School Nutrition Association • November/December 2022 • The Café Caters

A deep dive into one school nutrition department’s decision to launch a district-wide catering program. Why and how you might consider following their lead.

Guests said the cookies and brownies at the reception were good. Really good. In fact, the person in charge of the function exclaimed, “Those brownies and cookies were so delicious, I think people were even fighting over the crumbs!”

This positive praise, and more comments like it, are ample proof that starting a new centrally managed, district-wide catering program at Lee’s Summit R7 (Mo.) School District was a smart move by Director of Nutrition Services Lori Danella, MS, SNS. She and her Nutrition Services catering crew have enjoyed tremendous success—even when the startup timing turned out to be the worst. It was 2019. We all know what happened next.

But before the pandemic hit, it was a good time for the district to get into the catering business. When Danella came to work for this system 14 years ago, and through her initial tenure, there was no inhouse catering program to speak of, although the Nutrition Services department handled the occasional request. “It was a very small amount; it might have been coffee here or cinnamon rolls there,” she recounts. “The previous director just never wanted to branch out and get into that kind of business.”

Danella brought plenty of school-based catering experience to the Lee’s Summit system when she signed on. Prior to taking the job, she had been a manager in the school nutrition program in Kansas City (Kan.) School District. “I did almost all the catering out of my high school for the entire district,” she explains. “So, I knew that there was revenue potential to be gained in catering school district events. When I came here, I was kind of shocked that a district this big didn’t do any catering.” After the previous director retired, and Danella was promoted to the top spot, the timing seemed right to apply her experience and launch a catering program. “That was one of my initial goals,” she says.

The case became all the more compelling when she discovered that the school district was spending more than $1 million annually on outside catering. That really got Danella’s attention. “When you have 27 buildings and 18,000 students, there is just a huge demand,” she says of the potential that was ready to be tapped.

The R7 district includes schools in the city of Lee’s Summit, as well as other communities that are part of the Kansas City, Mo., metropolitan area. As a suburban district, the percentage of students qualifying for free and reduced-price meals is fairly low, which means lower reimbursement revenues for her program. Thus, catering certainly stood to be a helpful source of funds for the school nutrition operation if she could capture even a just portion of that million dollars.

Danella started small, taking on only a few catering requests and operating the new program without a manager for the first year. “I did a lot of the work myself, which was hard,” she admits. But Danella was confident that she just needed to get it started—putting plans into motion, relying on her previous experience and taking the project one step at a time.

First things first. Danella created a catering menu and posted it on the department’s web pages and began spreading the word. “Our assistant superintendent and our communications director were big supporters of ours,” she credits. “We did multiple catering events for them: a retirement dinner in the beginning and then several board dinners. They saw what we could do, and it really excited them about keeping revenue within the school district. And then it just took off like that. They got the information out to the principals, the PTAs and anybody in the district that might need catering.”

Danella also took printed menus to the district’s central administration building, bringing along samples of cookies and cinnamon rolls that spoke for themselves. “Food is the way to everybody’s heart,” says Danella. “The word-of-mouth outreach has been awesome.”

Today, catering orders are placed mostly through the department’s website, although a printed brochure is distributed to schools and other buildings at the beginning of the school year, as well as at district meetings. Paper-based communication is still important, says Danella, noting that her team receives phone and email orders from those who have the paper brochure in hand.

Under the district’s previous Nutrition Services director, occasional catering requests were fulfilled at the Lee’s Summit High School kitchen by Manager Sharon Owensby, SNS. Most orders were for activities at the school, so Owensby had some initial processes and customer connections in place when Danella was ready to launch the district program. Plus, the school’s location near the Nutrition Services office made it a good site for the new service.

The first year, Owensby and her staff were instrumental in helping Danella execute requests. A year later, Danella decided the program could support a dedicated catering manager position. Although Owensby was encouraged to apply, she passed for personal reasons, but helped out when she could. After another year, the position opened a second time; Owensby was persuaded to apply and was named Catering Manager for the district, continuing to work out of the same high school. Owensby, with Danella’s oversight, maintains a list of team members who want extra hours to work larger catering jobs. For example, a Transportation Department breakfast for 200 is not a project Owensby can handle all on her own, so she’ll identify staff to help serve prior to starting their regular school cafeteria shift for the day.

Recently, Danella hired a second full-time catering staffer to assist Owensby. If there aren’t a lot of catering requests, this individual helps out with meal operations at the high school. Unlike many of her director peers across the country, Danella has not experienced crippling staffing challenges. “We have been very lucky,” she emphasizes. This year, her department is almost fully staffed, coming back after being down about 20% last year. And the catering program holds its own attractions to staffers. “We had a lady who had just retired call to say she would come in as a sub to work whenever Sharon needed her,” reports Danella. “So, the interest is there, and they love doing it. We are very fortunate.”

Without the nutrition constrictions of reimbursable school meals, the universe of what to offer on a catering menu took some careful study by Danella and her colleagues. “We thought about the types of activities we would cater most often, and what we would offer for those,” says Danella. The first category was lunch meetings. “School secretaries usually order the catering for building events, so we asked them for feedback on variety.” The menu that emerged featured boxed lunches with five types of sandwiches, plus wraps, salads and veggie/fruit trays. “Just the basics,” she recalls.

The menu has expanded to reflect popular items, such as niche food bars, like coffee, hot chocolate and entrée bars. “Plus, we make awesome cinnamon rolls, and chili served with cinnamon rolls is a thing here,” adds Danella.

Events drive the catering menu, too, of course. Before the pandemic lockdown, they had begun serving wing platters, capitalizing on interest by schools to host parties celebrating the Super Bowl-bound Kansas City Chiefs. “That was such a hit,” enthuses Danella. “You don’t think of having wing platters at a school function, but they were immensely popular!”

Catering Manager Owensby is willing to fulfill custom requests that aren’t on the menu. For example, the school board is open to more specialized menus, so their monthly dinners might feature, say, a manicotti. “Sharon wants to satisfy her customers and please them, so if something they request is not on the menu but within her budget, she will try it,” says Danella. “We want them to experience the same service as they would expect from a vendor in the community.” Owensby also loves to decorate cakes and cookies and will produce individualized decorations to order. For a recent homecoming event, she made 50 to 60 dozen cookies decorated in the school’s colors.

Owensby had been using a frozen pancake product at most breakfast events. But, thinking outstde the box, she brought a new idea to Danella for feedback. “For some of these smaller groups of 20 people, I could use a griddle and make the pancakes right in front of them.” Danella was onboard and authorized the purchase of a griddle for $45. Owensby tried it out for a football team breakfast. “They just loved it,” reports Danella. “They said it was the bomb. For 17- and 18-year-old boys, that is a compliment!” Owensby is always thinking creatively about catered functions that involve students, gearing foods to meet their taste preferences, especially snack ideas for various student organizations and groups.

Speaking of snacks, the Lee’s Summit employee wellness committee contracts with the Nutrition Services catering team to procure healthy snacks for staff once a month. It’s a program paid for through BlueCross BlueShield insurance. Owensby purchases fresh fruit and other items and arranges delivery to every building in the district.

“We do a little bit of everything,” concludes Danella. A sampling of events includes school-wide cookouts and barbecues for students and their families, back-to-school events, staff meetings, recognition events, classroom celebrations, team banquets, homecomings and proms. Large events may have up to 700 guests!

Most catered events are designed for self-service, with some Nutrition Services staff on hand to set up, monitor, replenish and clean up. Meanwhile, the team is always showcasing their capabilities, such as a recent sit-down meal service for 300 to celebrate the opening of a new middle school.

Danella initially developed an online order form posted on the department’s website. Owensby would forward completed orders to Danella for invoice processing. But as this issue went to press, they were learning newly purchased software that features a more sophisticated catering platform that is expected to reduce administrative time. It should be operational by the end of the year.

The Nutrition Services program has a long reputation of operating in the black, and Danella has been able to tap into her own general fund, rather than the district’s, to pay start-up costs. Catering revenues are considered part of the a la carte sales line item in her accounts, rather than being maintained as a separate fund, but expenses (food, staff time, equipment and supplies) are charged to a catering account.

The catering program has a designated area within the high school kitchen. Owensby has her own office with a dedicated phone line. Everything used in the catering operation is kept separate from the school meals program. There is a separate stockroom where they keep all the supplies, everything the program needs from paper goods to chafing dishes. They have linen tablecloths, but they try to use plastic whenever possible. In general, serving ware is all disposable, but there are reasonably priced options on the market that resemble silver place settings and crystal serving bowls.

The number of events the Nutrition Services department caters fluctuates throughout the school year. There’s always at least one weekly, with the average that they can handle ranging from five to 50. Many of those might be small, such as a coffee bar with cookies and fruit. Orders must be placed with two weeks’ notice.

All this activity is helping generate quite a bit of revenue. Even when schools were closed in spring 2020, some buildings remained staffed and requested catered meetings and meals. They were able to generate nearly $25,000 (gross) that first year. By SY2021-22, the program had earned $80,000 and in the initial weeks of this new school year, they’ve already reached $14,000 in catering orders. “My goal is to get up to $500,000,” says Danella. “I would love to see us get half of what they once spent on outside catering.”

Despite their impressive list of achievements, the Lee’s Summit Nutrition Services catering program has encountered a few bumps along the way. Some lessons have been learned the hard way, and Danella hopes that by sharing these, she can help other directors have an easier transition with such a project.

Have a plan for transportation. Delivery was the first significant problem they encountered. Plus, with buildings spread across an area of nearly 120 square miles, getting multiple orders to different locations meant creative scheduling, especially when staff were using their personal vehicles to make deliveries. During the pandemic, they borrowed vans from the special needs program fleet. As this issue went to press, Danella had received the keys to a brand-new van purchased specifically for catering deliveries!

Have a plan for staffing. Having a list of staff willing to step up and take on catering hours is extremely helpful. Currently, most Lee’s Summit Nutrition Services employees who are eligible to work catering earn $17 per hour, but will get $20 per hour for catering. This incentive reduces recruitment pressure.

Develop standard preparations for catering menu items. Danella and Owensby created a manual that describes how to put together various items, such as a veggie tray, noting adjustments for different platter sizes. The guide also includes a photo of what the end result should look like. This provides consistency when items are prepared by other staffers.

Indeed, Danella advises that if school site managers want to handle the catering requests for their own building, they should be allowed to do so, and this is where the manual is a critical tool. But she cautions that it’s very difficult to juggle catering and service of school meals.

Be prepared to say “no” sometimes. That’s difficult when everyone wants to hold an end-of-school party, says Danella. But she and Owensby have to draw a line when there’s more work than they can handle—or if they can’t be assured of having sufficient ingredients and menu items. They encourage their customers to plan ahead as much as possible.

Hire for creativity. When hiring a catering manager and a team, prioritize creativity, Danella advises. A catering program thrives under a leader who thinks outside the box about surprising and delighting customers. Look for candidates who show a real passion for the opportunities. “People working in catering are really into it,” says Danella. “Finding the right individuals for those positions can mean success from the start.”

Watch food, labor and delivery costs. Inflation means Danella will have to raise catering prices to compensate for her own expense increases. Rising fuel costs have an impact, too. She also warns against hiring more labor than can be supported by the program. She was very methodical in waiting to hire a catering assistant for Owensby until she knew those labor costs would be covered.

Make sure your menu is manageable from a supply standpoint. Guard against having unique items that may require a special order for either the item or the ingredients.

Make use of dollar stores and discounts for serving displays. “We find the cutest decorations at low prices or after the holidays when they are discounted,” says Danella. “We have decorations for every occasion and are always on the lookout for new items we can use.”

Danella expects the Lee’s Summit Nutrition Services catering program will continue to contribute valuable revenue without any aggressive expansion efforts. She notes that she’s often urged to consider marketing their services for events outside of the school community, but she’s not comfortable competing with area businesses for those jobs—plus, she believes there’s still great potential within the district. “Staying on this road, relying on our presentation and our quality, will continue to help us grow within the district,” Danella says.

Danella and Owensby have charted a clear path for other districts to follow as a start-up guide. If you can model their steps to success, you can count on customers to help in the clean-up by leaving no crumbs.

Penny McLaren is a freelance writer based in Vancouver, Wash., and a former editor of this publication.