K-12 sandwich competition brings menu ideas and meal debt aid to schools

As rising meal debt continues to weigh on school nutrition teams, one industry professional is using some friendly competition to help combat the problem.

This March, Becki Swan, co-founder of K-12 nutrition technology consultancy Swan Solutions and creator of Facebook group School Nutrition Industry Professionals, hosted the 2023 Spectacular Sandwich Throwdown, a K-12 sandwich competition intended to help school nutrition programs reduce their unpaid meal balances. 

“The idea of hosting this competition really came from just knowing the need out there of the negative meal charges that we have right now,” says Swan. 

By the competition’s end, Swan helped raise $3,766 to go towards the participating schools’ $800,000-plus in combined unpaid charges.

Everyone’s a winner

To enter the Sandwich Throwdown, school nutrition operators submitted their sandwich recipes to Swan, along with a photo of the dish and a paragraph explaining why they deserve votes. Students, parents, school nutrition industry members and others could then vote for their favorite sandwich, and also make a donation that would go towards the participating schools’ meal debt. 

Instead of having only the school with the most votes receive the donated money, Swan designed the competition so that each district was awarded money based on the number of votes they received. 

“The first place [district] had like 35% of the vote, so they got 35% of the prize money, all the way down,” says Swan. “Everyone in the contest wins.”

In addition, the competition was intended to provide schools with menu ideas. Since each submission included a U.S. Department of Agriculture compliant recipe, other school nutrition programs were encouraged to recreate their competitors’ sandwiches at their own districts. 

“Everything is so processed right now, and we need to get more into scratch cooking,” says Swan. “So recipe sharing and ideas was also a goal [of the competition] as well.”

The Surf Side Tuna Sandwich 

First-place winner Lee’s Summit R7 in Lee’s Summit, Mo., will be using its $1,403.51 in prize money towards its negative meal balance of just over $60,000. While the district has a relatively low free and reduced-price lunch rate of about 20%, Director of Nutrition Services Lori Danella says that there are many families in the district who don’t qualify for free or reduced, but are still struggling. 

“There's just so many changes with the economy, the cost of groceries, the cost of utilities and everything. Families are struggling in the worst way, and there's so many families that just barely don't make it,” she says. “And even the ones that do make reduced—that 30 or 40 cents a day, if you have four kids, that adds up. So, this was a perfect opportunity for us.”

Lee’s winning entry, the Surf Side Tuna Sandwich, was the brainchild of Summit North High School Prep Assistant Keith Wilhelm, who created the sandwich during Lent as a way to shake up the high school's sandwich offerings. The sandwich uses local ingredients and has been well-received by students, and the nutrition team plans on serving it throughout the summer as part of its summer feeding program. 

Summit North High School Prep Assistant Keith Wilhelm poses with students. 

Bigger and better next year 

Swan has applied for a 501(c)(3), which would allow the SNIP Facebook group to have its own charitable organization to hold more events, such as the Spectacular Sandwich Throwdown, in the future. Planning is also well underway for next year’s Throwdown, which will likely have a new theme.

This year, 23 schools submitted entries, and Swan hopes that next year’s competition will be even larger. 

“I feel like the first year of this competition didn't really produce as much in donations as I had wanted to because I had about a week to plan it,” she says. “But now, I have an entire year to plan all of next year, so I feel like it's going to be a lot better next year and hopefully we have more participation.”