Oak Lawn Community High School cafeteria goes green with latest branding relaunch

The cafeteria at Oak Lawn Community High School in Oak Lawn, Illinois is seeing green thanks to a branding redesign by K-12 by Elior, the school’s foodservice provider. 

K-12 by Elior first launched its environmental high school brand just before the pandemic. Now at a couple years old, the team felt it needed a refresh. 

“We wanted to make the relaunch feel a little bit more exciting for our high school students,” says K-12 by Elior Regional Marketing Manager Khyla Dixon. 

New wraps, decals, and more now outfit the space and already the changes have made a positive impact on the nutrition program, including increasing its breakfast participation. 

Like its predecessor, the new and improved version of the brand has an environmental focus, so the K-12 by Elior team decided to use a palette of different greens to invoke a feeling of freshness and healthier eating. As a bonus, Oak Lawn’s school color is green making the color selection more personal for students. 

In addition, the team worked the school’s Spartan mascot into the design as well which did not go unnoticed, says Dixon.  

“It kind of gave [the students] a sense of their own branding, while also incorporating our company's branding, so meshing the two together just to build that relationship with the students and with our customers,” she adds. 

Alongside new digital menu boards and a grab-and go case that offers students grab-and-go salads, sandwiches and more, the relaunch included a revamp of the district’s breakfast cart which was outfitted with new decals and now serves both a hot and cold breakfast option daily. 

The breakfast cart now offers a hot and cold breakfast option each day.

Students have responded well to the new offerings and the changes led to an increase in breakfast participation by 61% during in the first week of the revamp. 

While the updated brand has only been in place since November, the team has already received a great response from faculty and students alike.

“Just simple changes, like adding digital signage to the menu, has made the students feel as if they're getting that upgrade that they weren't getting before,” says Dixon. 

And there’s more to come. A new action station is currently in the works that will serve culturally diverse foods that will be made-to-order and prepared in front of students by a chef. 

The K-12 by Elior team is also working with to bring the relaunch to a high school in Maryland, and the current plan is to continue to expand the brand to additional schools in the months to come. 

“Our goal is to take this environmental brand, incorporate it into all of our high schools,” says Dixon. “We're just super excited to start incorporating it.”