Planning a Healthy School Canteen Menu
Your menu is what will attract customers to the canteen, so careful planning is important. In general a menu should offer your customers a core of items that seldom change, with variety provided by specials that are for sale only at certain times (eg recess on Wednesdays and Fridays). It should always include fruit in season presented in an attractive and appropriate way (eg cut or whole).
A good compromise between offering sufficient choice for customers and keeping the overheads (storage requirements and preparation time) down is to limit the menu to:
- Up to 10 sandwich fillings.
- Up to 12 snacks available at both recess and lunch.
- Up to 8 hot food varieties, including snacks.
- Up to 6 frozen items.
- Water and a maximum of 3 milk and juice flavours each.
It is also important to limit choice because having too many items on a menu can reduce the sales of any individual item to the point where it is not profitable to continue selling it. Although be careful not to remove slow moving products which are stocked because they cater to specific medical or cultural needs of customers, such as soy drinks or non yeast bread products.
Most school canteens have a summer menu and a winter menu.
When you are planning a new menu or thinking about changing the menu, the following fact pages may be helpful:
- Is your canteen menu healthy?
- Preparing a Recipe for Inclusion on the Canteen Menu
- Sample Menus (Primary and Secondary)
- Alternatives to Occasional Foods
- Also don’t forget to refer to your Fresh Tastes Canteen Menu Planning Guide, Fresh Tastes Toolkit and Fresh Ideas for a Healthy Canteen Folder for ideas.