Food and Nutrition Services Earns USDA Best Practices Award
Greenville County Schools’ Food and Nutrition Services (FANS) has earned a Best Practices Award in Fiscal Management from the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This is the second year in a row that FANS has earned a Best Practices Award in this category.
The Fiscal Management Award recognizes school districts that utilize creative and accountable practices for managing finances in tough economic times including practices that reduce costs and/or increase efficiency in school nutrition programs and efforts to better serve program participants more efficiently with available resources.
FANS was recognized for implementing a districtwide menu engineering program for their A la Cart food and beverage offerings. FANS staff analyzed sales data from the prior school year and was able to develop an A la Cart menu for the 2015-16 school year that met the strict requirements of the USDA Smart Snack regulations, was popular with students, and had desirable gross profit margins. The streamlined A la Cart menus resulted in an increase of profit to our food service department that will be used in their continued efforts to improve the quality of school food.
Joe Urban, Director of Food and Nutrition Services said, “We are on a mission to serve our students the highest quality, nutritious school meals possible to support their academic success and promote healthy lifestyles. Through a constant evaluation of our business practices we are able to control our operating cost, maximize our profits, and reinvest that revenue into our school breakfast and lunch programs.”
Plans for the 2016-17 school year include:
- Replacing all highly processed chicken products with whole muscle chicken filets.
- Replacing all canned and frozen fruit offerings with all fresh fruit products. (Exception will be applesauce cups that will be used for field trips, emergencies, and for days following extended school holidays).
- Including higher end menu offerings in middle and high schools such as St. Louis Style BBQ Ribs, smoked beef brisket whole muscle boneless chicken wings, and more.
- Continuing to offer a scratch-made Soup and Salad Bar in all schools three days per week.
- Continuing to offer, and expand upon, the Build Your Own concepts in all schools.
- The Build Your Own Mac-N-Cheese Bar and Build Your Own Mashed Potato Bar were very successful in the 2015-16 school year.
- FANS will be testing two new concepts this summer: a Build Your Own Taco Bar and a Build Your Own Pasta Bar.