Keeping afloat despite canteen challenges

For some canteens, being healthy can come last if the focus is always on making a profit. With this in mind, we thought we’d look at a few challenges and provide some solutions.

Volunteers on the decline

With most Australian families today, having both parents in the workforce means they are less able to help in the school canteen. This creates time stresses in the day-to-day running of the canteen and typically means less freshly prepared and cooked menu items.

For tips on how to create a community of dedicated helpers, see our school canteen volunteer page.

Menu pricing

The lack of volunteers experienced by most canteens creates a need for paid staff. The price of items found on the canteen menu should account for wages, but they often don’t. Cheaper food prices may be attractive to kids, but this makes it difficult for the canteen to stay open as a viable business.

We’ve created some pointers about mark up and menu pricing in our school canteens section.

Tools of trade

When it comes to cooking, canteens are often set up with ‘reheat’ equipment rather than cook, bake or grill equipment, which makes it a challenge to whip up fresh, healthier options versus your standard pies and sausage rolls. Even the basics, such as a thermometer, sharp knives and a set of kitchen scales can be hard to source.

We recommend that you develop a business case for the items you need in your canteen and put it to the ultimate decision maker – be it the principal or the P&C. Often there is no barrier other than cost to the supply of new items, so a few healthy fundraisers may be all you need to get that much-needed sandwich press or hot plate. Never be afraid to ask for the things you need, including help!

Marketing

It can be tough for canteens to compete with fast food outlets when it comes to marketing healthy food. With so much to do every day, jazzing up and promoting the canteen menu is often the last thing on the mind of a manager.

But it can take less time and effort than you think – take a look at our quick list of quirky names as an example.

Work hours

Canteen staff not only need to order, purchase, prepare and serve food, they also must clean the canteen, monitor equipment, stay on top of finances, take home the washing and complete all the paperwork. Most often than not, these ‘housekeeping’ tasks happen outside of paid work hours and take long periods of time. It’s no surprise that figuring out how to include more healthy items on a menu is last on a long list of priorities. So what’s the solution?

Healthy Kids members get two free menu reviews per year. We do all the hard work for you and analyse recipes, individual items and any snacks, and provide a list of practical recommendations and tips on how to improve. Fill in the menu review application form, providing as many details as you can, and we’ll take it from there.

Policies and the canteen committee

In most canteens, it’s hard to figure out who the decision maker is and where responsibilities lie. Healthy Kids recommend having a canteen committee and a set of canteen policies and procedures. This will help to minimise confusion, resolve conflict and address any issues that might arise. All canteen managers should also be covered with a job description and regular performance appraisals.

We’ve created a few fact sheets about school canteen committees, including the various roles and responsibilities, to help get you started.

Five-day demand

Many schools want a canteen that is open every day, but for some smaller schools, this is not a realistic financial option.

A simple school canteen survey can give great insight into how your canteen is used and its most popular days. If you want to delve further into business operations, contact Healthy Kids and request more information about our Business Advisory Service.

Money, money, money

Some schools rely on fundraising income generated by their canteens. Unfortunately, healthier foods are perceived to be less profitable and, when it comes to ease, convenience and profit, less healthy products are often chosen.

Over time, Healthy Kids has created a number of blogs on healthy fundraising, fundraising alternatives and a list of fundraising organisations and companies that can help if you’re time-poor.

Business is business

Ultimately, a canteen is a food business and should be run as one. Including the aspects mentioned above, canteen managers also need to consider that:

• adequate mark ups are in place to cover operational costs
• ‘freebies’ and wastage is taken into account in any pricing structure
• food and staff safety should be covered by a policy and widely understood.

Often, these are the last things on the mind of busy canteen staff, especially if they are volunteers.

Healthy Kids is on hand to help with guidance and advice. Contact us for a chat about our Business Advisory Service, or to ask a specific question simply call our support line on 02 9876 1300.

Cooking fresh

The biggest misconception is that ‘fresh’ and ‘healthy’ don’t make a profit, but it’s wastage and operational inefficiencies that are most commonly related to poor profit levels.

We believe record-keeping is essential in order to keep track of the whole canteen operation, so we’ve created a list of downloadable templates and documents to help.