Taste-testing Their Way to More Participation in Albany Schools

An aggressive sampling program of potential new recipes is part of the strategy to turn around a school meal program deficit in the Greater Albany (NY) Public Schools, reports the Albany Democrat-Herald. Albany's school meal program has been in deficit three of the last four years—$35,000 in 2011-12 and almost $41,000 last year—due to participation drops. Encouragingly, the number of meals served was more than a thousand over projection for September and almost 2,800 over projection in October. The sampling program credited for at least part of that success has Sodexo Executive Chef Delores Tesky going to school sites to taste-test potential menu additions to gauge interest and generate excitement.