Author: Cyndie Story
Last saved by: michelle.armstrong
Company: Culinary Solution Centers, LLC

Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program
Serving and Merchandising Ideas

Segment 43: Serving in the School Meals Program

Chef Cyndie: Serving and marketing should go hand in hand as part of a successful school meals program.  Marketing is an investment in your program, but more importantly, marketing fresh fruits and vegetables is an investment in the health of Florida children.  I bet if I asked you to name three popular items on your school cafeteria menu, not one would be a fruit or vegetable.  OK, French fries are considered part of the vegetable group, but not in the fresh vegetable group.  Point being, you don’t have to convince your students to select pizza, macaroni and cheese, or nuggets.  These items almost market themselves.  Preparing and marketing fresh fruits and vegetables takes time and energy.  But the payoff is so worth it.  And it is important to remember that children may not eat a new food the first time they see it.  Please don’t get discouraged if some of the foods are not eaten well the first time they are served.  Continue to offer them, try different dips or combinations of familiar and unfamiliar fruits and vegetables, and let the kids see the food over and over. Offer samples of new fruits and vegetables and encourage children to taste them. Recent research states a new food item may not be accepted until it has been introduced over twenty times.  Also, there are diverse cultures in our schools.  A food that one child has never seen may be a staple to another and positive peer influence might get a child to try a new food when her friend says that she eats it at home all of the time.  Also, teachers make great role models; engage your teaching staff to take part in your school meals program.

To show you what we mean by marketing fresh fruits and vegetables, take a look at this menu.  It says fresh apple slices on Tuesday.  Let’s take a look at these fresh apple slices.

Oh my! Do these apple slices look fresh to you?  But the menu said fresh apple slices.  Do you know what happened?  That’s right someone forgot to put the apple slices in lemon or pineapple juice to prevent the browning.  When you work so hard in the kitchen to create an appetizing menu item, don’t forget to ask yourself the following questions prior to service:

1.	How does the food look from the customer’s point of view?
2.	Do the colors compliment each other?
3.	Is the item attractive and eye appealing?
4.	Is the item in a form that is easy for children to eat?
5.	Is the food being served at the correct, safe temperature?

All the production in the back of the house should be showcased during service.

We all eat with our eyes first, then with our taste buds.  You must make fresh fruits and vegetables eye appealing, plus easy for your customers to see and reach.  You might advertise fresh made salads on your menu, then your staff takes the time to prepare the most beautiful salads, but if they are held behind a stainless steel door reach in or pass thru fridge on your serving line, your customers will not see them nor ask for them.

There are a variety of options for serving in the school meals program from serving the customer in the cafeteria, self-serve, to satellite carts that service students away from the cafeteria.  First, let’s take a closer look at marketing fresh fruits and vegetables for service in the cafeteria.  To pre portion or not to pre portion will be a decision your school district will need to make.  In today’s world of food safety concerns, many school districts pre portion or prepackage foods prior to serving them.  Here are some examples:

Notice that each pan contains only one or two choices.  Do not place four or five choices on the same pan.  This confuses the student’s selection and slows the serving line.  Also, try to combine products with varying amount of preparation time.  For example, pear slices with blueberries.  It takes more time to prep the pears than the blueberries.  The berries just need to be rinsed and they are ready to serve.  Balancing production time will reduce the total time for preparation.

Finally, when serving preportioned fruits and vegetables be sure your customer can see and easily reach the item.  Using styrofoam containers with lids prevents your customers from seeing all the beautiful colors of the fresh fruits and vegetables.  

And, be sure school foodservice staff constantly monitor the serving line for cleanliness, safe food temperatures, and making sure that food is within reach and remains eye appealing throughout the entire meal period.  Remember, it is best practice to keep cut melons and cut tomatoes at 41 degrees Fahrenheit or below.

Wow, those were colorful and guaranteed to catch your customer’s eye and tickle the taste buds.  Let’s take these same products and see what changes we need to make for self serve or for staff to serve the customer.
Ease, timeliness, food safety, cleanliness, and durability are important considerations whether offering service by a foodservice employee, or allowing students to serve themselves.  For example, you can easily offer peeled slices of kiwi if you are pre portioning; however this is how peeled sliced kiwi would look after 10 minutes of self service.  All that effort in the back of the house to prepare the peeled kiwi slices, and now the eye appeal is completely lost during service.  If you are offering kiwi slices for self service, make sure the kiwi is not fully ripe and leave the skin on the slices for ease of self service and durability.

Another consideration for self service is to make sure the student can see and easily reach the menu selections.  And, be sure you are using a serving utensil that has long handles to keep hands out of the food.  Scoops, sometimes called dishers are not designed for serving many of the fresh fruit and vegetable items on your menu.  Tongs or spoodles may be easier for children to handle. 

In closing, here’s a few tips to remember when serving fresh fruits and vegetables to your customers:

1.	All employees should be clean and have a professional appearance.
2.	Encourage your customers to select the fresh fruit and vegetable items offered that day; especially if it is a new item. 
3.	Remember to smile, smile, smile