Linda Eichenberger: Treating students as customers

At a Glance

Accomplishments

Linda Eichenberger has transformed the foodservice at the Oak Hills Local School District by:

After speaking with Linda Eichenberger, food service supervisor at Oak Hills Local School District in Cincinnati, for even a few minutes, it becomes evident that she views her job in a special way. She does not see her and her staff feeding “kids,” “children” or even “students.” Her department serves customers, and that’s the only term she’ll use. This mentality has filled her 28 years in the district with achievements such as  successfully offering healthy, on-demand menu options and increasing revenue with after-school services.

“Linda never seems to relax. She is always on the go,” says Sandy Stallard, child nutrition manager for Oak Hills. “She truly cares about what she does. She’s always the first to say, ‘it’s not about us, it’s about our customers.’”

Related:Confessions of Linda Eichenberger

Stallard adds that Eichenberger has a gift for putting ideas into employees’ heads and then allowing them to develop the ideas into something of their own creation. That talent may be hereditary; Eichenberger says the idea to go into foodservice was put in her mind by her mother. Eichenberger recalls that after taking a nutrition class in high school, she told her mother how much she enjoyed it. Her mother suggested she consider a career as a dietitian.

“My mom convinced me I should go to the College of Mount St. Joseph, which was no more than five minutes from my house, and study to be a dietitian,” Eichenberger says. “It wasn’t until I was already there that it clicked that my mother had been a dietitian when she worked, and she had also gone to Mount St. Joseph.”

After graduation, Eichenberger spent time working in hospitals and nursing homes before deciding that clinical dietetics wasn’t the right fit for her. So she got her master’s degree in food management from Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, and quickly found her way to school nutrition.

“I wanted to make a difference in children’s lives,” Eichenberger says. “I realized there was a tangible benefit in providing healthy school meals. It’s clear that helping students make healthy choices will improve their academic performance, and I wanted to be a part of that.”

Eichenberger believes that the first step to reaching students is to treat them not as students but as customers, and teaching her staff to follow that rule is something she is always working to improve.

“They are our customers,” Eichenberger says. “We’re here to serve them. This is the social part of their day. I really want our staff to give them service with a smile and make it a pleasant place for them.”

A huge part of that philosophy relies on listening to students and responding to what they say they want. Eichenberger believes there is no point in offering healthy options unless they are presented in a way customers will respond to. One example is the build-your-own-salad option that she added to the already existing deli line.

“We offer between six and eight sauces/dressings every day on that line [and] all meet the [USDA] nutrition requirement,” Eichenberger says. “The girls have gone crazy over the salad option. We’re also trying to decrease sodium without sacrificing flavor, so we implemented a flavor station, an idea I stole from my fellow directors. But we took it a step further by not only offering spices like garlic or red pepper; we also offer sauces like chipotle ranch and hot BBQ that are still low in sodium and fat. The customers can spice or sauce their own vegetables, and they love it.”

Other ways students can have a hand in creating healthy options include a variety of different food bars, from make-your-own burritos to Asian bowls to custom versions of the regional favorite, Cincinnati chili. Her ingenuity has won her praise from her colleagues.

“Linda is a master at using commodities integrated with new products to create fun, exciting menus for her students that are within budget and in compliance with nutrition regulations,” says Jessica Shelly, food services director for Cincinnati Public Schools. “Linda always has her finger on the pulse of what is trending with new products. She is my go-to resource for any questions I have, or if I need to bounce a new idea or concept off someone with experience and knowledge.”

Eichenberger also has a talent for solving problems. Last year, the district’s administration decided to decrease the number of lunch periods in the high school from eight to four, leaving Eichenberger to figure out how to feed 2,500 customers in much less time.

“We decided to take over a little alcove on the opposite end of the building to open The Lunch Box,” Eichenberger says. “At The Lunch Box, we offer grab-and-go-type food, but we also put in another deli/salad line. They can still have that on-demand service, and it really eases the crowding in the main cafeteria. We sell about 400 lunches out of that space per day, and it’s manned with only two people, so it’s cost-efficient.”

Similarly, Eichenberger and her team were able to solve students’ demand for after-school options by opening the cafeteria for 30 minutes at the end of the school day. They sell healthy sandwiches, snacks, fresh fruit and beverages to about 250 to 300 customers on any given day, generating an extra $450 to $500 in revenue per day.

Education and training are a huge part of Eichenberger’s management philosophy. This applies to both her customers and staff. On the customer front, she started a campaign in the district’s elementary schools called Fun Fact Days. Each week she chooses a different food item to highlight. Every day she creates a daily sheet with various pieces of information about that week’s item.

“It can be an item the customers aren’t familiar with, or it could be something as simple as milk,” Eichenberger says. “So, for example, on Monday the [milk] sheet might be about how much milk a cow can produce in a day; Tuesday might be the nutritional components of milk, etc. We emphasize those facts in the serving area and the kitchen on that day, but we also take it a step further and get the building to read the fact over the announcement system. It has increased sales, and it’s been a good way to get nutrition education into the building.”

Eichenberger does something similar for her staff to keep everyone up to date on the latest news and policies.

“It’s not an official newsletter, but I send out these weekly updates or clips to make sure the staff are all on the same page,” Eichenberger says. “For example, this week’s was all about the Board of Health. Another week could focus on customer service [tips] such as improving the appearance of food with some simple garnishes, etc. We’re also always sending out updates to the NSLP program. The staff is very ‘in’ the building, so it’s my job to make sure they are exposed to what’s going on on the outside.”

Eichenberger says she is happy to provide information to help students make better choices and help staff better perform their jobs. But when it comes to making decisions, she says she wants input from everyone.

“I’m willing to do all the footwork, all the research, but when it comes time to make a decision, I want to have the team buy in,” Eichenberger says. “I like to serve as a role model by being super involved. I’ll be the first one to jump behind a serving line and help, even though they don’t need it. I like to keep a positive attitude. If I have one, my team will have one. When you’re happy, you tend to work at the best of your ability.”