The list of challenges facing foodservice directors in large school districts is epic: ballooning food and labor costs, inadequate subsidies chasing unfunded mandates, inventory control issues, participation shortfalls redlining at the secondary level, the lingering lunch lady/mystery meat stereotype contrasting with modern commercial dining expectations, political pressures that are ignorant or dismissive of the realities of school foodservice constraints, antiquated equipment and out-of-date facilities compromising food safety and playing havoc with productivity, workforce turnover and morale issues, language barriers and cultural clashes, etc., etc., etc.

With obstacles like that, it's a wonder any district can maintain a viable nutrition program at all, much less an exemplary one.

Yet, here is the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (NC) Schools (CMS) with a program that not only meets state-mandated wellness goals, but did so two years before it had to. The district's award-winning meal program feeds a growing population of nearly 140,000 students every day while it has increased participation rates by nearly 25 percent in the past six years. And all in a system that sees 3,000-5,000 additional students each year.

Oh, and one that accomplished all that while operating in the black year in and year out, with net incomes of nearly $3 million in 2006-07 and over $2 million as of March 2008 for 2007-08 (the latest figure available). And that's without a meal price increase for the past seven years, by the way. The district set a fairly aggressive $2 meal price across the board back in 2000 and plans to stay with that at least through next year.

How have they done it?

It starts with a well planned and executed menu program that has been centralized and standardized (though the meals themselves are almost all produced at the point of service). This is bolstered with a strong manager and employee training program that instills and reinforces sound operational practices and boosts across-the-board morale. There is also an effective procurement program that takes advantage of every opportunity. Finally, CMS Nutrition Services maintains a focus on efficient equipment and productivity-boosting technology that have contributed to an increase in labor efficiency — from 14 to 16 meals per labor hour in the past two years.

Overseeing all those efforts is a top-notch top management team led by Director Cindy Hobbs and Assistant Director Amy Harkey.

Nutrition is Job One

CMS has been a leader on meeting current nutrition standards. It implemented North Carolina's restrictions on what could be sold in a la carte lines and mandates requiring school meals to include whole grains and fruits and vegetables two years before the deadline, the first district in the state to do so. Similarly, it also switched to low-fat milk long before federal mandates came into effect.

“We also removed all the fryers from our middle and elementary schools, and took all sugar-sweetened beverages out of our middle and elementary schools and replaced them with 100% juice and water,” says Hobbs.

The department has also embarked on a pilot grab-and-go breakfast program in 25 of its schools where principals and teachers are willing to let students bring tote-along goodies to the classroom in the morning. All schools serve breakfast, but most only in the cafeteria, where inconvenience and time constraints limit customers. The pilot grab-and-go program, however, has boosted breakfast participation from 16 to 20 percent.

Meanwhile, lunch meal patterns have been radically altered by the menu and a la carte changes, which made a la carte selections relatively less appealing and reimbursable meals more so.

“When we took fryers out, our a la carte sales were significantly impacted, especially when we took the french fries out since that was not part of our reimbursable meal,” says Hobbs. “Our reimbursable meal participation went up so much that it shifted our revenue emphasis from cash to reimbursement.”

Today, meal reimbursements represent half of department revenues, while a la carte represents under a quarter. Districtwide, students buy 76,000 reimbursable meals a day, while daily a la carte sales average $66,000 (another $10,000 is derived from sales of after school snacks).

“At the same time, we improved the children's nutrition because now they're getting a complete meal, potentially with a fruit or vegetable,” notes Harkey. “We're nudging them over gradually, substituting produce and whole grains in their diets for the pizza and fries they were eating before.”

Central Menu Control

C-M Schools does not do central production, but it has consolidated menu planning to the central office since it switched to nutrient-based menus from the component-based system it had traditionally used. Now, the only sites that receive satellited meals are seven schools that serve students with special services. The rest all do production onsite.

“The district contemplated centralizing food production at one point, but we convinced them it was unfeasible,” Hobbs says. She cites transportation hazards and food safety as among the primary concerns, not to mention the costs associated with transforming the entire operational culture. All the new schools will continue to be built with kitchens.