Tailoring Menus to Managed Sites

One of the many benefits of having CKC Good Food manage the daily food service operations for the kitchen at your site is having a menu tailor-made for those you serve. It's one of the many ways we ensure maximum participation in your food service program.

When creating menus for our offsite kitchens, Ambika Senthilvel, Director of Strategic Planning, first considers the ethnicity of those served at the site. Many serve largely one ethnic population, whether Hmong, Hispanic or Somali. Unless a site requests otherwise, she will plan one or two traditional cultural entrees each week for those sites. For example, Hmong-influenced menus include Kapoon, Pho and Hmong Sausage. Asian-influenced menus include our hearty tinga wrap, Asian potstickers and teriyaki drumsticks. She’ll then weave in universal favorites – spaghetti and meat sauce, soft shell and walking tacos, various drumstick recipes, hamburgers, chicken nuggets and tenders.

“Regardless of their heritage, kids have a lot of exposure to American foods,” Ambika said, “and really like them.”

These sites also have the option of offering pizza once a week or every other week, just like client partners who have their meals delivered. Offsite kitchens can heat pizza onsite or have it delivered from a third-party vendor.

Tailoring to Specific Preferences

Ambika has learned nuances between our client partners through her years of creating menus. Hmong schools generally don’t want sweet lunches, like French toast sticks, or meals traditional to other ethnic cultures. Somali schools cannot have any pork products or anything that even resembles pork, like turkey or chicken sausage. They love sweet foods so much that Ambika swapped out waffle sandwiches for mini cinnis and whole grain chocolate donuts on the breakfast menus. They also don’t care for cheese, which gives Ambika some margin in the nutritional requirements to add more of their favorite – ranch dressing!

She has also come to understand which client partners are more accepting of new menu items, particularly ethnic meals. As we introduced chicken tinga wraps, papusas, tamales and empanadas this year, certain schools loved them and asked for those meals to be repeated in their 6-week menu rotation!

In select cases, Ambika has jointly developed schools' menus with the Kitchen Managers who have come to know their students well. Ambika worked with one Kitchen Manager to strategically plan the daily main hot entree and the vegetarian entree to keep participation at its peak. The days when a less-popular hot entree is offered, the vegetarian entree is one that is a student-favorite. When the day's main hot entree is sure to be a hit, Ambika specifies a vegetarian entree less popular with the students. While an involved process to tailor a menu to this degree, this approach ensures maximum participation, less wasted food and fewer menu changes throughout the year.

Aligning to Kitchen Facilities

Every kitchen we manage has varying prep and cooking capacities and capabilities. Some have ample prep space and oven capacity to provide a main hot entrée with hot side dishes, a hot vegetarian entrée, deli salads and cold sandwiches. Most though are working with physical limitations that Ambika needs to account for in menu planning. If only one or two items can be heated per day, she plans side dishes accordingly.

It's a true privilege to have long-standing client partnerships in which we can understand the nuances for each site and tailor our menus to ensure lots of joyful eaters!

Interested in having us manage the kitchen at your site?

Submit your RFP to us today and let's work together!