University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Create a menu that allows multiple uses of key ingredients throughout a week

Submitter: Laura Barnes

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/100182

Description

Title
Create a menu that allows multiple uses of key ingredients throughout a week
Issue Date
2016
Keyword(s)
  • Food service -- Schools -- Environmental aspects
  • Green Lunchroom Challenge
  • School lunchrooms -- Environmental aspects
  • Food waste -- Source reduction (Waste management)
Abstract
Food service managers can lower costs and eliminate waste by creating a menu that allows for the multiple uses of key ingredients throughout the week. It may be cheaper to purchase an item in bulk, but unless menus are planned to use up that item while it is fresh, some may be lost as waste. If the school has a garden or sources from a local farm and has to deal with a bumper crop of a particular vegetable, it can lead to waste can occur unless the food service manager uses creative menu planning to present that item in a variety of ways that hold the interest of students. This type of menu planning also has potential to save preparation time. For example, cooks can slice peppers all at once at the beginning of the week to be included in a salad or vegetable cup one day, then used later in the week for a stir-fry. Finally, this type of planning can encourage food service staff change the way they think about unplanned leftover food so that they can reuse or repurpose them more easily.
Publisher
Champaign, IL : Illinois Sustainable Technology Center
Series/Report Name or Number
Green Lunchroom Challenge Menu Planning and Food Preparation Activity
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/100182
Sponsor(s)/Grant Number(s)
Funded by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5

Owning Collections

Green Lunchroom Challenge PRIMARY
Activities, publications, and other information from the Green Lunchroom Challenge project.