DISTRIBUTION AND SERVICE REPORT
All dry goods and non-perishable items are kept in the storage room which also serves as an office for management. Dry goods such as pasta sauces, sunflower seed butter, trays and pizza sauce are stored in this area. There is a standing refrigerator and freezer for quick and easy access, and there is a walk-in frig and freezer for storage of large shipments and boxed items too big for the standing appliances. Shipments are received once a week, usually on Fridays. The shipment is dropped off at the warehouse which is equipped with an overhead door and is adjacent to the kitchen. Shipments are wheeled right into the dry storage or walk in frig/freezer. Any items needed for the day’s menu are obtained directly from these storage facilities without a requisition. Cooks obtain the frozen meat and vegetable items for the day’s menu and raw fruits, vegetables and cheeses are obtained from the walk-in and standing refrigerators.
Prepping of cold food items takes place at two adjacent stainless steel tables on one side of the kitchen. Preparation of hot items including cooking, mixing, stirring, etc. takes place at two stainless steel tables adjacent to each other. These two tables are across from the cold prep area so as to avoid cross contamination. Stoves, ovens, braising table and kettle are all situated along the back wall, which helps to keep the heat on that side of the room and allows for all heated items to be handled on one area. The serving counter is situated in the front of the facility. Two doorways on either side of the counter allow for easy entry and exit, with two tray lines going at the same time. Perpendicular to the kitchen stands the salad bar and cashier stations. The serving counter consists of two stations each containing a three section steam table, cold storage, warmer and tray line. Students enter through either side, approach the counter, order their lunch and grab milk and utensils on their way out.
Once food is cooked, mixed, sliced, and diced, it is placed in serving trays. All satellite schools must have their orders filled first. A cold food rack and a portable warming oven are used to ship their orders via truck to each school. After placing in serving trays, the items are either placed on the tray line in the steam table compartments or in the refrigerator compartment. Additional trays of food are placed in the warmer or standing frig. These additional trays of food are obtained from their places of storage as needed. As the food items get depleted during tray line, they are replenished with stock from the warmer, etc.
There are four tray lines. First the fifth graders come through and eat, then the sixth and so on. Each grade gets a half hour lunch period. Students line up in front of one of two tray lines and place their order. They then proceed to the cashier and have their I.D scanned. If there is money in their account then they just get the price of the meal deducted. If no money is on the account, they are allowed to charge two lunches and the parents get billed. If they have already charged two meals, then they have to return their tray and take a cheese sandwich or sunbutter sandwich instead. No student is refused food. They will at least get a one of these two sandwiches and a carton of milk.
After tray line clean up begins. The dish room does not have a mechanical dish washing system; all dishes are washed by hand in a three sink system. Across from the sinks stand a rack for storage of colanders, baking sheets, pans, tubs, etc. All washed cookware must be air-dried. Pans, trays and utensils are quickly whisked off to the dish room. Everyone is responsible for cleaning their own station. Surprisingly, after serving four lunch sessions, clean-up is fast and efficient. Leftovers are either wrapped and stored for the next day, frozen for future use or tossed, depending on the amount and whether they have already been reheated. It is a safe, clean, fast and efficient system that works. Everything in this kitchen is stainless steel and cleans up very easily. Of course we also use the clean as you go method to make clean up fast. Everything gets wiped down with sanitizer before closing the kitchen. All leftover food gets wrapped and stored. If it can be frozen and used next month when that menu item comes around again, then that is the procedure. If it is a cold item, it gets wrapped and put out on tray line the very next day to get used up first. There are instances when it cannot be salvaged and therefore employees are free to take these leftovers home, otherwise they get thrown out. There is very little waste generated by this kitchen by using these methods.
There is no wait staff and no self-serve other than a cold storage unit for milk and water. Students are allowed to help themselves to these items. The only option for service is the tray line. It is strictly cafeteria style service. Students place their order as they approach the counter. Menu items are limited to the special of the day, a chicken patty sandwich, a hot dog, a turkey sub or sunbutter sandwich. Each student must take a carton of milk and have a serving of fruit and a serving of vegetables on their plate. This is mandated by the government. Even if they plan to throw it right in the garbage, it must be on their plate.
For a graphic diagram of the lay out of the cafeteria, see the professional resource map. A graphic representation with explanation of the area’s distribution and service areas including layout, equipment and pathways is included in the professional resource map assignment.
Food counts are very important in this kitchen. A tally of all foods prepared and purchased is kept each day. There is a tally sheet attached with this document. When this menu item comes around again the previous months tally sheet is taken out and counts are analyzed. Cooks begin preparing the trays with food items based on the counts from the prior week or month. As orders are actually called in, the counts are adjusted. The cooks can’t wait until orders are placed by the other schools to begin cooking. At this point they would not be able to fill orders in time and have the food ready for all tray lines if they don’t estimate food counts and begin preparing the items early.
The menu is determined by corporate headquarters of Organic Life. There is some flexibility on the premises based on leftovers and such, but whatever the special of the day is on the menu, this has to be adhered to.
One recommendation for this facility would be to revamp the way students purchase and obtained their lunches. Based on the current system, the student takes his food tray to the register and has his I.D. scanned. If they have no money in their account, the food tray has to be returned to the counter. We cannot resell this food; it is considered contaminated. It must be thrown out. This generates a lot of waste, as this occurs anywhere from two to four times per day. They can have a cheese sandwich, which the district has to pay for. My idea is to have them go to the register first. The cashier scans their I.D. to see if there is money on their account. If so, they get a colored tag indicating they can have a full lunch. If there is no money on their account, they get a different colored tag that indicates they can have milk and a cheese sandwich. Tags are small, plastic, color-coded objects that get reused for each tray line. As a student is given a color coded tag, he shows it to the tray line server and then places it into a receptacle. He cannot get his lunch until he turns in his tag. This way tags can be reused for each tray line and the school does not incur an expense for constantly having to purchase new tags. Tags can be small to fit in the palm of the students hand so no one needs to see what color tag a student has except him. This plan would save the school money, it would save on all that waste of having to throw those meals in the garbage and it would save the dignity of the student. When a student has to return a meal it is somewhat humiliating. This plan would be quick, inexpensive and efficient. It would work and save the school district at least $2000.00 per year.
PROCUREMENT THROUGH INVENTORY MANAGEMENT REPORT
Inventory is conducted once a month. The last day of the month is designated for inventory. According to Mike McClorey, manager of Organic Life, inventory is critical to the budget of his kitchen. The counts for inventory go into the profit and loss statement which is generated at the end of the month. It is important that it is precise. If there are large numbers of food items on hand that have expired, this goes towards a loss for the kitchen. If food items that should have been on hand are not there when needed, he has to run out and purchase them at regular retail prices, which again affect the budget and cut into their profits. If there is a lot of unnecessary stock on hand that can’t or won’t be used based on the current lunch menu, again this cuts into the profits of the kitchen and is taken as a loss. Careful control of inventory must be managed and maintained. The kitchen functions as usual on this day while Mike does all the counts. A report is generated to corporate headquarters and also kept for his records. The district office also gets a copy. Arbor Park School District pays Organic Life only $2.43 per meal sold. That is all the revenue they get. Out of this has to come purchases, payroll and a profit must be made for the company. This is a challenging situation, however, the management staff of Organic Life at Arbor Park Middle School have managed to pull it off. One way is to keep costs down and another is to greatly reduce waste. By conducting inventory every month, controls are in place to achieve these goals.
There is a shipment from GFS Food service that comes once a week. GFS is the main provider for Organic Life. They also receive food commodities from the government that they must use and they also must pay for. These shipments are sent to Arbor Park automatically. The management of Organic Life has no say over these items, but they must use them and they must pay the school for them. Instead of being able to use olive oil, as the company would normally use, they have to use the vegetable oil sent from the government. The problem I see with this is that the vegetable oil contains soy, corn and canola oils, all GMO. Not good!!! The olive oil is a healthier choice and not GMO, but Organic Life is forced to use the unhealthy oil. Recently, the management received a commodities list from a supplier in the area. This will enable them to have a little bit of control over which commodities they receive by being able to actually place an order rather than randomly receiving orders of government commodities.
Once shipments are received all dry goods and non-perishable items are kept in the storage room which also serves as an office for management. Dry goods such as pasta sauces, sunflower seed butter, trays and pizza sauce are stored in this area. There is a standing refrigerator and freezer for quick and easy access, and there is a walk-in frig and freezer for storage of large shipments and boxed items too big for the standing appliances. Shipments are received once a week, usually on Fridays. The shipment is dropped off at the warehouse which is equipped with an overhead door and is adjacent to the kitchen. Shipments are wheeled right into the dry storage or walk in frig/freezer. Any items needed for the day’s menu are obtained directly from these storage facilities without a requisition. Cooks obtain the frozen meat and vegetable items for the day’s menu and raw fruits, vegetables and cheeses are obtained from the walk-in and standing refrigerators.
A graphic representation and explanation of each food storage system, pantry, freezer and dry storage has already been covered in the Professional Resource Map, and the Distribution and Service Report.
Sanitation audits occur randomly twice a year. The state health department sends a representative out and the city of Oak Forest inspects as well. The last sanitation audit took place in October. The kitchen scored high with only two minor infractions. There are no care rounds since this is not a healthcare setting.
This system at Organic Life in terms of efficiency, sanitation availability of resources, safety and waste reduction is simple, highly productive and very effective. All areas of production, storage, and even record keeping have been honed to be highly efficient yet not complicated. The kitchen runs smoothly. Workers are efficient and production is optimal. There are no recommendations at this time to change or improve these specific areas. For safety purposes, closed toed, non-skid shoes must be worn. A jacket and apron must be worn to protect from burns. All knives must be immediately washed and hung back up by the user, not left for the dish person to deal with. The floor is kept clean, as are all the areas. Every surface and piece of equipment must be sanitized throughout the shift and at the end of the day. The sanitation liquid is checked with litmus paper to ensure the correct concentration. All resources and equipment is readily available and easily accessed. Employees must wear a hairnet, have their hair pulled back, wash hands frequently and wear gloves. There is minimal waste due to the fact that leftovers are immediately frozen for reuse the next month or put out the next day and used up first. It is a very efficient system that works.