difference. Using protein-rich
donated foods like cheese,
chicken, and pork in entrees can add
up to big savings.
Schools order and receive USDA
foods through a state distributing
agency. In many instances, the most
successful food services are the
ones whose distributing agencies take
an active part in making com­modities
useful to schools.
As a food service director, you
can do your part by showing interest
in your state's operation and by
making your needs known. A good
channel for this is membership in,
or contact with members of, the state
food distribution advisory council.
2
USDA recommends that a state ad­visory
council include members
representing a broad range of in­terests,
for example: food service
representatives from large urban and
small rural schools and residential
child care facilities; a member of a
parent-teacher organization; a stu­dent;
a nutritionist; a teacher; and a
school administrator. Represent­atives
from the state education
agency and the state distributing
agency are non-voting members.
An advisory council's main function
is to provide the state agency with
information on food preferences,
suggest new products, and recom­mend
changes in packaging, shipping
schedules, and food specifications.
Working with the council, you can
find out if there are ways your
state's distributing system can be im­proved.
How closely does your
state distributing agency work with
schools? Does your state agency
notify you promptly when foods are
available and when they arrive?
Does the staff work with you on forms
for ordering foods?
Does the state delivery system
serve the smaller recipient agen­cies,
like small schools and day care
centers, as well as the large? Is it
possible for small agencies to obtain
their share of bulk-packed foods?
Do schools and other agencies have
flexibility in choosing donated
foods? Is it easy for agencies to store
donated and purchased foods
together?
By its nature, the commodity
system has some built-in problems.
Since some of the food is
purchased to support prices and
remove surpluses, crop and
market conditions sometimes make
menu planning and scheduling dif­ficult.
USDA has recently improved its
notification system, and now offers
more options on how foods may be
ordered. But the next link in the
chain-the state distributing agency­must
be equally flexible.
In working on your own program,
study what food services elsewhere
are doing with USDA foods. The Food
and Nutrition Information Center
(see page 11 ) is a good source of in­formation
materials for schools,
child care centers, and other agencies
operating food programs.
~
Processing contracts are one
of the largest single cost-saving
measures for most school systems.
Using processing contracts,
schools can take basic USDA foods
like flour, tomato paste, and
cheese, contract with a commercial
food processor who agrees to meet
certain specifications, and get a final
product-like pizza-at a discount.
Schools have used processing con­tracts
to get everything from bread
to turkey roll, spaghetti sauce, toasted
cheese sandwiches-you name it.
In some states, the state distributing
agency arranges for all processing
of USDA foods. In others, school dis­tricts
may enter into processing
agreements on their own, with ap­proval
from and supervision by the
state agency.
Food service directors who use
processing contracts say there are
several big advantages. For exam-
Food and Nutrition
p.le, they allow schools to use com­modities
that come in large sizes.
They enable schools to use more of a
particular food than they would
otherwise accept. They also make it
easier for schools to take full ad­vantage
of "bonus" commodities­USDA
foods that do not count
against a school's dollar entitlement.
USDA now distributes about 57
foods on an entitlement basis, in­cluding
such items as ground beef,
pork, chicken, dried beans,
vegetables, and juices. This year
schools are entitled to 11 cents
worth of these foods for each lunch
they serve. Bonus items currently in­clude
butter, cheddar cheese,
process cheese, and nonfat dry milk.
USDA provides states with as much
of these bonus foods as they can use
without waste.
Dorothy Pannell, school food ser­vice
director in Fairfax County,
Virginia, says she was able to use $2.2
million worth of bonus foods last
year, over and above her entitlement.
Admittedly, her system is large
(168 sites, 925 employees). And, her
state distributing agency is very
cooperative and supportive. The state
official in charge of processing
contracts, she says, is an extremely
conscientious person, a perfec­tionist.
"In fact," she says, "he's a hard
April1982
person to clear contracts with
because he is so exact. But he does a
good job-he is always willing and
just fantastic to work with. So we go
through the required paperwork
and don't think of it as a burden."
Each regional office of USDA's
Food and Nutrition Service has a
specialist in processing contracts
who can assist state agencies with
their questions. FNS is also assem­bling
a handbook designed to provide
guidance to state distributing agen­cies
in managing contracts for their
schools.
FNS has recently revised its food
distribution regulations, giving
states greater freedom in approving
contracts. The regulations also
strengthen controls on substitution of
ingredients, increase the account­ability
of processors, and provide
sanctions against processors who
willfully misuse donated foods.
Some tips for getting the most
out of processing contracts:
If the processor will be sub­stituting
any purchased foods for
donated foods, look carefully at the
processor's purchase specifications.
Compare the processor's speci­fications
for the substituted item with
USDA's specifications for the same
donated food, and make sure the
processor's ingredient is of at least
equal quality.
Also, when evaluating different
processors, compare the amount of
donated ingredients in their
respective products, taking into ac­count
any differences in production
loss factors and conversion rates.
Join with other institutions and
school systems and go into more ef­ficient
contracts. Statewide agree­ments
are even better. If it's practical,
ask your state distributing agency
to arrange for ingredients to be sent
directly to the processor from the
Department of Agriculture supplier.
Find more ways to use bonus
commodities. Order as much of them
as you can use in a reasonable
amount of time without deterioration,
excess storage costs, or waste.
Invite processors to recom-mend
new products you can use,
and look around you for inspiration.
Virginia's Fairfax County schools
will be serving two new turkey
products soon, similar to the new
McDonald's Chicken McNuggets: a
turkey nugget and a larger batter­fried
breast portion called prime
turkey filet. Food manufacturers
might give you further discounts on
contract-processed or other foods
if you use their logo or product name.
If your state officials have not
been very active in processing con­tracts,
encourage them with
success stories from other areas. If a
distributing agency is leery of the
paperwork involved, point out that re­cent
changes have decreased it.
Help is available from many quar­ters.
For example, the National
Association of State Agencies for
Food Distribution has a ·prototype
agreement that will satisfy USDA's
minimum regulatory requirements.
Most processors are eager to enter
into an agreement to process
USDA foods. All they must do is dis­count
their product by the value of
the donated ingredient (USDA's cost
plus transportation) or otherwise
give credit for the value of the donated
ingredient. The cost is the lowest
possible and the quality meets and of­ten
exceeds that which consumers
find in their grocery stores.
3
You can cooperate with other
schools in many ways besides joint
processing contracts. You can buy,
ship, and store together. You can
cook for each other or furnish items
that one of you is better equipped
to produce. You may also find ways to
provide meals to other agencies,
such as day care centers, residential
institutions, meals on wheels
programs, nursing homes, and
prisons.
In your own serving line, try serving
alternates that are easy to assem­ble,
like salads or sandwiches. Salad
leftovers can become the next
day's soup. Substitute less costly in­gredients
without compromising
quality. For example, compare prices
of ground pork and beef, turkey
and chicken, romaine and iceberg
lettuce.
Serve desserts that meet a lunch
requirement. One Illinois manager
began serving fresh fruit for lunch and
found that students take fewer of
the baked desserts when they appear.
Or keep baked desserts and offer
them, and other fancy or extra foods,
a Ia carte. Join the fast-food com­petition
with similar, nutritious items.
If the students will spend that
money anyway, why not with you?
Encourage students to sell your
items at fund raisers-at a slight profit
to you-and put the money back
into your lunch service. Charge adults
in the line full cost. Consider dis­posables
versus reusables-either
one might save you money de­pending
on your equipment, labor re­quirements,
and other variables.
Look for backtracking, cross-travel,
and confusion in the way foods are
stored and prepared. These waste
time and add substantially to costs.
Would it help to rearrange some of
your equipment?
4 Food and Nutrition
'IAA~···
Jim Mixon, a food distribution
consultant with many years of ex­perience
with both government and
private industry, offers the following
guidelines for buying:
Do "bottom-line" contract buying
rather than "line-item" buying.
That is, solicit bids for an entire
assortment of goods rather than for
each individual item. This will increase
interest from and competition
among suppliers, and decrease your
paperwork. You can divide your
supplies into three separate bottom
lines: 1. paper products (many
firms handle these alone): 2. per­ishable
items (their fluctuating
prices might make it worthwhile to
buy these on a weekly basis); and
3. the remaining bulk products. For
the items you buy often, call at least
three suppliers.
Specify that deliveries be made
on a weekly basis, or less frequently.
Bids for all but the most perishable
items can be let quarterly. The least
expensive schedule to buy many
things on, however, is by the school
year. Suppliers can always petition
for a price escalation with proof of
hardship. Reasonable escalations
should be granted.
Look for opportunities for
cooperative buying. Cooperative buy­ing
helps small schools reach the
buying power of large ones. It assures
them, particularly if they are in a
remote area, of competition among
suppliers. It reduces paperwork
and the cost of quality control. Both
individual schools and buying
groups can gain additional leverage
by combining a contract for buying
commercial foods with one for
warehousing and delivering
donated foods.
April1982
In Montana, schools are relatively
small and the distance between
them is great. H. Brisbin Skiles,
manager of the food service divi­sion
of the state's Office of Public In­struction,
has offered to act as a
procurement agent for schools that
want to pool their power to buy
commodities. The first buy, last
December, was for $147,000 and
netted the schools a savings of 20 to
30 percent.
Out of 256 schools and residential
child care institutions invited to
take part, 57 participated. More will
probably join next time in late April.
Skiles' only proviso was that schools
send him a purchase order, listing
the desired items and quantities. He
then bid the items out on an ali-or­none
basis, specifying delivery direct
to the schools and payment by the
schools within 30 days. He requested
samples with the bids, and his staff
evaluated .these in an all-day taste­testing
session. The bids were
awarded on the results.
V Know what you want well in
advance-plan menus at least 30
days ahead. Keep your storage space
in mind.
tl Fit the quality to the need.
Irregularly cut fruits and vegetables
will often serve as well as top grade.
Encourage competition among
vendors. Shop around as much as
possible. Avoid individual sales ap­pointments.
Use only the services a particular
vendor can provide mostcheaply. Go
elsewhere for the others.
Buy foods in season. Watch for
foods that processors or suppliers
might have a surplus of, and foods
they might want to clear from their
inventory at a discount before the new
season's supply arrives.
Especially watch for good buys on
foods you use most often. Savings
here will be the most significant.
~Pay your bills promptly. V Build assurances into negotiations
with processors, suppliers, and
transporters that products will arrive
in usable condition.
Cut transportation and distribution
costs through cooperative buying
and bottom-line contract buying.
These costs are rising faster than
either food or labor costs.
Look for unnecessary costs in
extra services. Distributors and sales
people cannot afford to make small
deliveries or frequent sales calls,
replace small items, or do other
favors without passing costs along to
you. You pay for everything you
get.
Be very explicit in your contracts.
Specify not only the size of the order,
but when and where it is to be
delivered. {Do you want the contractor
to leave it at the loading dock or put
it in the freezer?) Indicate whether you
can accept delivery at only certain
hours, and within how many days you
will pay your bill. It's helpful to
assume that every ambiguous instruc­tion
will be interpreted in the most
expensive way.
Make sure you actually get the
quantity and quality you pay for.
Always check delivered items
against your purchase order and the
vendor's invoice.
Buy directly from farmers.
5
Worth County, Georgia, is
farming country. Peggy Harris, county
director of school food services,
decided to try freezing local produce
last year and saved at least a penny
a serving on the foods she froze. That
adds up to considerable savings
over a school year, and there were
side benefits as well.
Harris planned to try three items
the first time around: corn on the
cob, broccoli, and peaches. All are
easy to freeze but expensive to buy
processed. The corn and peaches
would come from local farmers,
and the broccoli from nearby At­tapulcus
research station, which
agreed to sell Harris its crop. Both the
frozen peaches and the broccoli
would meet Georgia's requirement
that school lunches contain a
source of vitamin A.
Worth County has six schools,
one of which is a satellite. Its five
kitchens have about 50 employees
6
altogether. Last summer, a quar­ter
of the work force-15 to 20
employees-found themselves with
some summer work as they
processed over 37,000 servings of
corn and peaches.
Unfortunately, the broccoli became
available too early, while school
was still in session, and the staff could
not be spared to freeze it.
Using existing equipment, they
placed the peaches and corn on
sheets in the freezer (the peaches in a
light sugar syrup with potato whit­ener
to keep them from changing
color). When the fruit and
vegetables were frozen, they
transferred them to plastic-lined
bags in 30-pound lots of peaches and
50 servings of corn. Total outlay for
supplies: $99 for the bags and new
vegetable brushes. The result:
products they feel are superior to
commercial ones (the kids like
them, too) and savings of over a
penny a serving including labor.
Summer employment is a major
benefit. Many on the staff are single
parents or otherwise without
helpmates and must find other
work during the vacation. When they
do, they sometimes don't come
back. This summer, Harris hopes to
involve more of her kitchen staff, try
broccoli again, and add more
produce-tomatoes, for example,
which are also locally abundant and
easy to freeze.
Eventually she would like to involve
students, perhaps in the high
school vocational departments, in
growing some of the foods. She will
write an article this spring soliciting
farmers who would like to sell her
their crops. Publicity on her experi­ment,
though modest, has already
attracted requests for advice from a
neighboring county.
~~···
If your system or program is es­pecially
small, it may pay to share a
food service manager with other
schools or school districts. Some
schools also share equipment and
surpluses as well as expertise.
In every aspect of your program,
try to cut down on the time staff,
equipment, and supplies stand
idle. If your state charges storage and
handling fees for commodities,
think of ways to reduce the amount of
time foods are warehoused. Make
sure your state has an efficient system
for notifying schools and other sites
that a commodity has arrived. Keep a
careful inventory and note whether
you should decrease or increase
stock according to its flow.
Food and Nutrition
If your school district owns or uses
a computer, chances are it can help
with inventory control, menu planning
and budgeting. Three projects us­ing
computers in school food service
are described on page 16 .
Workflow should be smooth,
without employees working at cross­purposes.
Figure out your employee
hour-per-tray rate. Some systems are
Authority and responsibility -Delegate authority and respon-sibility
to the lowest possible level.
The worker performing the actual
job has the most knowledge about the
job. -Get the best people you can find,
agree on objectives, then turn them
-loose. Have confidence in your people,
and the courage to stand back and let
them make mistakes.
Decisionmaking -Give people a chance, and they will
figure out ways to do a thing better. -If you dictate to people, they will
lose their initiative, and will become
accustomed to waiting to be told
what to do.
Participation -Allow subordinates to be and feel a
part of things. -Give people a job to do, but don't bury
-them with details. -Encourage questions. Keep people informed. -Learn to communicate, and especially
-to listen. Remember, ultimately you have to get
the work done through people.
April1982
doing well if they produce 18 trays
per hour, while others strive for 24.
Whatever you aim for, be sure the
standards are clear. Investigate
whether, over the long run, it would
benefit you to hire less staff for
longer hours-the increased stability
and efficiency might offset the
higher cost of fringe benefits for full­time
employees. Along the same
ntegrity --Trust your own people. Treat them with respect and dignity. --Be honest with employees. Demonstrate a sense of awareness
and concern for others. -Demonstrate commitment on the part
of management to the highest
-ethical and moral standards. Be consistent, and set a good
example.
bjecUves -Set realistic objectives and make sure
everyone understands them. -Make employees feel their organiza-tion
has a mission, and that they
are helping to accomplish it. -Set individual goals high but make
them attainable.
hallenge and enthusiasm -Operate with a lean staff. People need
to be challenged with plenty of
work. -Offer new challenges and ex-periences
whenever possible. -Insure that jobs are as interesting
as possible within the limits of the
task. -Be enthusiastic and communicate that
enthusiasm.
lines, are there any ways you can put
staff to work over the summer?
Finally, use common-sense, time­tested
management techniques.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Manage­ment
studied 10 effective organiza­tions
(as rated by both management
and employees) and distilled from
them the following guidelines and
observations.
Employee development -Make a commitment to train and
develop people. -Help people recognize their own
capabilities. -Promote from within whenever
possible.
Performance -Be firm with poor performers. -Raise poor performance issues im-mediately.
They will only be more dif­ficult
to bring up the longer you
-wait. Don't beat around the bush-be
-direct. Don't concentrate your efforts on
the 8 percent of employees who are
poor performers. This leaves too
little time for realizing the potential of
the other 92 percent.
Atmosphere -Keep things informal and open,
-and be accessible. Don't let dress codes and formality
get in the way. -Have fun.
article by Christopher Kocsis
7
Try Buying Fresh Produce
-Cooperatively
Although fresh fruits and
vegetables account for less than 10
percent of the food purchased by
schools, they are the single most
difficult category of foods for schools
to buy. Fresh produce is highly
seasonal with rapidly changing sup­plies
and an extremely volatile pric­ing
structure. Prices change
significantly on a daily basis-even
hourly. ·
Aside from rapidly changing
prices, another problem in buying
fresh fruits and vegetables is lack
of consistency in quality and condi­tion
. It's difficult to pack uniform
quality produce, and even the
slightest difference in the market­ing
environment can have a signifi­cant
impact on condition. Exposing
leafy vegetables such as lettuce to dif­fering
temperatures and humidity
will create vast differences in
crispness and other factors af­fecting
the value of the product.
It requires an exceptional degree
of expertise and effort to purchase
fresh fruits and vegetables effec­tively.
It also requires special equip­ment
and know-how to properly
handle and distribute fresh produce.
Many schools end up paying
high prices for produce of poor or un­predictable
quality. Buying in
wholesale units can result in con­siderable
savings. However,
because fresh produce has a limited
storage life, this is not a viable op­tion
for smaller schools.
Sharing cost
of an expert
A solution to these problems is
for schools to band together in using
the services of an expert buyer and ·
a contract distributor. Commercial ·
establishments, such as restau-rants
and fast-food chains, do
this often.
In many instances, the purchases
of a single school district or insti­tution
are insufficient to support
the cost of an in-house expert or ex­perts.
But if several districts com­bine
their purchases, the savings can
usually more than pay for the ser­vice.
Generally, if the volume is suf­ficiently
large, the cost of an effec­tive
buyer should not be more than
about 3 percent of the cost of the
delivered product.
Besides being responsible for
the actual sight purchasing of
products, a buyer's duties can in­clude
acting as a resource person for
menu planning, and helping to train
food service personnel in receiving,
handling, and using fresh fruits and
vegetables.
A contract distributor can: get
from member schools the requisition
orders the buyer will use in pur­chasing;
act as another check on the
quality and condition of the product
to be distributed; devise a practical
delivery schedule that meets mem­bers'
needs; bill each member on a
per-package basis; and help the
buyer train personnel in
receiving, handling, and
using products.
Make contracts
1-year or more
Any cooperative agreement should
delineate the responsibilities of
both the buyer and the distributor.
Generally, contracts should be for
at least one school year with a 60-day
option for either party to abort the
contract for cause. If the school board
or institution can approve multiple­year
contracts, it is advantageous to
develop a 2- or 3-year contract, as
long as it contains a circuit-breaker
clause.
The advantages of cooperatively
using a buyer and a distributor in­clude:
• lower prices and higher quality;
• maximum use of volume discounts;
• less work for the food service
staff;
• fewer logistical problems and
less waste;
• high responsiveness to changing
needs of members and maximum
flexibility for members to buy what
they want to use.
article by
Christopher Kocsis
Getting More Out of USDA Foods:
Processing Contracts Can Help
Each year, schools, institutions,
day care centers, and nutrition
programs for the elderly throughout
the country receive millions of
dollars' worth of donated foods. The
U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) acquires the food through
price support, surplus removal,
and other legislation and extends it to
these recipient agencies through
the Food Distribution Program of the
Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).
Rising costs, inadequate facilities,
and limited personnel make it dif­ficult
for many recipient agencies to
benefit efficiently from some of the
donated foods they receive. Some
donated foods are not easy to use
in their original form. And, at certain
times during the year, more of a
particular item may be available than
a recipient agency can use at that
time.
Because of these problems,
more and more recipient agencies are
turning to the food processing
industry-with its modern, efficient
production facilities and tech­niques-
to convert such foods into
more convenient and usable forms
through food processing contracts.
While helping the various recip­ient
agencies economize on food
costs, processing contracts also of­fer
processors the opportunity to
build their sales volume. These
contracts, therefore, benefit both the
processors and the users-and all
the people who are served nutritious
meals through eligible program
sites. Here's how processing con­tracts
work:
What is a processing
contract?
A processing contract is a written
agreement with a commercial food
processor to provide a service or a
product made partially or wholly from
foods donated by the Department
of Agriculture. A contract can be for:
using donated foods to make a final
product; preparing preplated meals;
or repackaging or otherwise con­verting
donated foods into more con­venient
forms.
Contracts can either be nego­tiated
directly with a processor or
awarded through bids submitted
against specifications. No matter
which procedure is used, all process­ing
contracts must be approved by
the state distributing agency.
Processing contracts help
recipient agencies make the most ef­ficient
use of donated foods. They
also help them provide more varied
and higher quality meals, reduce
labor and waste, and stabilize costs
through portion control. In addition,
they help processors build their sales
volume.
Samples of foods processed
under contracts
A large variety of products have
been processed from donated
foods. Among them:
• bread and other baked products
from flour, nonfat dry milk, shorten­ing,
butter, rolled wheat and oats,
raisins, and peanut butter and
granules;
• mozzarella cheese from nonfat dry
milk;
• pizza from flour, cheese, tomato
paste, and oil;
• ice cream and frozen yogurt from
nonfat dry milk;
• mayonnaise and salad dressing
from soybean oil;
• precooked, portion-controlled
meatballs, beef patties, meat
loaves, and frankfurters from ground
beef or ground pork, or both;
• bread and cake bases from flour
and nonfat dry milk.
Who can enter into a
processing contract?
In some states, the state dis­tributing
agency negotiates all
agreements with processors. In
others, the state distributing
agency permits subdistributing agen­cies
as well as recipient agencies to
negotiate agreements with
processors on their own. However,
all contracts for processed products
must be approved by the state dis­tributing
agency.
A processor interested in
negotiating a contract must submit
yield and price data to the distributing
agency for evaluation. The data
must show the exact quantity of
donated ingredient contained in
each unit of end product, and the net
price per unit must reflect a dis­count
equal to the full value of the
donated ingredient used.
All processors are required to sub­mit
monthly performance reports to
the state distributing agency.
Substitution of ingredients
Processors may sometimes sub­stitute
commercial for donated in­gredients.
For example, baking
companies may substitute their
own flour for donated flour, or mix the
two. However, only certain in­gredients
may be substituted, and
then only with ones of equal or
higher quality. Meat or poultry items
may never be substituted.
USDA's Food and Nutrition Service
(FNS) currently allows substitution
of butter, cheese, corn grits, corn
meal, flour, macaroni, nonfat dry
milk, peanut butter and granules,
roasted peanuts, rice, rolled oats,
rolled wheat, shortening, soybean oil,
and spaghetti. State distributing
agencies may allow other foods to be
substituted.
How food reaches the
processor
If the volume is sufficiently large,
donated food can be shipped directly
from USDA to the commercial
processor. With smaller volumes,
USDA ships the food to state
warehouses. From there it is
transferred to the processor.
The kinds and quantities of USDA-donated foods
available vary with market conditions. FNS regional of­fices
can supply up-to-date information on the availability
of these donated foods:
Applesauce, canned Corn, frozen
Apples, fresh Corn, grits
Apple juice, canned Corn meal
Apricots, canned Cranberries, canned, jellied
Beans, dry Flour, all purpose
Beans, vegetarian Flour, baker's hard wheat
Beef, canned Flour, baker's soft wheat
Beef, frozen ground Flour, durum
Bulgur Fruit, mixed, canned
Butter Green beans, canned
Cheese, cheddar Green beans, frozen
Cheese, mozzarella Macaroni
Peaches, canned
Peanut butter
Peanut granules
Peanuts, roasted
Pears, canned
Peas, canned
Peas, frozen
Peas, dry split
Pineapple, canned
Plums, canned
Pork, canned
Pork, frozen ground
Poultry, canned, boned
Raisins
Rice, brown
Rice, milled
Shortening, vegetable
Soybean oil
Spaghetti
Sweet potatoes, canned
Tomatoes, canned
Tomato catsup
Cheese, process Milk, nonfat dry Potatoes, frozen fries
Tomato juice, canned
Tomato paste, canned
Turkeys, whole, frozen
Chicken, cooked, breaded Oats, rolled Potatoes, frozen rounds Turkey rolls
Chicken, frozen, cut up Orange juice, canned Potatoes, instant mashed Vegetables, mixed, frozen
Corn, canned Orange juice, frozen Potatoes, canned Wheat, rolled
Each FNS regional office has a specialist in process­ing
contracts who can assist you with your questions.
The regional office can supply sample contracts and of­ficial
instructions for agencies and processors to follow.
Ask for the federal regulations for the Food Distribution
Program, 7 CFR Part 250. The regional office can also
furnish specifications on the donated foods as purchased
by USDA.
Mid-Atlantic Regional Office
Food and Nutrition Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
One Vahlsing Center
Robbinsville, N.J. 08691
Telephone: (609) 259-3041
Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Virginia, West
Virginia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands
Midwest Regional Office
Food and Nutrition Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
50 East Washington Street
Chicago Ill. 60602
Telephone: (312) 353-6664
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio,
Wisconsin
10
Mountain Plains Regional Office
Food and Nutrition Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
2420 W. 26th Avenue, Suite 415-D
Denver, Colo. 80211
Telephone: (303) 837-5071
Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana,
Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Utah, Wyoming
Northeast Regional Office
Food and Nutrition Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
33 North Avenue
Burlington, Mass. 01803
Telephone: (617) 272-0885
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont
Southeast Regional Office
Food and Nutrition Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1100 Spring Street, N.W.
Atlanta, Ga. 30367
Telephone: (404) 881-4911
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mis­sissippi,
North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee
Southwest Regional Office
Food and Nutrition Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1100 Commerce Street
Dallas, Tex. 75242
Telephone: (214) 749-2877
Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma,
Texas
Western Regional Office
Food and Nutrition Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
550 Kearny Street
San Francisco, Calif. 94108
Telephone: (415) 556-7393
Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California,
Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon,
Trust Territories, Washington
Food and Nutrition
I
I 'I
I
I
I
I
I
~ II I I l
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
•
I FNIC Offers
Variety of Services
Thanks to financial support from
the Food and Nutrition Service, the
lending service of the Food and
Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) is
once again available to teachers,
school food service personnel, and
ch ild care center staffs. In addition,
for the first time ever, the center is
serving staff working with the
Special Supplemental Food Program
for Women, Infants and Children
(WIC) and the Commodity Sup­plemental
Food Program (CSFP).
FNIC is a unique resource center, a
national repository of films, books,
journal articles-all kinds of print and
audio-visual materials on nutrition
education, food service management,
human nutrition and consumer
education. The center provides
lending, photocopying, reference
and referral services to users.
"The center has a comprehen­sive
collection of nutrition education
materials, particularly audio-visuals,
and an extremely strong
collection of food service manage­ment
materials-the best anywhere,"
said Robyn Frank, director of FNIC.
Through the computerized
bibliographic data file, AGRICOLA,
shared with the National Agricultural
Library, FNIC also provides access
to 25,000 citations on nutrition educa­tion
and research, as well as on all
aspects of volume feeding targeted to
school food service personnel.
Originally
set up in 1971
Located at the National Agricultural
Library Building in Beltsville,
Maryland, the center was set up in
1971 by FNS in order to provide
needed training to food service peo­ple
working with the National
School Lunch Program. Today any
person working with FNS programs
at the local or state level can take ad­vantage
of the center's resources.
A food service director can borrow
films on management or sanitation
to train new workers. A teacher can
order a slide show on diet and
health. A school district dietitian can
request the latest nutrient data.
"Our collection started with
teaching guides to train food ser­vice
workers on the job, then ex­April1982
panded to include materials
needed by teachers involved in nutri­tion
education," said Frank.
In 1979, a change resulting from
legislation placed FNIC under the
National Agricultural Library. The de­mand
for the center's materials had
increased by 66 percent from 1978 to
1979, and, with no additional
funding to handle the increased de­mand,
the center was forced to limit
lending services. A borrowing source
that had been available to food ser­vice
and other school personnel for
more than 6 years was suddenly
closed to them.
"When food service people were
cut off from using FNIC, we received
stacks of letters protesting the
change," Frank said.
Prior to 1979 more than half the
center's users were people working
with FNS programs, mainly at the
local level, according to Frank. "We
used to lend up to 12,000 items a
year. We estimated that these
materials reached from 1 to 1.5
million people," she said. She ex­plained
that FNIC makes a tremen­dous
impact because those who use
the center are nutrition interme­diaries-
professional nutritionists,
teachers and trainers who use the
materials to communicate with others.
Now available
to more people
Last fall, FNS provided funds to
the Human Nutrition Information Ser­vice,
the USDA agency now ad­ministering
FNIC, in order to make
FNS program cooperators eligible
once again to use the center.
This support is part of a major ef­fort
by FNS to provide technical
assistance to help local program
administrators run their programs
more cost effectively. The money
will pay for staff, postage, and other
costs of lending resources to per­sonnel
involved in FNS programs. In
addition, the money will pay for a
Nutrition Education and Training
(NET) bibliography, which will sum­marize
the nutrition education
materials developed through the
NET program .
According to Frank, a major
change which accompanied the
reinstatement of lending privileges
was the inclusion of eligibility for WIC
and CSFP staff. "Having access to
materials and knowledge available
through FNIC will be a great help to
WIC staff-they are such a key
target," Frank said. "The WIC
nutritionists are required to provide
nutrition education, and they need
a great many resources."
If you want
information
How can you get information
from FNIC? Everything FNIC has on
ihe bookshelves or cited in the
computer is listed in a series of annual
catalogs. You look in the catalog to
identify the resources you wish to
borrow, then write to FNIC. The
staff will send the materials you re­quest.
You can also identify resources on
specific topics by going to a univer­sity
library and asking for a computer
search of the AGRICOLA data
base. Universities usually charge for a
computerized search, and you'll
want to be sure such a search is ap­propriate
before you ask for one.
"You use a computerized search
only when you have a very specific
topic, like nutrition education for
pregnant teenagers or food service
for the handicapped," Frank ex­plained.
"If you have a general
topic, like nutrition or quantity food
preparation, you'll want to look
through the FNIC catalog and decide
for yourself what you want to
borrow."
Both the Aud iovisual Resources
catalog and the Food and Nutrition
Bibliography (which lists audio­visuals,
journal articles and books),
are available for a fee. Copies are
$18.00 for each from: Oryx Press,
2214 North Central at Encanto,
Phoenix, Arizona 85004.
The staff is especially proud of
the newest audiovisual catalog, which
is a retrospective edition reviewing
the past 10 years of films, slide
series and other audiovisual aids
11
produced in the field. Generally, the
annual catalogs review additions to
the collection over the previous year.
"The catalog is relatively expen­sive
unless you're teaching on a
regular basis and need to know all
the resources. I recommend that
users ask their school library to
purchase it, or find other ways to use
the catalog as a shared resource,"
Frank said.
Likewise FNIC can be used as a
shared resource-a way to preview
teaching materials, to find out what
is available and test it in the
classroom or training lab, before
making the decision to buy certain
materials for regular use at a
school or clinic. Frank said the NET
bibliography will indicate how local
personnel can buy their own copies of
materials.
States invited
to contribute
In order to maintain their com­prehensive
collection, FNIC is
always on the lookout for new
materials to be contributed. The
acquisition process is time­consuming
and expensive, ac­cording
to Frank. It is not always easy
to know what is being produced in
local areas, but often the material, if
shared, can be of use to many
more educators.
"It is crucial for people to realize
that the object of developing nutrition
education materials is to transmit
the knowledge to as many people as
possible," she said. Many state and
local people have developed nutrition
education and food service training
materials that have not been widely
distributed. "We want to encourage
people to send in their materials."
Frank added.
For more information on FNIC,
write to:
Food and Nutrition Information Center
National Agricultural Library Bldg.
Room 304
Beltsville, Maryland 20705
or call: (301) 344-3719
(24-hour answering service.)
article by Jane Mattern
12
Kilowatt-Counting
Cooks Save Energy
Across the country, seminars are
springing up to teach food service
people ways to change their workday
routines in order to cut energy
costs.
The fight to lower energy losses
on the job is a tough battle. Stakes are
high at worksites such as food ser­vice
kitchens where large, energy­intensive
equipment is used to
prepare hundreds or thousands of
meals a day. Cooks operating the
equipment often do not know how
much electricity or gas they use,
since they rarely see the utility bills.
They are often unaware of many
simple ways in which they can help
conserve energy.
Of all the energy the food service
industry uses about half goes for
food preparation and storage. The
rest is used for lighting, heating,
ventilating, air conditioning, and
sanitation.
Of the energy used to prepare
food-in ovens, ranges, steamers,
and kettles-about 60 percent goes
up in unused heat which must be
ventilated out of the kitchen. The high
percentage of loss is caused by in­efficient
conversion of energy sources
to cooking heat, poor transfer of
heat from cooking appliances to the
food, and careless operation of
equipment.
Much of the wasted energy can
be turned into savings. There are
three main ways to cut energy costs
in school food programs: training for
staff so they waste less; minor
purchases of energy-efficient equip­ment,
such as hot water heaters,
which pay back their cost in the first
few years of operation; and major
investments in energy-saving
systems, such as heat reclamation
devices which can recycle unused
heat.
Since few institutions have the
capital for investments or the
technological expertise to adapt new
systems into existing facilities,
training food service workers holds
the best potential for immediate
energy savings to schools.
Food and Nutrition
"We could save
millions o o 0
"We need to change behavioral
patterns of food service people all
over the country," says Victor
Canevello, a food service systems
specialist with the Food and Nutri­tion
Service's Mid-Atlantic Regional
Office. "They've always had plenty
of gas and electricity. They used it,
and they wasted it. We can't afford
that any more."
Canevello has been teaching
food service workers energy-saving
workstyles throughout the mid­Atlantic
states for the past 2v2 years.
He was familiar with energy issues
long before the oil shortages of the
mid-1970's brought the problems
to public attention.
Before coming to FNS, he was
eastern division manager for a cor­porate
producer of commercial
ovens. There he witnessed the shift in
emphasis from a "horsepower"
r~ce producing high-powered ovens,
to a new competition for the most
energy-efficient products. Now
Canevello is helping food service
workers make the same kind of transi­tion
in their outlooks.
"If we set our hearts and minds to
reducing the cost of energy in every
school lunch kitchen by $5 a day, we
could save millions," Canevello
says. How? By turning off lights in
storerooms, opening refrigerator
doors less often, and turning on cook­ing
equipment only as needed.
Nine times out of ten , Canevello
says, he walks into food service
kitchens and finds all the cooking
burners running hot, with nothing
on the stove and no cooks nearby.
Simple changes
make a difference
Mary Nix, immediate past president
of the American School Food Ser­vice
Association, agrees that simple
changes can make a big difference.
Turning equipment on just before
food is cooked and served has
provided the single greatest savings
in energy costs for her school dis­trict
in Cobb County, Georgia.
April1982
"Nationwide, we've been guilty of
turning the equipment on and leaving
it on. We didn't think it cost much
money to leave the equipment on just
in case we might need it. But it
does," she says.
In his seminars, Canevello
stresses the energy conservation
basics: know your equipment, run it
as short a time and at as low a tem­perature
as you can, and use as
much of the heat as possible.
He suggests filling extra space in
ovens and kettles with foods that can
be cooked and used later. He
teaches workers to use the correct
size pot for a burner to minimize
the heat loss around the sides of the
pot. He recommends using timers
so workers don't have to guess at
cooking times, and so foods do not
cook longer than necessary. Also,
timers eliminate the need to peek at
items in the oven-a practice that
allows heat to escape and forces
the oven to work harder.
Canevello tells workers to learn
the minimum time necessary to
preheat ovens, label the equipment
for a constant reminder, and set
ovens only at the temperature
needed-no higher.
Oven thermostats often break
down, he says, because workers con­sistently
set the control at a higher
temperature than needed, under the
mistaken impression that the unit
will heat faster. "I don't care how high
you turn the thermostat, it can't
heat one bit faster than if set at the
temperature you want. When the
oven comes on, it's at full force," he
says.
When an oven preheats for too
long, it cycles on and off, and tem­peratures
build higher than the
setting. Eventually the prolonged
high heat can damage the thermostat,
leading to even greater losses
because the equipment can't respond
to temperature changes.
Maintenance
and "peak loads"
Well-maintained equipment, in­cluding
thermostats, is a crucial
part of any energy conservation plan.
Canevello passes out sample main­tenance
checklists at his sessions. He
suggests: weekly checks of hot
water systems to find leaks or
damaged and worn insulation;
semi-annual adjustments of gas burn­ers
and lubrication of pumps and
pump seals; and yearly cleaning of
main hot water mixing valves.
Records of energy consumption
are as important as maintenance
schedules. With them, current energy
requirements can be compared to
prior usage to calculate real savings in
dollars and kilowatts.
Another variable in the energy for­mula
is something called "peak
load." Many utility companies charge
institutions a monthly demand
charge in addition to the cost of elec­tricity
actually used. This is the cost
of making enough electricity available
to run all the equipment in the
kitchen at one time, often measured
by monitoring the period of
greatest power usage during a day.
The school pays an extra charge
because the electric company must
make enough power available to
meet their peak demand.
However, if a school kitchen
spreads its energy workload evenly
over the day, using equipment
sequentially, the institution may be
able to save money by having the de­mand
charge reduced.
13
For example, Canevello explains, a
cook might do baking for the
following day in the afternoon, when
no other equipment is running ex­cept
the ovens. During the lunch
period, she might have one oven
chamber hot, tMe serving line hot, and
perhaps a couple of warming
cabinets. All other heavy production
equipment would be off.
Not until the last tray is served
would she turn on the heat for the
dishwasher. By the time the dish­washer
cycle finished, the ovens
could be heated for the afternoon
baking.
With planning, the cook has had an
even demand for energy during the
day, instead of letting energy needs
peak with all the equipment going
at once. On a day requiring less
energy for preparing the meal (as
for a cold menu item such as chicken
salad platter), cooks can do baking
and roasting for another day.
Training in
North Carolina
In Robeson County, North
Carolina, Jim Emery is teaching about
peak loads too. Currently em­ployed
by both Robeson County and
the Robeson Technical College as
a food service instructor, Emery
teaches food service sanitation and
nutrition courses. This year, after
training at a state level seminar in
Raleigh, Emery is also teaching
county food service workers how to
save energy in their kitchens.
So far his energy lessons have
been held in three areas of the county.
The response has been rewarding.
"We were looking for not more than
100 people to attend, but we really
got surprised," Emery says.
Altogether, the sessions attracted
nearly twice that many food service
people.
Emery's strategy involves the
same common sense approach
Canevello uses. For example, he
urges workers to thaw foods in the
refrigerator instead of at room tem­perature.
In addition to preventing
spoilage, this keeps the compressor
from working as hard to remove
heat from the icebox.
14
Emery warns that refrigerator
compressors should not be too near
stoves, where they could get too
hot; or too near walls, where they
might not get adequate ventilation.
He encourages the use of pressure
cookers (high-pressure steamers),
since steam is one of the most ef­ficient
ways to heat food.
A retired U.S. Army warrant officer,
Emery has worked in food service
his entire career. "I started out
washing pots and cooking, and
worked my way up to a food advisor­technician,"
he says.
As a food service trainer today,
Emery teaches on site in the 27
county school cafeterias. He has seen
the results of his energy sessions
on the job by watching workers put his
suggestions into action.
"They are really on top of it," he
says. "I start my day with them
when they report in for work in the
morning. Very seldom do I find
more than one range operating at a
time. That wasn't the case before
the workshop-when they would run
two ovens just in case they needed
both."
Since the sessions, Emery has
noticed workers are more likely to use
a small "eye" burner if they are
heating one pot, instead of turning on
the larger plate burner. "They
never even thought about it before,"
he says.
In his workshop Emery recom­mended
checking the gaskets on
refrigerator doors for small air leaks,
since just a slight opening requires
the unit to work harder.
"Right after the sessions, the
number of work requests for replac­ing
gaskets went up tremen­dously,"
Emery says. "The county
maintenance supervisor ap­proached
me and asked, 'What have
you been telling those people about
refrigerators?' "
Activities in
other states
Other states are passing energy
tips to local areas as well. The
Virginia State Energy Department
held sessions a few years ago on
energy use for food service and
related fields. Using this as a
springboard, Dorothy Panel!, school
food service director for the Fairfax
County Schools, ran local energy con­servation
workshops.
"I think if you make people aware,
you can reduce your energy use by
10 percent immediately," says Panel!.
"Then with effort you can reduce
your use by 20 percent. School­system
wide, we have really found
this to be true."
In addition to help available from
the state level, often an energy audit
can be arranged through a local
utility company at a small cost. The
company will usually provide
specific recommendations on the im­proved
use of energy, and an audit
can be an effective tool to convince
workers that a change is needed.
Food service managers can also
run their own energy surveys,
typically checking for fuel, steam, or
water leaks; poor insulation; excess
lighting; equipment running when not
needed; and excess exhaust vol­ume,
heating, or cooling.
"If we got into a real crunch, I
think with just a bit of encouragement
we could all serve one cold meal a
week. That would save a day's energy
consumption each week, a con­siderable
amount," says Dorothy Pan­ell,
who tested the idea at her
school during a power outage and
found it worked fine.
The future of food service includes
a variety of commercially suc­cessful,
energy-efficient heat
reclamation and food processing
systems that will make energy conser­vation
far easier than it is today.
But the current interest in energy
saving is tied directly to the in­creased
cost of energy to schools.
The threat is being handled with
spirit by food service workers. In the
dedicated, behind-the-scenes way
in which they carry out school nutri­tion
programs, these workers are
training, often voluntarily, to change
the habits of many years. They are
coming up with new solutions as well.
Food and Nutrition
void peak loads:
Don't turn on all equipment when
coming into the kitchen.
Use high energy equipment se­quentially.
Schedule energy-intensive prep­aration
during non-peak periods.
During baking, limit use of other
high energy equipment.
Don't fill dishwashing machines
with hot water until just before use.
C t down refrigerator load:
Close refrigerator doors when
not in use.
Buy plastic curtains for walk-in
refrigerator units.
Don't open the refrigerator for
each item-wait to put in a whole rack.
Thaw frozen items in refrigerator
instead of at room temperature.
Make sure compressor is in a
place it can get adequate ventilation
and not near heat.
nitor maintenance needs:
Make sure door gaskets on
refrigerators are tight.
Keep filters over cooking units
clean.
Record breakdowns, parts
replacement, and maintenance
checks.
nitor preheating and cooking:
Preheat per manufacturer's
instructions.
Label stoves and other equip­ment
with necessary minimum time
for preheating.
Heat onty to required temperature.
Use lids when cooking.
When possible, use pressure
cookers or steamers to defrost and
cook.
April1982
o in largest volume possible:
Fill unused space in oven,
steamers, and kettles.
Cook ahead for items with good
holding qualities if you can use
equipment that's already going. You'll
avoid another heat-up and use
residual heat.
Cook at the lowest temperature
possible. In addition to saving
energy, this will lower meat shrinkage,
increase yield, and give greater
nutrient retention and better color in
most foods.
open-top stoves efficiently:
Flame should just cover bottom
of pot, with fire not extending beyond
sides of pot. (Diameter of pot
should be at least 1 inch greater than
burner.)
Pot should be flat bottom to make
solid contact with plate or coil.
Us closed-top stoves efficiently:
Heat only the portion of the sur­face
required; turn off section not in
use.
Rely on thermostatic control
where possible to avoid con­tinuous
overheating.
Practice turning off stove first,
then remove pot, to use residual heat.
oven efficiently:
Open doors only when and for as
long as is absolutely necessary­don't
peek.
Use a timer to determine how
long an item has been cooking.
Start and finish cooking or bak­ing
with items requiring lowest
tern peratures.
a ch for other ways to save:
Check recipe files for foods such
as spaghetti sauce that can be for­mulated
ahead without heating.
Turn out lights in storerooms and
other areas not in use.
Prepare food and serve im­mediately
instead of preparing and
holding.
Consider serving one cold meal
a week.
n buying equipment, consider
energy efficiency:
Consider equipment with con­trols
such as timers and switches tha
allow areas of heating or ventilating
to be shut off when not needed.
Consider items such as hot water
heaters, which represent a moderate
investment but can save on energy.
rove communication:
Develop a reporting system on
conservation efforts.
Provide flow of information to
employees.
Place reminders at point of
operation.
Reinforce habits that yield
results.
Provide special training for new
employees.
uate results:
Record energy use. to determine
results.
Compare current month's con­sumption
with same month in a
previous year.
Figure dollar savings on current
rates and reduced use.
article by Jane Mattern
photos by Warren Uzzell
15
Computers Make Lunch
More Manageable
16
The computer age is no longer
the exclusive province of NASA scien­tists
and industrial giants. The
future of automation is being realized
now with applications only
dreamed of just a decade ago. As
manufacturers race to the day
when the household computer takes
its place with the color TV, schools
are finding a place for computers in
their school lunch programs.
Building an
automated system
Gaston County, North Carolina,
automated its school lunch opera­tions
in a 2-year project that began in
1979. Gaston County is the fourth
largest school district in North
Carolina with 55 schools and
33,000 students. Ansley Scofield,
county school food service direc­tor,
says that the decision to com­puterize
certain records grew out of
a need to provide the school board
with more timely and better
management information.
In switching to an automated
system, Gaston County received tech­nical
assistance from USDA's Food
and Nutrition Service and the North
Carolina Department of Public In­struction.
The district developed five
major components: inventory, pre­and
post-costing of menus, free and
reduced-price meal applications,
participation and revenue reporting,
and nutritional analysis:
1. Inventory. The district began
with inventory, entering into the
computer the inventory records of the
district's warehouse and individual
schools. Using reports generated by
the computer, the staff can now see
at a glance what foods are on hand,
how much is being used, and what
needs to be ordered.
2. Pre- and post-costing. Using
costs from the inventory system, the
computer can calculate and com­pare
projected and actual costs of
both recipes and menus. The com­puter
can pre-cost by recipe, per 100
servings, and by menus, per serv-
The Gaston County school district uses the
county government's computer for data pro­cessing.
County computer operator Mary
McDaniel enters into the computer information
on free and reduced-priced meals.
Food and Nutrition
ing. A post-cost analysis, which the
computer performs based on a
school's actual production records,
reveals any cost discrepancies.
Any school that has an unusual dis­crepancy
between pre- and post­costs
can receive immediate help
from the food service supervisors.
3. Participation and revenue
reporting. The computer ac­cumulates
and compiles daily par­ticipation
records of each school in
the district. It also keeps records of
money collected by each school.
Food service managers use this infor­mation
to meet state and federal
reporting requirements and to budget
and plan.
4. Free and reduced-price meal
applications. The computer: scans
applications for free and reduced­price
meals; determines the
children's eligibility; generates letters
to parents informing them of the
determination; and produces lists, by
school and by category, of the ap­proved
children. In January 1980,
when the income guidelines for free
and reduced-price meals were
changed, Gaston County re­evaluated
and processed 12,000 ap­plications
in just 4 hours.
School principals pre-screen the
applications before submitting
them to the central office. If a principal
finds an application with question­able
information, he or she attaches a
note alerting district office person­nel
to seek verification.
5. Nutrition analysis of meals.
The staff also uses the computer to
analyze menus, looking at meal
pattern components and quantities
served.
The major benefit of using a com­puter,
says Scofield, is better use of
staff time. Instead of doing paperwork
and verifying inventOry records, the
food service staff can devote them­selves
to more people-oriented
tasks. District employees have more
time to monitor program opera­tions
and provide technical
assistance. School food service
managers have more time to train
their workers and plan. These
people-oriented functions detect and
correct costly errors and wasteful
practices early.
April1982
Dramatic impact
on staff time
The impact on staff time was
realized as soon as implementation
of the computer project began.
"We saved 150 hours of the
managers' and their staffs' time for
that month alone," Scofield says,
adding that another 160 staff hours of
the district personnel's time were
also saved.
Scofield believes many school
districts are reluctant to install com­puters
because of an assumption
that employees will lose their jobs.
This has not been the case in Gas­ton
County-no jobs have been
abolished. But, as a result of em­ployees'
having less manual
paperwork and more time for
management duties, the school dis­trict
has not needed to hire more
staff.
This year, as keeping food costs
low has become more important than
ever, the computer's menu analysis
system has played a major role in
keeping the school food service
budget within bounds.
Gaston County's school nutrition
program uses centralized menus and
recipes. Early in December, a
routine post-cost analysis of county
schools' production records for the
previous week showed that one junior
high school had a food cost of 64
cents per meal as com pared to 40
cents per meal for other junior
highs serving the same menus.
A district staff member went to
the school, observed the food service
operation and determined what
practices were causing the excessive
costs. After technical assistance
was provided, the junior high school's
food costs were quickly lowered.
Without the computer, it would have
been January before the high costs
would have been found and
corrected.
"We can target a school with ex­cessive
costs immediately," says
Scofield. "Also, because we update
our pre-costing data as often as
daily, we can react to price changes
instantly. If a price changes
drastically, we can delete an item from
a menu that same day."
Gaston County uses every report
their computer produces. Inventory
summary reports, for example, serve
a number of purposes. If one
school's supply of a food item is ex­hausted,
the report shows what
school has the food so that a transfer
can be made. In addition, district
employees check the summary report
to find out if a USDA-donated food
is available in the commodity
warehouse before they order that
particular food item commercially.
Inventory summaries also aid in
menu planning. Knowing what foods
are available in large supplies in
school storerooms or in the com­modity
warehouse allows district
staff members to include the surplus
items in menus before they spoil or
lose some of their quality.
Information
being shared
Currently the software programs
of Gaston County's computer are be­ing
translated for use in micro­computers,
the smallest of the three
major types of computers used to­day.
Then the software package will
be made available to school dis­tricts
throughout North Carolina. In
the Southwest, the Food and Nutri­tion
Service regional office in Dallas
has already disseminated informa­tion
about Gaston County's computer
project to state agencies as a part
of its initiative to aid small to medium­sized
school districts in establish­ing
computer systems for food service
17
operations. Two Texas school
districts-the Arlington and Irving In­dependent
School Districts-have
since installed similar computer
· systems, modified to meet their
needs.
Arlington and Irving are both
large districts in the suburbs of Dallas.
Arlington uses a central warehouse
and school-operated trucks to deliver
food and supplies to 42 schools
serving 33,300 children. Irving has 25
schools that prepare meals for
21 ,000 children. Each of the 25 ·
schools has its own warehouse.
"One of our most pressing needs
was to simplify the paperwork in
our inventory delivery system," says
Arlington food service director Bar­bara
Clark. "This year approximately
2 million dollars' worth of merchan­dise
will pass through our central
warehouse."
Until they computerized their inven­tory
at the beginning of this school
year, two people worked full time
processing purchase orders,
receipts, managers' orders, and other
forms. Calculating the cost of
deliveries to schools consumed a ma­jor
portion of their time.
Another problem with the manual
system was that it took too long to
provide information. making it difficult
for the staff to anticipate what to
buy. "We often had an excess of some
items in inventory, while being
short on others," Clark explains.
18
Clark saw automatic data
processing as the solution and she
made an all-out effort to convince
school district administrators to make
computerizing food service records
a priority.
People from the Texas state
education agency and the Food and
Nutrition Service's Southwest
regional office provided a model for
in-depth review, explored various
approaches and possibilities, and
identified other school districts with
computer-assisted inventory
programs.
The district did an in-depth review
of the Gaston County project and
also looked at inventory systems in
San Antonio and Austin, Texas,
and Tulsa, Oklahoma. They also con­tacted
a number of other school
districts by phone and reviewed
professional and commercial
literature.
Since none of the systems could
be used on the district's computer,
they decided to write programs
from scratch, basing them on the ex­isting
manual inventory system.
"We felt our inventory delivery system
was good overall," says Clark.
Writing the basic programs re­quired
6 weeks of close work be­tween
the data processing and food
service staffs. During the same
period, food service personnel
received training on how to put data
into the computer terminals installed
in the director's office and in the ware­house.
The system was ready to roll
at the beginning of the school year.
In addition to inventory, the dis­trict
also developed a program for
processing free and reduced-price
meal applications. Current plans call
for adding more programs as time
and money allow.
Computerizing
step-by-step
In Irving, as in Arlington, food
service managers are computerizing
their operations step by step. They
are now using computers to handle
inventory, track market orders and
vendor deliveries, do billing and
process orders, and keep track of
participation and revenue.
With their old manual system,
the central office used to get 25
detailed handwritten reports from
the schools each week. The staff
would check the math and
transpose the figures into a central
notebook, which had 25 sets of
columns and balances. With the com­puter,
all that is gone. Reports that
used to take days, are now done in
hours.
Melbagene Ryan, Irving's food ser­vice
director, says an added benefit
is that school district personnel from
other departments now have a
more accurate view of food service.
"School administrators often take
for granted areas that run on their
own steam," Ryan explains. "They
neglect to adequately recognize them
and make them part of the total
school operation.
"With the food service inventory,
ordering and purchasing, bill
processing, and financial manage­ment
operations being computerized,
food service has been given a
priority second only to grade
reporting. The detailed record­keeping
and program accounting we
have done is openly discussed and
praised by the data processing staff."
Left: At the Lowell Elementary School in Lowell,
North Carolina, a member of the food service
staff checks inventory. Inventory records were
the first to be computerized in Gaston County.
Opposite page: Computer programmer
Sharon Daniel looks over some of the reports
the computer has generated.
Food and Nutrition
Bruce Vernon, the programmer
who worked with Ryan, is pleased
with the new system. "Although we've
just begun the total package we've
envisioned for Irving, we're excited
about the tangible results we're go­ing
to have in this first year." Future
plans include doing nutrition
analysis of recipes and menus, figur­ing
meals per staff hour, and in­stalling
cash registers that will
automatically transfer information
to the computer.
Some tips for
other districts
Ansley Scofield, Barbara Clark
and Melbagene Ryan all agree that
purchasing or installing a computer
system for the first time can be an
awesome task. They offer the
following advice for other school dis­tricts
interested in automating their
school food service operations:
1. Contact your state office for in­formation
about other computer
systems and the availability of
technical assistance from your FNS
regional office.
2. Survey other existing systems
before you decide what you want or
need. Weigh the advantages and dis­advantages
of each. Don't make a
hasty decision.
3. Don't radically change your
method of operation to use a "can­ned"
system. Develop your own
system if you need to, choosing
features of other systems that will
work for you.
4. During the entire process of
planning and implementation, keep
the lines of communication open
with your data processing staff. Close
cooperation and good communica­tion
are essential to the development
of an effective system.
5. Computerize first the information
that is high-volume and labor­intensive,
such as inventory records,
or information that is needed on a
timely basis.
6. Don't try to make a quick and
total transition from manual system to
an automated system. Take one
step at a time and work out the
problems at each phase of im­plementation
before proceeding
further.
April1982
7. Don't have a system designed that
will produce a multitude of print­outs
you won't use. Use everything the
computer generates.
Costs and
options vary
In today's technological terms,
computers are classified into three
major categories according to power,
versatility, and cost.
The most sophisticated type is the
large main-frame computer often
used in business, government, and
large school systems. It car, store
vast amounts of information and per­form
complicated calculations. This
type system requires highly
specialized technicians for its
operations.
The mini-computer, contrary to
its name, is a medium-sized machine
that is less expensive, but functions
similar to a main-frame computer.
The micro-computer is the
smallest. It can provide the necessary
computing capability at an afford­able
price for small school districts
that do not have access to the
larger computers. Micro-computers
are easy to program, operate, and
maintain.
All three types can be used in
managing school food service opera­tions.
The cost of automating school
lunch operations varies greatly,
depending on a school district's
access to a computer. Gaston
County schools did not have to
purchase a computer, since they
are able to share in the services of the
county government's computer. In
Florida, one large and several small
school districts have formed a con­sortium
to share costs of installing
and using a computer. Schools
may also cut costs by sharing with
commercial establishments, such
as banks.
If a district does start from
scratch, purchasing a micro­computer
is probably the best solu­tion.
According to Bill Ray, audit
supervisor for North Carol.ina's
Division of Child Nutrition, it should
cost no more than $6,000 for a
micro-computer to run an automated
food service program like Gaston
County's. The actual cost, of course,
will depend on the name brand of
the computer and the area in which it
is bought.
For more information, write:
Paul Schmidtz
Computer Project Coordinator
Food and Nutrition Service, USDA
Federal Building
1100 Commerce Street
Dallas, Texas 75242
Ann G. Smith, State Director
Division of Child Nutrition
Department of Public Instruction
Education Building
Raleigh, North Carolina 27611
Barbara Clark
Arlington Independent School
District
1203 West Pioneer ·Parkway
Arlington, Texas 76013
Melbagene Ryan
Irving Independent School District
P.O. Box 2637
Irving, Texas 75061
article by Brenda Schuler and
Gordon Fuller
photos by Warren Uzzell
Note: The 1981 index for Food and Nutrition
will be in our June 1982 issue.
19
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE POSTAGE
& FEES PAID
U.S. DEPT.
DIVISIOn ol PubliC Documents. Washmg!on. D C 20402
Oftic•al Bus1ness
Penalty lor Pnvate Use. $300
Published six times a year by
the Food and Nutrition Service,
U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Washington, D.C. 20250.
John R. Block
Secretary of Agriculture
Mary C. Jarratt
Assistant Secretary
Samuel J. Cornelius
Administrator
Food and Nutrition Service
Jan Kern, Editor
Jan Proctor, Art Director
(o)Ibod
~Nutrition
Yearly subscription: $7.50 domestic,
$9.40 foreign. Single copies: $1.75
domestic, $2.20 foreign. Send sub­scription
orders to: Superintendent
of Documents, Government Printing
Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.
The Secretary of Agriculture has
determined that the publication of
this periodical is necessary in the
transaction of the public business
required by law of this Department.
The use of funds for printing this
publication was approved by the
Director of the Office of Manage­ment
and Budget Sept. 30, 1981.
OF
AGRICULTURE
AGR 101
THIRD CLASS BLK. RT.
PERMIT NUMBER .005-5
Prints of photos may be obtained
from Photo Library, U.S. Depart­ment
of Agriculture, Washington,
D.C. 20250.
All programs of the U.S. Depart­ment
of Agriculture are available to
everyone without regard to race,
creed, color, sex or national origin.
Reference to commercial products
and services does not imply en­dorsement
or discrimination by
the Department of Agriculture.
Food and Nutrition is a magazine of A yearly subscription is $7.50 for six
the U.S. Department of Agriculture. issues. Foreign subscriptions are
In it you'll find articles on the $9.40. To subscribe, mail a check or
family food assistance and child money order, payable to the Super-nutrition
programs administered by intendent of Documents, to the
USDA's Food and Nutrition Service following address: Superintendent
in cooperation with State and local of Documents, Government Printing
agencies. Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.
•• ••••••••••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• :o •• •• •• •
I'd like to subscribe to
Food and Nutrition
magazine, published by
the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Food and
Nutrition Service.
NaDle __________________________________________ Street
City
State Zip Code
•• •• •• •• •• •• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••