How Aramark Student Nutrition creates LTOs that get students excited about lunch

This school year, Aramark Student Nutrition is offering a selection of limited time offers (LTO) designed to offer students a taste of something new on the lunch line each month.  

The food management company has historically offered several LTOs throughout the school year and Aramark’s Student Nutrition Culinary Alliance is responsible for coming up with each year’s LTO lineup. Made up of K-12 chefs from around the country, Alliance members draw from what’s popular with students in their own communities when developing the dishes.

“It's really like our 20 Culinary Alliance chefs working in their own kitchen with their own teams, getting real time feedback and drawing inspiration from their own communities and districts, and putting that on display for everyone and sharing it across the country,” says Vice President of Operational Excellence for Aramark Student Nutrition, Beth Ann Engelland.

This year, students will get to enjoy a different LTO for one week each month school in in session, and the featured dishes include everything from Chicken Katsu Bowls to Pizza Waffalacos, which include whole-grain maple flatbread rounds filled with mozzarella, pizza sauce, pepperoni, Sriracha and pepperoni.

The Pizza Waffalacos include whole-grain maple flatbread rounds filled with mozzarella, pizza sauce, pepperoni, Sriracha and pepperoni.

From humble beginnings

Before they’re offered on lunch menus across the nation, most of the LTOs begin as an idea from one of the Culinary Alliance members.

The Alliance meets every two weeks throughout the year to discuss market trends and what future LTO ideas they think might strike a chord with students.

“We kind of just talk things out, different ideas, what we think the kids are into, and we always try to build on what the fan favorites already are,” says Senior Executive Chef and Alliance member Laura McMann.

Once an idea has formed, the team heads to the test kitchen to develop the dish. A successful recipe, McMann notes, will use pantry items that can be found in most school kitchens across the country and is written in a way that school nutrition staff can easily understand and prepare it.  

“We're all operators, and we've all stood in those shoes and know what it's like to look at a recipe and not understand it,” she says. “So, there's a high focus on the recipes, on how we write them and how we communicate them to the field, because we want the product to be consistent and look good and taste good, and have the students get in line and participate.”

While most of the menu items follow this development process, others take a different route. This year, for example, the team is introducing a Turkey and Apple Flatbread Melt that was first tested at a school district last year.

“We had [the students] create and prepare the LTO for this upcoming year to get feedback and make sure we were on point with flavors,” says McMann. “They were super jazzed that they were the first ones ever to not only make the recipe but eat the recipe. So, it was really a great experience.”

Students got to make and try the Turkey & Apple Flatbread Melt before it became an LTO. 

Building excitement

After the special menu lineup is solidified for the year, Aramark accounts receive a marketing kit full of materials to promote the menu items, including posters of the dishes and the chefs behind them. There is also specific signage dedicated to calling out certain ingredients that are used in the meals.

“If it's ginger or jalapeno peppers or black beans, there'll be a little bit of educational piece on that ingredient and the nutritional value, and how it may benefit your body,” says Engelland.

A week before each dish officially launches, the districts will also do a taste test to allow students to sample the menu item beforehand and drum up excitement.

During each dishes’ week-long stint on the menu, the food management company tracks student meal participation to get a sense of how well it performed.

“One of the things we look at is we can see how many we sold of that item,” says Engelland. “We can then see which items were most popular across the country or across a certain territory.”

That data helps guide the team when thinking of future LTOs. The Alliance also meets post-launch to discuss how well they thought the menu item was received and if there are ways the dish could be improved upon. If the dish was popular, it could also serve as a jumping off point for future menu items. 

And while the LTOs are intended to be offered only for a limited time as their name implies, those that do hit it off with students have a chance at landing a spot on the permanent menu.

“They definitely have the opportunity,” says Engelland. “Many of our menu items have started off as LTOs and then became really popular, and that's the ultimate goal.”