Making Salads.. The Student's Choice! (1984)

Can you keep her everything, no onion, no lettuce? Medium french salad bar. Salad bar? Small Coke. Small Coke? Small fries. Small fries? Salad bar. Salad bar? Over the past few years, trends towards light and fresh foods have spread to young people's favorite [music] eating spots, fast food restaurants. They offer new types of light, [music] fresh foods such as salad bars. The impact of fast food restaurants on children's [music] eating habits has encouraged many senior and junior high schools to implement salad bars in their lunch [music] programs with great success. >> [music] >> That success in high schools has inspired food service directors throughout the country >> [music] >> to introduce salad bars in elementary schools where students are eating fresh vegetables like never before. [music] And food service directors are talking about their successes. We were seeing little children going through these salad bars along with big brother and big sister [music] and mother and father and it gave us that idea, "Hey, this might be just the time for us to introduce salad bars." Which we did. I have 161 schools all total. Of that total, 121 are elementary schools. I've been in school food service since 1963 and I'm sure back in '65 I would have laughed at you if you had suggested a salad bar. The time is right right now. Before we implemented salad bars in our schools, our participation was drifting down. We needed some participation builders and we found that salad bars are participation builders. Our participation has gone up in some of our schools as much as 15 and 20% and that's high. I've been a food service director for 7 years and implementing salad bars has been one of the most exciting things that we've done. Children like to choose for themselves. The keyword in an elementary school getting a salad bar started is to let children know they can choose what they want to eat themselves. That's the keyword. They have a choice of salad dressing and pickles and all kinds. I put those right on anything I want on my salad. If you don't like something that they already put in the salad, it's not as good as if you get to choose what you want by yourself. We first put in the salad bars at three elementary schools and that was for a test basis to see if it could be handled by that age student, if it would be very messy, if it would be cost effective, if there would be plate waste. Also, there was the myth that children do not like salads. After testing it for 3 months, we were persuaded that it was a winner, that it was the perfect new thing to introduce. Children adapt very easily to salad bars and one of the things we found is it takes just about 4 to 5 days for children to get accustomed to using the salad bar and finding out where everything is on a salad bar. Children know exactly what they want and once they find out where it's located, the adjustment is very easy. Many people would think that opening up a salad bar will have all of the food on the floor or around the counter and that's a myth. You know, it's delightful to watch the first, second, third graders as they help themselves to the salad bar. We've been pleased to see how few spills we have. We probably have no more spills on the salad bar are probably less than we do on the regular line. They very carefully pick the vegetables. They pick vegetables they would never touch such as cauliflower. We use cauliflower and broccoli quite commonly. We've been able to use an awful lot of peas. This was a commodity so it was a very important way of using a commodity that we had difficulty using otherwise. Once a student has had the option of choosing their own food, they take a responsibility for it and in turn are far more likely to eat it and plate waste is almost a thing of the past for us. We've done a lot of costing on the salad bars but we found that even when we allow them to help themselves, they do not take more than we can afford for them to take and still for us to stay in the budget. Matter of fact, the salad bar is a pretty economical meal. And I think there's a lot of ways that you can set up a salad bar without going to a lot of expense. We weren't built for salad bars. So, one of the biggest challenges was, "Where do we put them?" We were very concerned about the speed of the line. Actually, by adding a salad bar, we increased our line speed because that way we have another line in essence and in fact, the student can make the decision and help themselves faster than they can make the decision and tell us. Salad bars can be designed so that they can meet the meal pattern requirements. You can offer a pre-portioned protein cup or offer a sandwich that the children can make themselves and of course, you have all of the fruits and vegetables so that you can meet 3/4 cup fruit and vegetable requirements. So, all of the meal requirements can be met on a salad bar. You must ensure that you have the highest quality food items on the salad bar from your dressings to your salad greens to your fruits and vegetables to your protein. Salad dressing is a key component for a salad bar. Children love dressings. The salad dressing has to be one that is familiar to children, one that they relate to, one that they would enjoy eating and the salad dressing will be the key. I think when you look at a salad bar and really evaluate what causes its success, it's a number of facets. Your presentation and certainly the manager and her staff are responsible there and they either make or break the salad bar in the freshness of the products that they have chosen, keeping the color nice, the texture nice and crisp with a lot of variety in all categories. Our salad bar program is not effective unless you have input and cooperation from your principal, the entire administration, your parents and your teachers. There's been good feedback from both parents and students. The parents are very pleased that the added vegetables are being offered to the students. I find that the high percentage of participation in the salad bar by students speaks for itself. I like salad because I like tomatoes. I put it on everything. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and pickles and onions. Crackers, pickles, salad dressing. There's hardly anything I don't like about salad. It has everything that I like in it. Number two is a a creamy type dressing. Number three is a thick French dressing. We've done an awful lot with taste parties. I learned a long time ago that I could not make decisions for our little customers. What I like and what they like is two different things and they are my customer. We have the taste parties on a regular basis. It is terrific PR. And then once you have gone through and tested all three of them, then I'm going to ask you to go back and put a check mark by the one you like best. Your student then feels responsible for decisions and it is just a phenomenal way of getting student input. Students really like to eat things that they can pick up with their hands that are very easy to eat. Children today are very accustomed to finger foods because of the way that they're brought up. Dips are an easy way to encourage children to try new foods because dips are fun. Everybody likes to eat with their fingers and it's fun to use dips. Most of them have been brought up on eating in the fast food restaurants and most of the food there is what we consider finger foods. And we just go an extension further by incorporating the raw vegetables with dips, doing some of the entrees with dips. It is of extreme importance that the dip that you're using must be something that children like to encourage more consumption of the food. The dipping sauces are really just an extension of the salad dressing mixes and they're very easy to mix and very well accepted by children. Children are not real fond of cooked vegetables, but we can expand their consumption of vegetables through the use of raw vegetables with dips. And we do this through doing taste testing sessions. Take a bite of the stem now. Turn it over and take a bite of the stem. Don't dip it. Just eat it plain. Okay, how did you like it? You take a piece of broccoli and you taste the dip with the broccoli. We have served carrot sticks, celery sticks, and broccoli florets raw with a creamy dip. That has been very successful once we have introduced the children to the experience of tasting broccoli. We've tried it cooked and they don't like it cooked. So, we thought we would try the fresh approach. How many of you like the broccoli plain? Raise your hand. No hand. How many of you like the broccoli better with the dip? Okay. Very good. I'm glad you liked it. So, we're going to be serving broccoli on the lunch with the dip. >> [cheering] >> If it was by itself, I couldn't Ooh, I couldn't eat it. I like it with the dip cuz It's It's good. I think you'll notice that fast food operations are going more for dipping sauces in some of their entrees that they're serving. And to have a successful school program, I firmly believe that you have to follow the trends that are set [music] by the people in the industry who serve children. And the fast food industry [music] is where it's at. The experience [music] that our students have had out in the fast foods has made it an in thing. And those students have had a great influence over their peers and encouraging them to come through [music] the salad bar also. Salad bars are not messy. That's a myth. You don't have plate waste. >> [music] >> Salad bars are participation builders. Dips are an easy way to encourage children to try new foods because dips are fun. They can choose what they want to eat themselves. That's the keyword. I think having a salad bar in an elementary school puts a little bit more fun into [music] lunch. It was a winner. The perfect new thing to introduce. The time is right [music] right now. >> [music] [music] [music]