Super Heroes in Hairnet’s–Tish Litchfield

Introduction

Welcome…Welcome…Welcome to the Super Heroes in Hairnets Series.

Our Super Hero session is with a Top Performer and a Super Hero in the Child Nutrition Arena…Ms.Tish Litchfieldfrom theCupertino Union School District located in Cupertino, CA, Food & School Nutrition Services.

Tishis a consummate School Food Service professional and Advocate for Child Nutrition. Like all the members of this seriesis a Super Hero—

H-Helps Others

E-Educates as she Advocates

R-Remembers it’s All About the Kids

O-Offers Wisdom & Energy to Fight For Healthy School Lunches.

Tish has many super powers but today the One ‘Super Power’ we’ll be learning about is how TISH runs a School Nutrition Program that, year after year, is MILLION DOLLAR + in the Black-meaning she makes money every year in her school nutrition program. Her School Nutrition Program is completely Self-Supporting.

WHO IS Tish Litchfield?

*Tish is the Director of School Nutrition For Cupertino Union School District. Tish comes out of the Nutritional Science - Dietetics arena with her college minor in Business Management-- A great combination for every School Nutrition Director (Nutritional Science and Business). She’s been awarded everything from Outstanding School Lunch Program by the US Dept of Agriculture to the State President’s Gold Award from the American School Nutrition Association.

Like all our School Lunch Professionals …Tish puts her heart and soul into her program because she knows 1 in 5 kids in the USA struggle with Hunger.Tish wants to be part of the Solution.

  • Tish works hard to ensure that all of the children of her district develop healthy lifestyles that allow them to focus on academic achievement.
  • Tish’s food offerings are innovative such asSushi Fridays.

I’ll shine a Light on an industry-- School Nutrition—that has taken a ‘lickin’ and keeps on ‘tickin’ because these Super Heroes know a Healthy School Lunch affects the lives of the future leaders of tomorrow. I want to illuminate a Fiscal Responsible, Self-SupportingSchool Nutrition Super Hero …Ms.Tish Litchfield.

Let’s discover the Secrets of Tish’s incredible Success in bringing the Healthy Hunger-Free Food ACT to life by being Fiscally Responsible, Teaching her Staff to be Budget Hawks and running a Self Supporting School Nutrition Program! We’re gonna talk about Everything you ever wanted to know about‘How to turn your School Nutrition Program from Running in the RED to Running in the BLACK.

*WHY Teach Your Staff about the Budget

*HOW TOUse the Budget to Become Self-Supporting and Operate in the Black

*When and HOW to USE Cost Saving Measures to reduce food costs or labor costs or both

Cupertino Union School District School Nutrition Services Program

The Goal of Tish Litchfield’s School Nutrition Food Services Program

To be a Self-Supporting School Nutrition Program while providing nutritious, appetizing meals for students, at a reasonable price, in a pleasant environment--Key-Emphasis—Self-Supporting Program.

School Nutrition Program:

  • Annual Budget of $5+ Million
  • Serves 19,000 +Students
  • 25 Schools *55 Employees
  • Meals served from 5 Production Centers & One Central Kitchen
  • ONLY 5% Free & Reduced
  • Lead development and implementation of nutrition education and wellness programs for K-8 students
  • Evaluate individual service units to increase effectiveness of program while ensuring compliance with federal, state, and local government regulations
  • Oversee design and construction of school modernization, working with architects and contractors.
  • Implemented district-wide computerized food service systemresulting in annual savings of $100,000.
  • Transitioned to “offer versus serve” meal servicesaving $55,000inannual food cost.
  • Converted middle school meal serving areas to efficient garden bars and speed line self-service increasing annual sales revenue by $1.3 million.
  • Promote an atmosphere of open communication and collaboration with employees, labor unions, Superintendent’s cabinet, and community.

Tish Litchfield’s Management Philosophy:

As a manager, my Intention is to create an Environment where everyone enjoys their job and are able to use their gifts and talents with confidence.

As a manager, my mission is to explain ‘The FINANCIAL WHY’ behind what staff does. People are more committed and make better decisions when they understand ‘THE WHY’ behind what they do.

I believe that people like to participate in the decision-making process, it motivates them to see their ideas and suggestions put into action. I like to get staff input often. As quickly as I can, I share how their in-put is being put into action, especially with any COST SAVING MEASURES.

All of us like to learn new things that positively impact our lives and our jobs—treat every moment as a teachable moment.

All of us thrive on praise for a job well done. Our department hosts an annual party to celebrate year-end and give employee recognition awards.

‘HOW TO’- OPERATE A SCHOOL NUTRITION PROGRAM IN THE BLACK:

  1. KNOW THE FINANCIAL GOALS OF YOUR SCHOOL BOARD COMPLY

My School Board Is very clear on what they want from the School Nutrition program:

Keep School Meal Prices Low and Consistent

  • Don’t Raise Meal Prices UNLESS it is an Absolute Necessity

The School Nutrition ProgramMUST be SELF-SUPPORTING

Find ways to Creatively Finance your School Nutrition Program

  • The KEY to Creatively Finance a School Nutrition Program is to CORRECTLY PRICE all Food Items especiallyA–la-Carte ITEMS
  • Keep Prices Low for High VolumeA–la-Carte Items
  • Water is a Low Price-High Volume item—We encourage our students to drink water throughout the day for it’s health benefits.
  • We purchase water for .30 cents and only charge .75 cents even though we know we could charge more,like other commercial entities do.
  • Our strategy is to keep the prices of water low because of the volume we sell --we want our students drinking water.
  • Appropriately Price High Price, Low-VolumeA–la-Carte Items
  • Sushi is a High Price-Low Volume Item we serve as a specialtyitem on Sushi Fridays.
  • Let’s say we purchase Sushi for $1.00, weprice Sushi to sell at $2.00.
  • Our Strategy is that although we could sell Sushi for less, we want to price it appropriately to keep our Budget in Balance.
  1. BE VIGILANT: CONSISTENTLY LOOK FOR COST SAVING MEASURES

Observe, Observe, Observe. Visit your staff in their work place. Observe how things are done. Employ a Field Operations Supervisor to assist in monitoring all of your production kitchens and service areas.

Ask questions to check for understanding about how much food costs and labor costs effect the results of the overall school nutrition program. Engage staff in looking for ways to reduce costs.

Ask for input from all staff members (written surveys, online surveys, email requests, requests in small group training sessions) Get input on how to reduce food costs, labor costs, waste, etc.

  • WASTE: We have very little FOOD NO WASTE. Staff vigilantly observes what the students like and how they like it. They also observes how they, themselves, prepare the food.
  • We constantly adjust to trends of our customers—the Student!
  • We constantly look for ways to use the exact right proportions to eliminate staff waste. Staff often competes to see who can eliminate the most waste.

Put into ACTIONCost Saving Measures(Pay attention to staff observations that can create cost saving measures.)

  • CASHLESS-When school staff and nutrition staff observed students were exchanging money, with each other, (often bullying younger kids) and they observed cash going missing (theft or miscalculations), we created a CASHLESS SYSTEM that has been a huge cost saving measure.
  • COMPUTERIZED POINT OF SALE AND OPERATIONS-Implemented district-wide computerized food service system resulting in annual savings of $100,000
  • TRANSITIONED TO OFFER VERSUS SERVE- Transitioned to “offer versus serve” meal service saving $55,000 in annual food cost.
  • EFFICIENT GARDEN SALAD BARS & SPEED LINE SELF-SERVICE:We converted middle school meal serving areas to efficient garden salad bars and speed line self-service increasing annual sales revenue by $1.3 million.

Give CREDIT

  • Liberally give credit to people for their cost saving ideas.
  1. USE THE BUDGET AS A TRAINING TOOL

Offer Consistent Education Sessions to target knowledge gaps in small groups so more people are willing to share and ask questions.

USE the BUDGET, itself, as a Training Tool

  • To consistently monitor Food and Labor Costs, we train monthly on P & L (Profit and Loss) Statements
  • P & L statement training gives staff a sense of ownership
  • When staff, supervisors and managers understand the budget, they make wise choices.
  • We train staff to understand that Labor is our #1 Cost. Food Costs affects Labor Costs and vice a versa.
  • Staff then chooses to help control both costs by monitoring.
  • They compete to see who can reduce the cost of food by eliminating waste and thereby affect the results of the entire program.

Find ways to integrate education into weekly routines to promote an atmosphere of on-going learning.

  • Scratch cooking vs. convenience meals-Every member of the staff knows waste affects our food costs which then affect labor costs. They work together to eliminate waste. They share information with each other.

Compare PROJECTED REVENUES with ACTUAL REVENUES, Monthly.

  • We (staff, supervisors, managers, director) look at the budget every month.
  • NO SURPRISES: By watching the budget monthly, we have no quarterly or yearly surprises.
  • We train staff to monitor any increase or decrease in the monthly revenues and expenditures.
  • We look for trends so we can adjust, adjust, adjust.
  • Some months tend to have more field trip then other months—we adjust food production to meet those needs

Effectively Use Your Inventory.

  • Like the budget, we constantly monitor our inventory.
  • We use inventory effectively to eliminate any and all waste.
  1. Catch em’ Doing it Right.

Publically Share Staff Ideas.

  • Let them know which ones are being implemented and when.

Reward service units publically when they present cost saving measures that are implemented.

  • A Reward might be the new freezer or piece of equipment that they have wanted.
  1. WAYS TO KEEP COST LOW.

KNOW THE STANDARD FORMULA FOR FOOD vs LABOR vs ‘Other’ Costs as a percentage of revenue:

  • 40-40-20 is a quick way to remember Food, Labor, & ‘Other’.
  • 40-45% of your Expense Budget –FOOD COSTS
  • 40-45% of your Expense Budget-LABOR COSTS
  • 20% of Expense Budget –‘OTHER’ COSTS
  • Cupertino Union School Nutrition--We spend more on labor costs due to the area of the country, in which we live. Our employees start at $15 per hour with no skills needed. Therefore, our combined employee LABOR COSTS and FRINGE BENEFITS COSTS are closer to 50-51% of our budget.
  • Because we consistently monitor our budget, monthly, we realize, to keep our Budget Balanced, we must spend less on food and other costs.
  • Other costs are utilities, equipment, office staff, phone, etc.
  • When I discovered we were being charged a Direct Utility bill, I researched to see how to reduce that cost. I found that by policy, we must have an individual meter, in each cafeteria, which the school system must pay for. The school district did not wish to pay for the meters so we received $70,000 from the district for in-correct charges.
  • It pays to read the policy manuals and know how to implement the policies to your advantage!

Become a member of a FOOD PURCHASING COOP.

  • We formed a county wide coop to purchase food at lower discounted volume prices
  • We als belong to a “Commodity Processing” Food COOP where over 100 school districts pool our USDA commodities with various processors for very competitive volume discounts

Utilize USDA Commodity Foods to the MAX

  • If your yearly entitlement is $200,000, ensure that you spend all $200,00
  • We tend to use our entitlement commodity dollars to purchase proteins. We find that to be the best use of our commodity dollars.
  • With the push for more Fruits and Veggies, these are also a great use of commodity dollars—especially under the DOD program.
  • Another tip for commodity use, we often call surrounding districts to share a commodity item. This way we can get a specific item, we want, without having more than we can use.
  1. HAVE A PLAN.

3 YEAR CAPITAL OUTLAY PLAN

  • To keep your equipment in good repair, be aware, the life expectancy of commercial equipment is approximately 15 years.
  • Plan to roll money back into the equipment and staff enhancements every year, when possible.
  • We plan to replace freezers and milk coolers every 15 years; it’s in our plan.
  • We plan to provide student helpers with aprons and Chef Jackets for staff. We look to follow the trends of fast foods to look sharp and be sharp.
  • We read and COMPLY. Compliance and doing things the right way, every time, saves us time and money. We know we are going to be audited again and again and again. By being in compliance, all the time, staff does not ‘stress out’ when the audits come.

Warehousing

  • Just in Time-we use Just in Time Purchasing with our monthly inventory so we don’t have spoilage or waste.
  • First in, First OUT-we use a First in, First OUT philosophy in regard to all our inventory stores which ,once again, helps us avoid spoilage and waste.

Maureen GMulvaney * *480-759-6251w *480-280-67776c *