Building capacity for a from-scratch foodservice program, plate by plate

Leslie Beach became the director of food and nutrition services for Indiana’s New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated Schools just as the district was emerging from the height of the pandemic.

At that time, most everything served to the more than 12,000 students and staff at the district’s 14 schools came pre-packaged.

“They had gotten away from doing anything scratch, semi-scratch,” Beach said. “I definitely think that there was this fear. It was a difficult process to get people out of that and back into cooking.”

After muddling through her first year, Beach decided to call in reinforcements.

Not only was she trying to train the kitchen staff in executing from-scratch cooking, she was trying to launch a district-wide catering program, along with her other director duties.

So, she hired a district chef who could focus on training.

Now, the New Albany-Floyd County district buys its beef and some of its pork from a local supplier. It makes salad dressings, salsas and other items from scratch.

The result:

Adult participation in the meal program last year jumped 50%, a la carte sales increased 12% (70% of which were extra entrees).

“I think the proof is in the number,” Beach said, adding that her team serves about 6,500 lunches per day.

The district chef has been traveling to each of the schools, teaching the kitchen teams how to use new equipment, such as Robot Coupes, vacuum sealers, super-sized immersion blenders and tilt skillets.

“We just got very large immersion blenders, so that was something new, to make our own salad dressings and our own sauces,” she said. “And then we’ve got the large Robot Coupes that slice and dice, because we make our own breakfast bakes, so we use our raw potatoes.”

Rising participation, kitchens churning out lots of fabulous, housemade food. It all sounds pretty perfect. But the shift from pre-packaged foods to scratch cooking, even with the addition of a district chef, has not been without some hiccups, she said.

“Last year was very tough,” Beach said. “Last year was very, very tough for them. And it’s not that they don’t want to do it … It’s more of, they want to do a really good job, and they struggle with how to do that, because the thought process has to be totally different.”

Feeding people this way requires a different mindset.

“You cannot think day to day any longer,” she added. “You have to be thinking about next week, or you have to be thinking about three days from now. Because, if we’re making scratch lasagna on Thursday, you should probably be making your marinara by Monday or Tuesday.”

With the help of the district chef, menus have been designed with that prep work in mind. One day might call for more of a heat-and-serve dish, like chicken nuggets, to give the kitchen more time to work on other dishes. Fridays tend to be a lighter lift, to give the crew some breathing room to prepare for the following week.

“Last year was a struggle,” she said. “We threw a lot at them at once … We probably could have pulled back some, but then I don’t know if we would have gotten where we needed to be anyway.”

The district has also been able to give raises to the kitchen staff, to ensure each school is able to hire high-quality employees, she said.

But Beach isn’t done with her plan to reimagine foodservice at the southern Indiana school district. She said district leaders seem receptive to her goal of building a central kitchen and bakery that could prepare things like focaccia, pizza dough, marinara, meatballs and more, to be sent out to individual schools.

That way, she can ensure consistency in menu items across the district.

She also envisions a greenhouse and a teaching kitchen to build a bridge between foodservice and academics.

“I did want to stress how proud I am of my team for their perseverance through all of the changes that have occurred in the last few years,” Beach said. “They are truly dedicated to providing the best for our students, and our program would not have been able to achieve all of these wonderful changes without them.”