Friday Focus
March 12, 2021
Happy Covid-versary! Half Million Free Meals Served to Kids.
Can you believe that it's been one year ago today that we closed our schoolhouse doors due to Covid? I am still in disbelief that we closed on a Friday and only had a weekend to figure out how we were going to get food to kids. We were up and running on Tuesday doing curbside distribution. Since that day, we have served 500,729 free meals to kids as of yesterday! You are the ones who showed up to work on the front lines. You are the ones that kept our kids fed. You are the ones who adapted and continue to change. You are the ones that families waited in long car lines to see. You have so much to be proud of and I am beyond grateful.
Covid Vaccine Opportunity
This is a reminder that you need to inform your staff to check their email daily. An email was sent for them to sign up to receive a free Covid vaccine next Wednesday at the VHS Field House. In order for them to sign up, they have to click on the link in the email.
Shout Out!
This week's shout out goes to our Purdue intern, Dr. Brooke Starkoff. Brooke wrote a detailed grant application to No Kid Hungry to purchase a Blast Chiller and she won it! The $22,000 Blast Chiller arrived at the high school and staff had training with Chef Michael Marsh on Wednesday. This piece of equipment is very versatile. One of the many uses is to "shock freeze" fresh produce when it is in season to use later in the winter months. Brooke has now offered to look for grant funding for a vacuum sealing machine to package the individually quick frozen produce. Thank you, Brooke! You've made a lasting improvement to our program.
Commodity Diversion
One area you expressed an interest in learning more about is the Commodity Diversion process. Part of our federal funding includes "entitlement dollars" we receive to purchase USDA commodity foods. We receive .25 for each reimbursable lunch served. This year we received about $270,000 and I completed the purchases this week. For example, I spent $40,100 purchasing 40,000 lbs. of raw chicken (that's 20 tons, enough to fill a semi truck). I "diverted" these pounds to Pilgrim's Pride and Tyson to make various chicken products. Diversion means that the raw pounds are not sent to us, they are sent to the manufacturer I specify to make products for us. Now, when you see a green shield by an item on gfs.com, you know that pounds of a commodity food were sent (diverted) to them by me. The price of the product is reduced by the amount of commodity food in it. For example, if a case of chicken nuggets has a street price of $60.00 per case, it would now be reduced to $20.00 a case to make up for the chicken I gave them to make the product with. The $20.00 would cover the breading, soy, packaging, etc. The USDA Commodity foods I purchased this year are beef, cheese, chicken, eggs, fruit, grain, pork, turkey and vegetables. Using commodity foods helps our bottom line by reducing our food cost. So, as you can see, this is another important reason for encouraging students to take a reimbursable meal.
Spring Forward with Daylight Savings Time
Don't forget to set your clocks 1 hour ahead at 2:00 am this Sunday, March 14, 2021.
Prepare for Spring Break!
Spring Break is March 22 - 26, 2021. Employees (except year round) do not work during this week, unless Managers want to use some of their extra days. Kathryn sent out a google form, be sure to let her know if you plan on working any days and what your delivery plans are. As always, don't leave any potentially hazardous product in your merchandisers, milk coolers or reach-in refrigerators. Be sure you have fresh batteries in your Smart Guards (for those who have them on their walk-ins).
When you return, you will be serving GREEN week. You can always check myschoolmenus.com from anywhere to see what the menu will be.
And finally, please enjoy warmer days ahead, be kind to one another and hang on to the hope that we may almost be back to normal by July 4th.