2. Updating tech
Leveraging data and streamlined technology, Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp. in Mishawaka, Ind., is entering the new year with a new back-of-house computer system to digitize its ordering processes. Now, foodservice managers use a website for all of their ordering needs, rather than emailing spreadsheets to the school district's central warehouse, as they did in the past. “This gives us a lot more data that we didn’t have before,” says Jill Riggs, director of foodservice. “We now know how many cases of lettuce all the units have ordered on a particular day.”
At the University of Kansas in Lawrence, the dining team is taking a different approach to cook-chill technology. The operation is renovating an old kitchen into a hot commissary for soups, sauces and meats that will help supply KU’s expansion of hot grab-and-go options. Unlike traditional cook-chill systems, the unit will produce every evening for next-day service to maximize freshness.