Cinco De Mayo

ConVal High School

Foodservice Meal Project

Keene State College Dietetic Internship 16-17

Rachel OConnor
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Table of Contents

I. Menu Development
A. Theme and Menu
B. Budget
C. Food Cost
D. Labor Cost
E. Supplies
II. Production
A. Standardized Recipes
B. Production Sheets
C. Forecasting
D. Cost Analysis
E. Purchasing
F. Service Diagram
G. Tracking of Over/Under
H. Plan for Leftovers
I. Employee Work Distribution and Equipment Utilization
J. Final Food Cost
K. Customer Satisfaction Event
III. Marketing
IV. Final Report
- Appendix A - Standardized Recipes and Nutrient Analysis
- Appendix B - Purchasing Sheets
- Appendix C - Production Sheet
- Appendix D - Service Diagram
- Appendix E - Customer Satisfaction Tool
- Appendix F - Signage, Marketing Materials
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I. Menu Development

A. Theme and Menu

The theme for my meal project was Cinco De Mayo. May 5th fell on a Friday,
so the ConVal kitchen staff and I thought that this would be a good day to do
the event. The menu consisted of
- Pork Enchiladas
- Cilantro Lime Rice
- Black Bean and Corn Relish
- Apple-filled Churros

This menu was chosen for a number of reasons. The Cafe Services school
menu had planned for a burrito bar on May 5th, but I wanted to come up with
my own menu items. The only item we kept the same was the apple-filled
churros. ConVal does not normally make desserts that are included in the hot
meal, but the holiday was an exception. Tom, the cook, had a recipe for
chicken enchiladas, so we used that, but adapted it to pork enchiladas
because there was pork that needed to be used in the freezer. I found the
recipes for the cilantro lime rice and black bean and corn relish while flipping
through the large Cafe Services recipe book and checked them with Janice
and Tom to ensure they were doable with cost and prep time. I chose these
items to provide a whole grain, vegetables, and some color to the menu.

B. Budget
I was not given a budget for the meal project; I just had to check everything
with Janice to make sure we either had the necessary ingredients or could
easily order them.

C. Food Cost
The hot meal has to fall within the National School Lunch Program guidelines.
So, a whole grain, protein, fruit, and a vegetable must be on the students tray
in order to be reimbursable. For grade 9-12, the lunch has to contain <10% of
saturated fat, <740 mg of sodium, and be between 750-850 calories. A school
lunch costs around $3.00. A reduced-price school lunch costs $0.40. I
estimated that we would serve about 130 students, so the total budget is about
$390.

A family of two needs to make an annual income below $20,449 to be eligible

for free meals or below $29,100 for reduced-price meals. A family of four
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needs to make an annual income below $31,005 for free meals or $44,122 for
reduced-price meals. 19% of students at ConVal are eligible for free meals and
6% are eligible for reduced-price meals. The total (25.2%) is higher than the
New Hampshire state average (23.7%).

D. Labor Cost
My meal project only took place during normal work hours. No extra labor was
required, so there was no additional labor cost.

E. Supplies
To make the meal, we used supplies available in the kitchen. Janice went to
the local party store to buy decorations for Cinco De Mayo, but since she went
kind of late, there were not a ton of decorations left. She bought two door
hangings, a plastic tablecloth, 5 small Mexican flags, a large sombrero, and
two small sombreros. This cost around $30.

II. Production
A. Standardized Recipes
Recipes were standardized by multiplying by the desired number of servings.
See Appendix A.

B. Production Sheets
Tom, the head cook, provided the production sheets. See Appendix B.

C. Forecasting
The number of students we planned to serve was based on the number of
students who, historically, choose the hot meal when it is Mexican (either
tacos, burrito bar, etc.) Since this was the first time ConVal had made
enchiladas, we based it off of other related Mexican food meals. With that
information, we figured we would serve about 130 meals. With that said, we
figured we would only serve about 40 servings of the black bean and corn
relish because there were other vegetable options that the students could
choose. Only 100 churros came in the box that was ordered, so we planned to
serve exactly 100. Since that portion of the meal was not a school lunch
requirement for reimbursement, it would make sense that some students would
not take it, which is what happened.

D. Cost Analysis
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Pork Enchiladas
130 Servings
- Vegetable oil
- Cost per recipe: $4.93
- Cost per serving: $0.04
- Flour
- Cost per recipe: $0.94
- Cost per serving: N/A
- Chili Powder
- Cost per recipe: $10.93
- Cost per serving: $0.08
- Chicken stock
- Cost per recipe: $41.82
- Cost per serving: $0.32
- Tomato puree
- Cost per recipe: $11.37
- Cost per serving: $0.09
- Dried oregano
- Cost per recipe: $5.48
- Cost per serving: $0.04
- Ground cumin
- Cost per recipe: $2.52
- Cost per serving: $0.02
- Grated cheddar cheese
- Cost per recipe: $21.12
- Cost per serving: $0.16
- Onions
- Cost per recipe: $3.65
- Cost per serving: $0.03
- Sour Cream
- Cost per recipe: $11.91
- Cost per serving: $0.09
- Shredded pork
- Cost per recipe: $110
- Cost per serving: $0.84
- Diced tomatoes
- Cost per recipe: $6.12
- Cost per serving: $0.04
- Corn tortillas
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- Cost per recipe: $19.44

- Cost per serving: $0.15

- Total recipe cost: $250.23

- Total serving cost: $1.90

Cilantro Lime Rice

138 Servings

- Long Grain Brown Rice

- Cost per recipe: $6.60
- Cost per serving: $0.05
- 3 1/8 gallons water
- N/A
- Vegetable Oil
- Cost per recipe: $3.94
- Cost per serving: $0.03
- Cilantro
- Cost per recipe: $3.87
- Cost per serving: $0.03
- Salt
- Cost per recipe: $0.10
- Cost per serving: N/A
- Lime juice
- Cost per recipe: $3
- Cost per serving: $0.02

- Total recipe cost: $17.51

- Total serving cost: $0.13

Black Bean and Corn Relish

40 Servings
- Black beans
- Cost per recipe: $3.10
- Cost per serving: $0.07
- Chopped tomatoes
- Cost per recipe: $0.83
- Cost per serving: $0.02
- White kernel corn
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- Cost per recipe: $1.18

- Cost per serving: $0.03
- Vegetable Oil
- Cost per recipe: $1.97
- Cost per serving: $0.05
- Lemon Juice
- Cost per recipe: $0.51
- Cost per serving: $0.01
- Salt
- Cost per recipe: $0.01
- Cost per serving: N/A
- Dried Parsley
- Cost per recipe: $0.38
- Cost per serving: N/A

- Total recipe cost: $7.98

- Total serving cost: $0.18

Apple-filled Churros
100 Servings
- Cost per case of 100: $35.07
- Cost per serving: $0.35

- Total cost: $35.07

- Total cost per serving: $0.35

E. Purchasing
Purchasing was done at the beginning of the week of my event. Again, because the
week before was April Vacation, we had to wait to order some of the ingredients. Some
ingredients were not needed because they were already stocked in the pantry, freezer,
or refrigerator. Tom and I began to make the enchilada sauce two days before the event
in order to save time the day of, and because we wanted the sauce to be as flavorful as
possible.

F. Serving Diagram
See Appendix D
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G. Tracking of Over/Under
Items that were overproduced were the enchiladas (27 servings), the cilantro lime rice
(33 servings), and the black bean and corn relish (10 servings). Items that were
underproduced were the churros (about 5 servings). See Appendix C.

H. Plan for Leftovers

The enchilada leftovers were kept to redistribute on Monday as an alternative option to
the tacos that were on the menu. The rice leftovers will be saved because we didnt
season all of the rice we made with the lime and cilantro in case there were leftovers.
So the plain rice left will likely be used for a chicken and rice soup. The black bean and
corn relish will be saved for a few days and redistributed if it holds up well.

I.Employee Work Distribution and Equipment Utilization

Wednesday, May 3rd:
- Make enchilada sauce - Tom and me
Thursday, May 4th:
- Defrost pork - me
- Hang decorations - me
Friday, May 5th:
- Prepare and bake enchiladas - Tom and me
- Chop cilantro, zested limes - me
- Cook brown rice - Tom
- Cut up vegetables and prepared the relish - me
- Bake churros - me
- Serve hot meal - Tom and me
- Distribute surveys and pencils - cashiers
- Wash dishes/equipment and put away - all cafeteria staff

J. Final Food Cost for Event

$322.95

K. Customer Satisfaction Tool

See Appendix E

III. Marketing
Marketing was done in a few ways. The week before my meal project was April
Vacation for ConVal, so I was not able to market my meal project that week. And I did
not think it would be beneficial to market it the week before April Vacation, as the
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students would likely not remember with it being two weeks away. So, the beginning of
the week of my meal project, I printed out and hung up about 10 flyers around the
school that showed that the cafeteria was having a Cinco De Mayo meal and what that
meal was. I also hung up a few Cinco De Mayo flyers that ConVal had been sent from
Cafe Services.

The day before the event, I decorated the cafeteria with door hangings, a colorful plastic
tablecloth at the sandwich station, small Mexican flags, and sombreros. I thought this
would garner more interest in the event, since the students would be coming through
the decorated area for lunch that day, and this appeared to work because a number of
students asked about the decorations and the Cinco De Mayo meal. See Appendix F.

IV. Final Report

It was not difficult to choose a theme for my meal project. Janice, Tom, and I spoke
about what holidays/events were approaching that I could potentially use, and Cinco
De Mayo made the most sense. It ended up falling on my last day at ConVal. Once
the date was decided, we had plenty of time to finalize a menu. The menu for May 5th
had originally called for a burrito bar, but Tom mentioned that he had a good
enchilada recipe that we could use instead. After the enchiladas had been established
as the protein, I looked through the Cafe Services recipe book to find a few sides. I
did not want the menu to be too carb-heavy, which proved difficult while trying to keep
to the Mexican theme. I eventually chose a black bean and corn relish and cilantro
lime rice. It would have been nice to include less starchy vegetables, but the relish did
at least have tomatoes in it. The apple-filled churros had already been on the original
menu, so we decided to keep them as a sort of holiday treat, since dessert is not
normally offered as part of the hot meal.

I standardized the recipes the week before April Vacation to ensure that we would
have all the necessary ingredients. The kitchen already had certain items in stock,
such as oil, flour, cheddar cheese, many of the spices, and canned corn.

Deciding how much of each food item to produce was based on previous Mexican
menu days, because Tom had never made enchiladas before my meal project. With
that knowledge, we chose to make about 130 servings of the enchiladas and the
cilantro lime rice. We only chose to make 40 servings of the relish because other
vegetables were also offered. This proved to be a good decision because we were 10
servings over at the end of lunch. Only 100 churros came in the box, so we made all
100 and sold all 100.
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Marketing far ahead of time was difficult because of April Vacation. If not for that week
off, I likely would have hung signage sooner. Consequently, I hung the flyers the week
of my meal project. I feel like this was useful, but it could have been moreso a few
more days in advance. The signs I hung were bright and colorful, so this likely drew
attention. They were also hung all over the school, so I would imagine it was difficult
not to see them. I also chose to decorate the day before my meal project to inform
more people that something would be happening the next day. The items used to
decorate included door hangings, Mexican flags, a colorful tablecloth, and sombreros.
Some students asked me and other cafeteria staff about the decorations, so that was
great because we were able to inform them tomorrow would be a Cinco De Mayo
themed lunch.

The day of the event was a bit crunched on time. Tom and I did not defrost quite
enough pork the day before, so we had to wait to make half of the enchiladas until the
pork had defrosted. Tom asked whether I would like to layer or roll the enchiladas,
and I decided that rolling them would look better, but that ended up taking significantly
longer than layering them would have. It was such a good idea to make the enchilada
sauce ahead of time; we really would have been cutting it close on time if we had to
make it the day of. We also almost forgot to bake the churros, but luckily those only
took about 7 minutes. This time barrier was not helped by the fact that I had forgotten
to bring pencils for the surveys, so I had to run out to Job Lot to buy 6 packs of
unsharpened pencils, then had to spend about 15 minutes sharpening them upon
returning to ConVal. Tom was great with helping me, though. I realized through my
time there that the employees work fast. I did not start out working as fast as they do,
so that was a learning curve for me. On my meal project day, I really tried to work
fast.

When we went out for the first lunch at 11:08, we had a good amount of students get
the hot lunch. Many of them did not know what enchiladas were! I should have
thought about that sooner, because I could have made another flyer that described
them. The second lunch is always tiny, and it was even smaller that day. The third
lunch is usually pretty large, and it was still quite large. We did run out of churros
toward the end of it, though.

Overall, I believe the event went well. We served 105 students total, so less than
anticipated, but not horrible. Interestingly enough, all of the other cafeteria options
also had more leftover food items than usual. We knew that some students would be
out for field trips, so this leads me to believe that those students might have bought
the school lunch had they been at school on Friday.
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After analyzing the customer satisfaction surveys, it appears that most of the students
liked the lunch. It seemed like the main issue was the way the enchiladas looked (a
number of students called it slop or mush). It was difficult to serve them without them
losing shape and looking like a casserole. Despite this, it far and away appeared to be
the favorite part of the meal. Many students were not fond of cilantro and described
the rice as having a weird aftertaste. I did not find that to be true when I sampled it
earlier in the day, but thats probably because I like cilantro. I would have liked more
students to have eaten the black bean and corn relish to get better feedback on that,
because it was actually my favorite menu item.

For future meal projects, I would recommend deciding on food that is more visually
appealing, and perhaps more recognizable to the students. If more students had
known what enchiladas were, its possible we would have served more meals. I
actually felt kind of guilty serving the enchiladas because they just did not stay
together. This also could have been avoided had we made the recipe before and
known more of what to expect. So it is a good idea to use recipes that have been
done before or test them at home ahead of time to ensure they not only taste good,
but are also visually appealing. Tom and Janice are great to bounce ideas off of. They
recognize that the intern needs to be running the event as much as possible, but are
super helpful, as is the rest of the kitchen staff.
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Appendix A: Standardized Recipes and Nutrient Analysis

1. Pork Enchiladas
Originally Serves: 6 (serving size: 2 enchiladas = 12 enchiladas total)
Adapted to Serve: 130 (serving size: 2 enchiladas = 260 enchiladas total)
Multiplied by 22
- 4 cups plus 11 cups oil, divided
- 1 cup flour
- 2 cups chili powder
- 44 cups chicken stock
- 27.5 cups tomato puree
- 22 tsp dried oregano
- 11 tsp. Ground cumin
- 44 cups grated cheddar cheese
- 22 onions, chopped
- ~22 cups sour cream, for garnish
- 44 cups cooked and shredded pork
- 11 cups diced tomatoes
- 264 corn tortillas

2. Cilantro Lime Rice

Cafe Services Recipe: 001538
Originally Serves: 30 (8 oz portions)
Adapted to Serve: 138 (3 oz portions)
- 10 lb long grain brown rice
- 3 1/8 gallons water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup chopped cilantro
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- 4 2/3 T salt
- 1 cup lime juice

3. Black Bean and Corn Relish

Cafe Services Recipe: 001752
Originally Serves: 52
Desired to Serve: 40 (other veggies available)
No adaptation needed
- 1 #10 can of black beans
- 1 cup chopped tomatoes
- 1 lb of white kernel corn
- cup vegetable oil
- cup lemon juice
- T kosher salt
- 1 T dried parsley

4. Apple-filled Churros
Pre-made, frozen
Originally Serves: 100
Desired to Serve: 100
No adaptation needed
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Appendix B: Purchasing Sheets

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Appendix C: Production Sheet

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Appendix D: Service Diagram

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Appendix E: Customer Satisfaction Survey

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Appendix F: Signage, Marketing Materials

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