Variety and freshness. These are the foundation of the meal program at Hartford Union High School (HUHS), where the kitchen staff prioritizes offering students multiple choices for both breakfast and lunch. With 70% of the school’s 1,300 students participating in the program, that means staff pays close attention to what students like and experiment with school menu options.
"Our philosophy is to give the kids the best, give them choices to choose from and introduce them to new foods. We're always willing to try new things and new recipes,” said Monica Glorioso, school nutrition supervisor at HUHS. “We make some items from scratch and a lot are semi-scratch, such as making our own sauces and our own Pico de Gallo. We make a lot of our sides that go with our meals that we make in house.”
The school, based in Hartford, Wis., also prepares food for associate K-8th grade schools nearby, offering an additional 700 meals a day to supplement menu items those kitchen staff members prepare onsite. HUHS also offers a free after-school meal for high school students — an option welcomed by students after testing or before playing sports.
According to Production Cook Julie Falkowski, the HUHS meal program consists of around a 50/50 mix of scratch and semi-scratch menu items. Some ingredients, like yogurt and other dairy items are sourced locally.
“We proof and bake our sub buns. We're building and assembling sometimes 40 or 50 chef salads and making sandwich wraps with our own herbed cream cheese spread made in our mixer,” she explained. “We also make our own ranch spread and icings for baked goods.”
Until recently, Falkowski and staff relied on a Hobart 20-quart mixer purchased by HUHS in 1956 for mixing ingredients. It has now been replaced by a new Hobart Legacy+® HL200 20-quart mixer that is helping to support the school’s meal program.
Variety is on the menu
The high participation in the HUHS meal program is no doubt the result of the quality and variety of food offered. For lunch, students can choose from multiple hot and cold meals daily. According to Glorioso, there are the staples found in many school lunch lines, like pizza, chicken sandwiches and macaroni and cheese bowls, but they make it a point to offer healthy options such as chef salads and three different wraps each day. PB&J boxes and apple and dip boxes are provided as vegetarian-friendly meals.
Staff also caters to students whose palates are more adventurous. They have served everything from El Salvadoran pupusas — thick flatbreads made of cornmeal or rice flour and served with a traditional slaw — to Indian and Middle Eastern cuisines. Glorioso says that these and other ethnic options have been a hit with students.
“We have a line of students when we serve Mongolian beef and Kung Pao chicken is one of their favorites,” she explained. “Some students are just really interested in food.”
Some of that interest can be attributed to curriculum offered at HUHS, including a strong culinary program focused on the impact of food on health.
“The culinary program teaches students how to make healthy meals taste good using spices and seasonings, rather than adding salt,” explained Falkowski. “The courses also focus on knife skills and cooking techniques and give students the chance to try different recipes. As students advance in the program, they'll undertake caterings for our community.”
Bakery initiatives with Hobart
While the variety of lunch options is appealing to HUHS students, breakfast is a definite hit.
Glorioso explained that they took an initiative a few years ago to introduce fresh, from-scratch baked goods each morning. More so than mixing herbed and ranch spreads, their old Hobart mixer served its core purpose in the kitchen for mixing muffin batter.
“We bring in whole bananas and we serve some, then let the rest go over ripe and freeze them for our banana muffins. We make blueberry, pumpkin and lemon ones, too. We try to do a seasonal option,” said Glorioso. “We found shallow hamburger bun pans to bake them in, so they are more of a muffin top and the students really enjoy them.”
Another favorite is a chocolate chip scone, one that students missed when Glorioso and Falkowski noticed their old Hobart mixer wasn’t performing as well as before and decided to retire it.
“We had to take a little break from making the breakfast baked goods when we realized we needed to get a new mixer,” Glorioso said. “Students were stopping me in the hall. They’d ask ‘Are we ever going to have scones back? When are the muffins coming?’”
HUHS Senior Stormi Williams was one of those students.
"My friends and I were sad about not having the scones and, at some point, I asked Ms. Glorioso about it and learned their mixer was broken,” she said. “Then we finally got the scones back and another lunch lady said, ‘Didn't you hear? We have a new mixer!’"
The decision to retire the 1956 mixer came down to two factors: Concern about service on such an old mixer and performance.
“I was worried about finding companies who are interested in working on it and knew parts would be hard to find,” Glorioso explained. “At the very end, the higher speeds actually slowed down instead of speeding up. We knew it was time to modernize.”
The slowing of higher speeds in older mixers was due to gear or belt wear that lowers RPMs. This can negatively impact mixing times and output. And, as Glorioso suspected, repairing older Hobart mixers to fix this issue is increasingly difficult due to the lack of part availability.
Upgrading to the Hobart HL200 mixer
When it came time to select a new mixer, Glorioso reached out to other food service directors in the area to ask for recommendations.
“Everybody came back to Hobart. And after our positive experience with the brand, we knew that it was a solid choice to go with,” she said. “We stayed with the 20-quart size on a cart for its mobility in the kitchen.”
Falkowski appreciated the choice, given her experience with their old Hobart mixer and has found several features on the new HL200 that she likes.
“I like the Shift-on-the-Fly feature. We can change speeds and don't have to worry about damaging the mixer,” she said. "It's been nice, especially when making something like icing. We can progressively mix it and then whip it without having to stop every time to shift gears.”
“The Soft Start and the chute on the bowl guard are great,” Glorioso added. “I made that icing last week and had to add powdered sugar through the chute. With this slow start, we didn’t have plumes of powdered sugar everywhere.”
Soft Start gradually delivers electricity to the mixer until it’s at speed, which minimizes ingredient splash-out and helps the mixer last longer.
Falkowski appreciates the SmartTimer™, which counts time up and down, since it enables her to multitask while ingredients are being mixed. The Quick-Release™ agitators have also proven beneficial since they are easy to attach and remove, and they offer consistent mixing.
“The mixing on this new Hobart is very nice. It’s quieter and just works very smoothly,” Falkowski explained. “The old mixer was great. It never gave us any trouble until the end, but we notice how the new one is so much smoother when it’s running.”
The Quick-Release agitators have a pin that locks the agitator to shaft to eliminate the up and down movement associated with bayonet-style agitators. This ensures consistent agitator-to-bowl ratio for thorough mixing and contributes to the quieter operation.
Overall, Falkowski has found the new mixer to be easy to use and has been a great addition to their cafeteria kitchen equipment.
“The basic videos and instructions that we watched were helpful. I felt confident going in and using the mixer for the first time. Everything about it is fairly self-explanatory,” she said. “I find putting it together, taking it apart for cleaning, all of that has been exactly what I expected it to be.”
Looking forward
HUHS plans to continue offering students a variety of fresh, from-scratch and semi-scratch menu items as the core of its meal program. Having the new Hobart mixer will help them add new options, as well, says Falkowski.
“The new mixer adds new opportunities,” she said. “We’re looking at steaming potatoes and whipping them up for mashed potatoes, among other menu items.”
Glorioso is confident they will be able to add even more creative options to their meal program with the new mixer, for years to come. “Knowing Hobart's commitment to making quality equipment, we know the new mixer will last throughout the years and allow us make the things we need for our students.”
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