Art Dunham: Savvy businessman

At a Glance

Accomplishments

Art Dunham has improved foodservice in Pinellas County Schools by:

At a time when so many school districts are struggling to have their foodservice programs break even, if you want to know how good a manager Art Dunham is, look no further than the fact that in 2012, Pinellas County Schools was admonished for having a foodservice fund balance that was too high.

“We had a $3 million surplus,” Dunham admits. “We were told we have to find ways to spend down that money.”

It is a sweet “problem” to have, one brought about through a combination of smart fiscal management and a variety of innovations designed to increase revenue.

Among them are the use of vending machines as an alternate way for students to purchase reimbursable meals and an online application process that has made it easier for parents to file for free or reduced-price meal status, thus increasing the amount of money the federal government returns to the district.

Related:Confessions of Art Dunham

“Art has brought so much strong management and innovation to Pinellas County,” says Michael Bessette, associate superintendent for operational services. “He is willing to try just about anything he can to increase the number of students who get a meal. We are very much on the cutting edge of a lot of things.”

One of those cutting-edge programs has been the use of palm scanners to identify students as they go through the cafeteria lines. Now in its third year, the technology has allowed foodservice managers to move kids through the serving line faster and with more accuracy.

“All it takes is two or three seconds, and not only do we get an image of the child for verification, the cashier sees all of the allergy information we need, along with what they ordered the previous day,” Dunham explains. “And two to three seconds is huge. Students need more time to sit and actually eat their lunch.”

College trained, Army strong

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Dunham got his bachelor’s degree in food management from The Pratt Institute and his master’s from New York University. He then joined the U.S. Army, where he worked for five years helping to manage NCO and Officers’ Clubs. 

In 1977, after he left the Army, Dunham became the foodservice director for the Brooklyn School for Special Children. In 1984 he moved to Gainesville, Fla., and took a job as foodservice specialist for the Alachua County Board of Education. In 1986, he relocated to Pinellas County to be a foodservice supervisor. He steadily moved up the ladder, becoming director four years ago after 15 years as assistant director.

Dunham characterizes his management style as “listen and empower.” In monthly meetings with his core team—29 people in the central office—he seeks ideas for ways to make the department operate faster, more smoothly and more economically.

“I want people looking for ways to do things, rather than looking at reasons why we can’t do something,” he says. 

That philosophy applies to Dunham personally, Bessette says. “Art is very well traveled and he finds things everywhere he goes that he will try to bring back to the district,” he notes. “He’s not afraid to try things out. If they don’t work, oh, well. He just tries something else.”

Sweet potato smoothies?

In the recent past, however, few things haven’t worked out. Take, for example, the smoothie program Dunham implemented in 2012.

“When the state told us our fund balance was too high, we had to spend down that money and it couldn’t be used for things like salaries,” Dunham says. “So at the middle school level we invested $300,000 in soft-serve equipment and began to make smoothies using commodity fruits and vegetables.”

One of the hottest “commodities,” if you’ll pardon the pun, on the smoothie menu has been the Orange Blast. It’s probably the most surprising item, as well, because its main ingredient is sweet potatoes.

“We took sweet potatoes, cooked and puréed them, added orange and pineapple juice and simple syrup and called it the Orange Blast,” Dunham says. “We didn’t tell them there were sweet potatoes in it, but if they asked we told them. And when we did the response was usually, ‘no way!’”

Another popular smoothie that is vegetable based is the Green Monster, which combines frozen spinach with apple juice and sour apple flavoring. In all, the smoothie menu now has 25 flavors, rotating on a regular basis.

The smoothie program isn’t the only way Dunham and his team have found to use up its fund surplus. For example, the district also has built a 3,500-square foot freezer, which is designed to help the district take advantage of “opportunity buys,” when vendors have excess product they need to get rid of. 

Dunham was able to make use of the freezer almost immediately when an area farmer had an overabundance of strawberry purée.

“He needed to get rid of it in anticipation of a new crop, and we were able to purchase it and do strawberry shortcake that met our nutritional guidelines at half the cost it normally would,” he explains. “So the freezer is another way we can keep our food cost lower.”

In August, the department also opened a small production center adjacent to the central office, where cold foods such as sandwiches and salads are prepared and shipped to 70 elementary schools. The center uses ozone technology—ozone diluted in water—to wash produce in order to rid it of pesticide residue and harmful bacteria.

In addition to providing components for elementary school lunches, the production center also supplies items for the district’s after-school program and a new dinner program. 

The dinner program, which started in October, is another example of Pinellas County being ahead of the curve. The meals, currently offered in 32 schools, are free to any child who wants one, and parents are invited to share in the meal at a price of $3.50.

“This program was created because Pinellas County hasn’t quite recovered from the economic downturn of 2008,” Dunham explains. “The unemployment rate is still 9% or 10%, and a lot of people who are working are in entry-level jobs, and no one believes they are going home at night and preparing dinner.”

In the program’s first month, 5,800 students were served, and in November the number had climbed to 6,700. 

Vending and more

In its efforts to ensure that more students have access to nutritious foods, the department also has turned to vending machines. Dunham added machines in all 16 high schools that sell reimbursable breakfasts and lunches. Students enter their birth date and their student ID number to receive their meals, and the district gets credit for the meal. Students can also pay cash, but those meals are not part of the reimbursable count.

“The vending machines have attracted students who don’t want to wait in a cafeteria line, especially in the mornings, when they might not feel like interacting with other humans,” Dunham says. 

In part because of the vending option, Pinellas County Schools has seen breakfast participation grow from 18,000 to more than 22,000.

Other technology the district is making use of includes the installation of flat-screen monitors in cafeterias that display the day’s menus and nutrition information and a mobile app for smartphones that allows parents to see school menus on a daily basis. 

But even as Dunham embraces the technological aspects of foodservice, he has concerns about the human element.

“Students have to have access to the program,” he notes. “What keeps me up at night are administrative rules and people who don’t understand food or even understand students. They try to whisk students through lunch in less time than it takes you to fill up at the gas station. They don’t pay attention to students’ needs. They just see a crowd of people and they try to move them from one place to another.

“Students get hungry, especially the younger ones,” he adds. “That has to be recognized by administrators. We can provide perfect menus and all the fruits and vegetables children need, but if they don’t have time or ways to access them, we’re still going to have problems.”