Current Participants Podcasts
Current Participants Micro Math for 30%
By Rosemarie Hanson Trumansburg CSD
FreshBites fruit cost could be .10 if half the students select a NYS item and half choose a “free” Vegetables: In the fall, showcase vegetables that are available locally only for a short time, like cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, greens, broccoli, cauliflower, corn and zucchini. Potatoes, Cabbage, Onions, and Butternut Squash are inexpensive and available year-round. Kale, Carrots, and Beets are available most of the year. What if you committed to roasted, baked, mashed or steamed NY potatoes as the starchy vegetable each week? Kids like potatoes, and they are easy to store and available year-round. This will add .20 to your NYS bottom line without blowing your budget. Protein: NY is all about dairy products, and it’s pretty easy to add dairy to your menu, or to make sure your existing dairy products are from a NY supplier. NY Mozzarella is about $.30 per 2M/MA serving and can go on a pre-made pizza crust. This homemade pie can be put together for $.55, versus $.85 for a premade pizza. Kids love pizza. NY Cheddar is about the same price, and can go into Mexican entrees like quesadillas, or pasta dishes like Mac and Cheese. Other proteins available are NY Ground Beef and Hamburgers, NY Hot Dogs, NY Ground Pork Sausage, NY Tofu, and NY Beans to use as proteins. Offer a taco with NY Ground Beef - 1.5 ounces cooked plus ½ ounce NY cheddar for a total of $.67 for the 2 M/MA As a Food Service Director, I understand the challenges of staying within your budget when it comes to adding local foods to your menu. I often hear from other food service directors either that they can’t find enough products to make the 30% threshold, or that local or New York State products are too expensive. When looking at those big numbers in the “30% Calculator” on the Child Nutrition website, that 30% total can seem like a daunting number to reach. Sometimes it’s helpful to look at your menu costs both on a daily and weekly basis to develop a strategy for achieving the 30% threshold. I am going to lay out a simplified scenario of how you can reach the 30% threshold by making a few simple changes to your menu, but it’s based on some assumptions that might not hold true for every school district and every Director. Its purpose is more to show where you can make space in your menu for NY State foods in small increments that add up over time, and how you can utilize USDA foods and FFAVORS programs to keep your costs down. How can you serve enough NY foods to make the 30% threshold while still keeping within your food cost budget? Sometimes it’s helpful to look at your menu costs both on a daily and weekly basis. Let’s say that you can put out a meal for a $1.50 food cost per lunch. Let’s designate 20 cents for fruit, 20 cents for vegetables, 40 cents for M/MA, 20 cents for bread, and .25 cents for milk. To make the 30% threshold, you would have to spend $.45 per meal of that $1.50 on NYS foods. Let’s assume your milk is NYS and costs $.25. Assuming every student got milk with their lunch, that would leave you with only $.20 additional to spend on NYS foods. And if you spend this amount, you will get .19 cents back from NYS. This seems like a pretty good deal, right? Let’s look at all your components and see where there are opportunities to easily add NY foods: Fruit: In the fall, feature local melons, peaches, plums, and NY grapes while they last. Apples, Applesauce, Grape Juice are NYS fruits that are available year-round. These average around $.20 per serving. Not everyone will select one of these items. I balance these more expensive fruits with “free” USDA fruits, like frozen berries, orange juice, and canned fruit, or “free” fresh fruit through the FFAVORS program. Your average
Your daily “alternative lunches” can feature NY Dairy, too. We offer a “Bagel Lunch” every day that comes with a NYS string cheese stick and NY yogurt, as well as a fruit and NY yogurt parfait with granola. Grains: NY Grains have been a challenge to find. I do have access to NY wheat flour and cornmeal through Farmer Ground Flour and hope to incorporate them into grain-based desserts like black bean brownies and fruit cobbler. So let’s set up your starter 30% NYS 2 week menu: NY fruit $.10
Broome Tioga BOCES Cheryl Bilinski talks with Annie Hudock, Senior Food Service Director with Broome Tioga BOCES, about how multiple school districts under the management of a single BOCES pro- cure, serve, and promote NY State food products. She highlights: • BT BOCES’ approach to procurement, and how they work with partner farms to plan what will be served—and planted—for the upcoming school year • The importance of introducing students to new foods, and the role of taste tests in recipe development • BT BOCES’ solution to distribution challenges (hint: it involves a truck)
NY fruit $.10 NY fruit $.10 NY Beef Taco $.67
NY fruit $.10 Baked Potato.20 NY fruit $.10 NY Oven Fried Potatoes .20
NY fruit $.10 Weekly Pizza .30 NY fruit $.10 Weekly Pizza .30
Buffalo Public Schools Cheryl Bilinski talks with Bridget O’Brien Wood, Food Service Director with Buffalo Public Schools, about the use of geographic preference in their local procurement efforts. She highlights: • The importance of production planning with farm partners prior to drafting the bid specs to better understand what they have to offer and what their needs are. • The precise steps involved in releasing a local produce and protein bid. • How using geographic preference resulted in a cost savings on certain local produce items and increased the number of farm partners, noting particularly, that the district was able to purchase from buffalo-based urban farms for the first time. • How to strategically balance the use of local food items with USDA foods, considering balancing costs and menu planning.
NY fruit $.10 NY fruit $.10 NY fruit $.10
So, all we’ve done is made half of our fruit sales from NY apples, grape juice, or applesauce, added a weekly NY potato, and a weekly pizza, with a NY Beef taco every other week, for an additional NY food total of $.27 per day. How do we account for the extra money for the taco protein? We add some ”free” USDA proteins , such as chicken strips, turkey roast, oven roasted chicken, American Cheese, and pulled pork. And add some NY vegetables to go with it. And then as long as we have two USDA proteins in a week, we can afford some more NY Proteins.
NY fruit $.10 USDA Oven Roasted BBQ Chicken “Salt” Potato .20 WG Roll NY fruit $.10 Grilled USDA American cheese w/ Tomato Soup NY fruit $.10 USDA Pulled Pork Sandwich NY Slaw.20 NY fruit $.10 USDA Chicken Strips, Sweet and Sour Sauce, NY Pepper .20 , Brown Rice
NY fruit $.10 NY Beef Taco $.67 NY Lettuce, NY Tomato Salsa NY fruit $.10 USDA Chicken Strips, General Tso NY fruit $.10 NY Beef Taco $.67 NY Lettuce and Salsa NY fruit $.10 NY Breakfast Sausage .60 Biscuit, NY Sweet Potato Home fries.20 Sauce, NY Broccoli, Rice
NY fruit $.10 LoMein w/ NY Cabbage, Carrots .20, USDA Chicken Strips NY fruit $.10 Pasta Marinara w/ NY Italian Sausage .60
NY fruit $.10 NY Hot Dog .60 Grandma Browns or Scratch NY Baked Beans NY fruit $.10 NY Hamburger .85 Oven Fried Potatoes .20 NY fruit $.10 Mac and NY Cheddar Cheese .30 NY Cauliflower .25 NY fruit $.10 “White” USDA Turkey Chili Nachos w/NY cheddar .15 Baked Potato.20
NY fruit $.10 Weekly Pizza .30 Pesto Pizza w/Fresh Tomato NY fruit $.10 Weekly NY Pizza .30 NY Mushroom Pizza NY fruit $.10 Weekly NYPizza .30 NY Peppers and Onions .25 Pizza NY fruit $.10 Weekly Pizza .30 White Garlic NY Broccoli .25 Pizza
Oneida Herkimer Madison BOCES Cheryl Bilinski talks with Jake Perrin, Assistant Food Service Director with Oneida Herkimer Madison BOCES, about how a single SFA procures and distributes local food to 15 component school districts. He highlights: • OHM’s approach to local procurement, with a focus on how to approach the 30% • Logistical coordination among 15 different districts in determining their local food needs • How they have adapted their distribution model to meet the needs of their SFAs and local food and farm partners • How they develop and maintain vendors relationships Lastly, Jake reminds us that farm to school can be and should be FUN!
Forestville Central Schools Becky O’Connor chats with Nick Weith, Food Service Director and Farm to School Coordinator for Forestville Central Schools, about how improving the lunch program can increase pride in a community with a declining population. Nick shares: • Why and how Forestville purchases and picks up produce from local farmers and a nearby produce auction • The unique approach he has taken to administering the district’s summer meal program • How on-the-job training can prepare staff to handle new products
NY fruit $.10 USDA Turkey Mashed NY Potato .20
NY fruit $.10 Pasta Marinara w/ NY Italian Meatball .75
Wilson Central School District Becky O’Connor talks with Sue Bell, Food Service Director for Wilson Central School District, about how the district managed to qualify for the 30% NY Initia - tive two years in a row with minimal added effort. They also chat about: • Why purchasing locally grown produce was a given for Sue and her predecessor • Recommendations for tracking and keeping up with documentation • How working with CCE Niagara helped them reach 30% NY purchases • The pride students take in seeing food from their family farms served on the lunch line
This menu may not work for all schools, and we’ve made a lot of assumptions. But it’s a starting point seeing how you can stay within your budget while placing NY grown foods on the menu.
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