SCHOOL FOODSERVICE COVER STORY
Two counters face each other. One serves hot food: a staff member plates up at one end, diners add finishing touches at the other. Opposite, a fresh produce counter with a backlit ‘garden greens’ sign. Between them, an island with bananas and prepackaged snacks. At the walls, a drinks fridge and a rack of chips. What looks like a fast casual restaurant is, in fact,
the main servery of the Senior Academy of Brownsburg High School in Indiana, recently renovated by Reitano Design Group. “Before the renovation, seniors complained the food was better on the other side of the school, but it was coming from the same kitchen,” recalls principal Scott Reitano FCSI. It was, he argues, a question of presentation, and improving it was central to the brief.
THE POWER OF ENVIRONMENT
Tis anecdote illustrates how a principle of commercial foodservice – the environment is half the dining experience – applies to school lunch programs too: design is now used to nudge students toward healthier choices. “We want to serve healthier school lunches. But if nobody’s eating it, we didn’t win. Tat’s where the environment comes into play,” explains Reitano. Environment includes everything from how food
is displayed to how the space is organized around it. “Traditional rigid serving lines are often no longer ideal,” says Charlotte Kolb-Bönkhoff FCSI, of Germany-based kitchen planning firm Kolb Planung. “Children are highly sensitive to how food looks, how long they need to wait and whether they are offered genuine options.” Glenn Campbell FCSI, founder and managing
director of UK-based Cohesion Consulting, points to the research: “Te placement of food on a servery, at eye level, front of the queue and well-lit, has a measurable effect on what children select. A salad bar positioned before the hot counter can increase vegetable uptake significantly. A dining room that feels like a canteen signals institutional food; one that feels like a café signals something worth choosing.” Te difference between a child eating and not eating
fruit can be as small as a sliced apple, Reitano explains: “At elementary schools, we put the fruits and vegetables first. We slice apples and section oranges; 68% more kids will eat them that way.”
A STRATEGIC ASSET
As the role of school foodservice design has grown, so has the ambition of school lunch programs. Traditionally, school dining has served as a social equalizer – a guarantee that every student, regardless of background, sits down to a nutritious meal – but the role has expanded. For Julian Edwards FCSI, director of GY5 Foodservice Consulting and chair of FCSI EAME, “the biggest shift in school dining is philosophical: school food is no longer seen as a cost center but as an investment in well-being, behavior and school culture. Te canteen is a strategic asset.” Kolb-Bönkhoff adds: “Te communal lunch table
has become an important element of daily interaction in many schools. Studies indicate positive effects on nutritional status, cognitive performance, school attendance and, in the long term, educational outcomes.”
WE WANT TO SERVE HEALTHIER SCHOOL LUNCHES. BUT IF NOBODY’S EATING IT, WE DIDN’T WIN”
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