5 things: Urban School Food Alliance adds San Diego, Shelby County districts

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:

The Urban School Food Alliance has announced the expansion of its membership to 17 districts with the addition of San Diego Unified School District and Shelby County (Memphis) Schools in Tennessee. The new members broaden the Alliance’s reach to more than 4 million students and the group’s total annual purchasing power to more than $875 million in food and food supplies. The Alliance is a non-profit organization focused on advancing material changes to school nutrition in the United States and, with the addition of Shelby County Schools, now includes 10 of the 25 largest public school districts in the country.

Read more: San Diego Unified School District and Shelby County Schools Join Urban School Food Alliance

The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Community Dining Task Force at Princeton University has introduced a new off-campus dining trial program that will allow 150 undergraduates to explore the concept of incorporating off-campus dining options in the meal plan. The initiative will provide each participant three off-campus meals—a lunch, a dinner and a snack—each week for four weeks, at no cost and in return, they will be asked to provide reviews of their off-campus eating experiences and the structure of the program. These focus groups will also provide feedback about the potential implementation of these meals into the unlimited dining plan.

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Read more: USG to test off-campus dining initiative for student meal plans

Culinary arts students at the Louisa County High School in are baking rolls for use in the district school meal program after one of its bread vendors was unable to fulfill some of the district’s upcoming orders. The students learned the recipe the district needs and are turning out hundreds of rolls each day.

Read more: Louisa County culinary arts students bake hundreds of rolls for fellow students every day

Businesses trying to wean employees off remote work and lure them back to the office are spending more than ever on upscale workspaces, reaching deep into their pockets to pay high rents for modern, amenity-rich buildings, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. These new office digs offer custom-built lounges, game rooms with ping-pong tables and foosball, and apps that enable employees to contact building security or order a burger from the company cafeteria. The state-of-the art office towers also emphasize sanitation, outdoor space and sustainability, featuring robust ventilation systems and outside dining areas with fire pits.

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Read more: Businesses Lease Trophy Space to Stoke Return to the Office

A controversy over competing food sales is brewing at J.P. Taravella High School in Florida, where one parent alleges the cafeteria manager is limiting the school’s ProStart career development program from selling food during lunch. The school has countered by noting that while it supports the ProStart program, district policy in the Broward County Public Schools mandates, per federal National School Lunch Program regulations, that all food served in competition with the high school cafeteria can only be available an hour following the end of the last lunch period, with high schools allowed 15 days of fundraiser exceptions per year.

Read more: Cafeteria Manager Accused of Limiting Food by High School Culinary Program From Lunch Sales

Bonus: Massive new dining hall is centerpiece of campus dining at University of Illinois

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]