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Increasing the Lunch Count, with a Little Help from McDonald’s
By Deborah Lehmann —
On a normal day, about one-third of students in Pleasanton, Calif. buy their lunch at school. But a couple times a month, district Director of Child Nutrition Services Frank Castro can get up to 80 percent of students to buy from the cafeteria.
How does he do it? With a little help from outside vendors and the brand names children recognize.
Photo by Paul Cheek
Once a month, Castro gives elementary school students a break from popcorn chicken and macaroni and cheese, offering them McDonald’s hamburgers. On those days, lunch counts increase by about 25 percent. And when he offers pizza from a local chain, he serves about 80 percent of the student body.
“This community is very brand conscious,” Castro said. “I could offer the same hamburger or a better-quality hamburger, but it wouldn’t increase my lunch count.”
Since school nutrition programs are self-funding, ensuring a steady revenue flow is a large part of managing school food service. As school districts slash their budgets, keeping the programs alive depends more and more on luring students with lunch money into the cafeteria. Bringing in the brand names children like is a surefire way to boost sales.
In nearby Livermore, high school students can choose from Little Caesar’s, Una Mas and Panda Express during lunch. The school also sells a homemade teriyake chicken, but only about 30 of those sell, compared to about 100 of the Panda Express lunches, said Director of Campus Catering Barbara Lee. She said her department has made burritos from scratch, but those didn’t sell well either.
“Kids want no part of our burrito,” she said. “They want something from outside.”
About 50 miles South in Scotts Valley, Food Service Supervisor Amy Hedrick serves Round Table Pizza several times a week. When she used to offer a heat-and-serve pizza, 250 to 300 students would buy lunch. Now, on Round Table days, her lunch count reaches 400.
“Financially, if we go up to 400 meals, it’s better for us,” Hedrick said. “Is it better for the kids? I don’t know.”
But if students are going to buy Gatorade and Round Table pizza no matter what, Hedrick would rather have them give their money to her program than to the 7/11 on the way to school, she said.
Castro said offering products from chain restaurants does not condone those foods, but “just reinforces what kids already like.”
And in many cases, he added, these products can be part of a healthy meal. Though high in sodium, a McDonald’s hamburger is only 300 calories and contains a lot of protein, Castro said. “If you put it on a plate with salad and juice, that’s not a bad thing — that’s a good thing.”
A number of parents in Pleasanton have called on Castro to end the burger days and take McDonald’s out of schools. So Castro planned some menus without the hamburgers, showed the parents the sales comparisons, and justified selling them, he said.
“Parents can choose to not have their children buy lunch that day,” Castro said. “The McDonald’s burgers are meant to catch the attention of parents like myself who think that’s OK.”
And if it can bring more students into the lunch line, that burger looks pretty OK to the school district too.
February 19th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I think we as food service directors need to be more creative these days. I don’t think turning to the fast food eateries is the answer. We need to help bring about a change in the way kids think about food. If our food taste great the kids will buy. You can create ways to get them to try your food instead of the fast food in creative ways. you also lose the ability to ensure that food is cook saftely when it is out of your conrtol, but would be held accountable if a problem occured.