Client Kitchens: Who's Responsible for What?

CKC Good Food has the privilege of managing the day-to-day food service operations at many client sites. Our years of experience, time-tested processes and dedicated team members ensure an efficient kitchen that serves up meals that inspire joyful eaters.

There are many advantages of hiring CKC Good Food to manage the daily operations of your onsite food service program, including:

• Reduced HR responsibilities. CKC Good Food recruits, trains and places a qualified Kitchen Manager and team members at your site. Daily call-ins/PTO are our responsibility to cover, not yours.
• Fewer daily food service tasks as our team handles menu planning, procurement, prep, cooking, service and daily reporting.
• Full commodity management from ordering, accepting all foods in our warehouse, menu planning and payment.
• A menu tailored to those you serve as our onsite Kitchen Manager and menu planning team come to understand their taste preferences.
• Excellent food quality and enticing smells that lure people into eating in the cafeteria. With onsite cooking, some foods also hold their textures better than if that same food had been delivered. 
• Minnesota Department of Health inspections are handled by CKC Good Food’s Kitchen Managers. Our client partners have had excellent MDH inspections when it comes to cleanliness and food temperatures. If there is anything MDH requires regarding the site's kitchen equipment or other site-specific findings, our Kitchen Manager will inform you.

Our Kitchen Managers love working at our client sites. At Twin Cities International School, Kitchen Manager Juan Garcia has built strong relationships with the students. They adore him and listen to him when he encourages them to eat something new. With this strong bond, students aren’t shy about sharing their opinions about the meals. Juan also minimizes wasted food because he understands the students’ preferences and works with Director of Strategic Planning Ambika Senthilvel, who spearheads menu planning for CKC Good Food, to incorporate those preferences into the school’s menu.

At Hope Community Academy, Kitchen Manager Veronica Martinez works closely with the school’s Administrative Office Manager who oversees food service to evaluate students’ response to various menu days and compare meal counts placed versus the number of meals served. By working together and continually analyzing participation, they can keep the school’s food service budget healthy and minimize wasted food.

Our Kitchen Managers all provide a report of meal participation at the end of each week to their schools’ Food Service Director for budgeting and planning purposes.

Client Responsibilities

CKC Good Food does everything we can to minimize your workload. There are a few responsibilities, however, we cannot do if you provide food under federal meal programs, including the National School Lunch Program and the Child and Adult Care Food Program. USDA and the Minnesota Department of Education restrict us from acting on your behalf with these agencies, submitting applications or claim numbers in CLiCS, for example. We also need special permission from MDE to operate clients’ point-of-sale systems and cannot be held responsible for discrepancies between meal counts at POS vs. numbers claimed in CLiCS.

And while the “Application for Benefits” is super important to food service, we also cannot collect those from your families.

Let's work together!

If your organization/institution would like to explore having us manage your onsite food service operations, submit your RFP today.