5 things: College enrollments continue to drop

In this edition of 5 Things, Food Management highlights five things you may have missed recently about developments affecting onsite dining.

Here’s your list for today:

New data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center indicates that college enrollment during the fall of 2021 dropped 2.7% from a year earlier, representing a decline of 476,100 students. Undergraduate enrollment, which was down at every type of institution, slipped by 3.1% or 465,318 students from the fall of 2020, adding to a total decline among undergraduates since the fall of 2019 of more than a million students since the COVID pandemic hit.

Read more: Fall’s Final Enrollment Count Is In. Colleges Lost More Than 475,000 Students

The School Nutrition Association (SNA) has released its 2022 position paper calling on Congress to immediately extend pandemic child nutrition waivers through School Year 2022-23 and take steps to permanently support school meal programs severely impacted by supply chain, financial and regulatory challenges. As school nutrition directors are already writing bids and placing orders for 2022-23 menus in the midst of widespread issues with discontinued school menu items, shortages and higher prices, the 2022 Position Paper stresses the urgent need to provide school meal programs and their suppliers with the assurance of waiver extensions. The Paper also calls for long-term changes to child nutrition programs, including an increase to reimbursements for the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, permanently offering all students healthy, free school meals to support academic achievement, easing rules on sodium, whole grains and milk, and reducing regulatory burdens.

Related:5 tech things: Robot chef that can learn recipes featured at CES 2022

Read more: SNA Releases 2022 Position Paper

During the recent week-long standoff between Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the teachers union, district lunchrooms stayed operational, with 88% of lunchroom attendants showing up Jan. 5-7 to prepare to-go meal kits for families in need, according to CPS Press Secretary Sylvia Barragan. However, few were picked up, with lunchrooms serving just 29,000 meals, or about 9,600 meals per day, across the district over the period, Barragan added.

Read more: CPS Lunchroom Workers Struggle With Food Shortages, COVID-19 Fears: ‘You Don’t Know How Stressful It Is To Come To Work’

Related:5 things: Chicago schools reopen..for now, at least

Sodexo has announced the appointment of David Gillan as the new chief of strategy and client retention for its Sodexo U.S. Healthcare unit. Gillan previously served as group senior vice president for Vizient, where he led its non-acute focused business enterprise and its supplier management function. With the healthcare industry rapidly transforming, Gillan is tasked with developing new solutions to support patients across the continuum of care, leading to better patient outcomes, reduced costs and higher operational efficiency, the company's announcement states.

Read more: Sodexo Healthcare Announces New Chief of Client Retention & Strategy for U.S. Market

FM Top 50 firm Whitsons Culinary Group has announced that chef Bryon Murphy has joined its School Nutrition team as a culinary innovations specialist, supporting school districts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Chef Murphy has worked in K-12 meal programs before, notably as executive chef in the East Orange School District in New Jersey, where he created a program called Dining with Chef Byron that sought to teach student dining etiquette through a formal five-course dinner and an upscale carte du jour. He is also known for his Byron's Famous Fish House restaurant, his appearances on morning talk radio and his work cooking for NFL and NCAA Basketball teams and the 2019 USA Men’s National Soccer Team.

Read more: Acclaimed Chef Byron Murphy Joins Whitsons School Nutrition

Bonus: Nominations now open for Food Management’s Best Concepts awards program for 2022

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]