When the Goddard (Kan.) School District eliminated trans fats from all cafeteria menu items, Greg Kalina, foodservice director, had to work very closely with his suppliers to make the switch go smoothly. Kalina speaks about how he overcame some of the more challenging aspects of the change.
On Dec. 1, 2006, the foodservice department for the Goddard (Kan.) School District eliminated trans fats from all cafeteria menu items. Foodservice director Greg Kalina and his staff spent a whirlwind few weeks negotiating with suppliers to make the switch, going so far as to remove some baked items such as biscuits and cookies from the menus until suitable alternatives can be found. Kalina made several suggestions for operators looking to take similarly drastic steps.
“The most important thing is to get buy-in from the top. Your boss has to buy into it and the district has to know why you are doing this. I went to our superintendent before we started the process and he supported us all the way. Then we met with all the foodservice managers and told them what we wanted to do so they understood.
We have a partnership with Kansas State University where we bring in a dietetic intern to work with us. One of her projects was to go through every menu item to find out which ones had trans fats and which ones didn’t, and to help find alternatives to the products that did contain trans fats. That helped us enormously.
Talk to your suppliers and tell them how important this is to you. Our suppliers told us they need to take these requests to the manufacturers so they understand how many operators are asking for these changes. By and large most brokers and manufacturers are aware of the situation, but real change doesn’t come unless there is a groundswell of support for change.
Be willing to make adjustments to your menu to eliminate trans fats. We were able to remove trans fats from all of our menu items except biscuits and other baked goods. So we took them off the menu until someone comes up with a trans fat-free product.
And it will happen. I see more and more trans fat-free items every week. We are a large buying market and if we continue to ask for it suppliers eventually will fill the demand.”