The challenges and trends of Schools

Kindergarden, Primary and Secondary School

Challenges:

In order to increase the number of pupils who take up a school meal and keep those current children to continue to bring in a packed lunch, improving the ‘healthy’ content of them is a key for it.

The food service industry need to do the followings:

1. Understand School Meal and Packed Lunch Perceptions

  • A number of activities need to be undertaken to understand school meal and packed lunch perceptions, with a view to modify and enhance the school meal provision, thus increasing school meal uptake.

2. Promoting School Meals

  • The school needs to implement a number of initiatives to promote and encourage school meal uptake, such as discounts on meals to attract those who still not having schoo meal.

3. Incorporating Curriculum Based Healthy Eating Messages

  • Educate students through daily activities and the children are encouraging to grow their own fruit and vegetables and see these through  to harvest and use in the school kitchen and / or for cooking activities.

Trends:

1.   Inviting parents in for school meals, with furthehr promotion through a ‘Buy one, get one free’. The parent buys a meal the child gets one free

2.  Opportunities for parents to talk to the school cook about any real  dislikes their child have which may be preventing them having a school lunch

3.  The option for any child to choose a vegetarian dish if it is preferred to the meat meal, (normally this was only made available to known vegetarians)

4.    Making the canteen more appealing

5.    Incentives and promotions linked to Theme Weeks e.g lucky draw each day for a small prize with a bigger prize draw for all those who had dinners every day

Colleges and Higher Education Institutions

Challenges:

  1. Getting the concept of higher education as a business and a college as a brand

2.  Create a living and learning experience outside the classroom that will enhance the brand

3.   Changes in students’ expectations

4.   Changes in students’ disposable time, as most      students have jobs, or participate in a work/study program

Trends:

1. Mall-style, franchise units in their campus activity centers

  • Designing campus activity centers that combine  student lounges, convenience stores, places where kids can get a burger or a slice of pizza, and areas for sitting down and plugging in their laptops

2. Flexible, multifunctional spaces that keep the students and their dollars on campus

  • There are often special needs for smaller campuses and commuter campuses, it needs a place where people hang out between classes. It has a great room, snack bar, pool table, big-screen television and a  stage. There’s also a circular area with booths around the edges for quiet conversations.

3.  Traditional full-service dining hall which supplemented with food franchises in the student center,like Starbucks

  • The student center, which is like going to a mall – with games, television, fast food, coffee, e-mail access, convenience stores, book stores and student offices – a hot spot where students hang out between classes.