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Shuhan Zhan, Chinbulai MalyPra NST 135
Yishan Huang, Janelle Yu Williams Spring 2016
Project Title: Student Lunch Preference Analysis in K-12 Schools
Project Facility: OaklandUnified SchoolDistrict
OUSD NutritionServices Contact: Amy Glodde,amy.glodde@ousd.org
Project Purpose: OaklandUnified SchoolDistrict (OUSD)NutritionServices is a source
of foodfor one hundred K-12 campuses as well as two charter schools. Each schoolparticipates
in the Nationalschoollunch, breakfast, and snack program. Theirgoalis to support students in
building healthylifestylesto attributeto a successful academic career. Thebudget consists of
federal and statereimbursements and on-site sales. A recent grant from theUSDA has allowed
thedistrict financial capabilitiesto increase sourcing from localproducers, making it possible
for OUSDto implement a California Thursday themed lunch into allof theschools in the
district.To be considered local,thefoodmust be sourced from within a two hundred-fiftymile
radius of Oakland. With thepurchasing power of millionsof dollars, OUSDcan playa largerole
in keeping jobs and money within thestate. This programis a great way to implement
structural change,support thelocaleconomy, theenvironment, and promotea healthy
lifestylefor students. Bylooking at quantitative datafrom multipleschools for trends on food
preference, theefficiency of thisprogram can beimproved.
Project Goal: To track entree preference and waste in order to observe differences or
similarities in entree preferences with students in each educationalstage from K-12. Since
procuring seasonal and locallysourced foods is more expensive than conventionallysourced
produce, it is important to maximize sustainabilityand efficiency so that thisprogram can
continue. With theinformationfrom thisreport, OUSDNutrition Services can continue to
monitor thesuccess of themeals designed for thisprogram, track waste, and implement
changes where necessary. In order to observe the trends, decrease foodwaste, and forecast
future purchases, it is important to lookat relevant datafrom multiplemonths and multiple
schools.

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Process: Our group conducted an initialmeeting with Registered DietitianAmy
Glodde,theMenu Planner & Training Supervisor from OUSDNutrition Services to discuss the
objectiveand goalsof theproject.Each group member was assigned to analyze theDaily
ProductionRecords for a specific group of schools: K-5, K-8, MiddleSchoolorHigh School.The
OUSDDaily ProductionRecords are manually logged recordings ofthe recipename, cooking
temperature, portionsize, quantityprepared, quantityserved and amount leftover for every
item served during lunch.
To evaluateboth theentree preference and foodwaste for themonths of October,
November, January and February, we utilized an excel spreadsheet to calculate thefrequency
an item was served, the amount offoodserved and the amoun of foodleftover for each entree.
This spreadsheet will be used by OUSDNutritionServices to monitorthesuccess of each
entree. Whilewe have collected datafor numerous months, for thepurpose of thisreport, we
will focus on theanalysis of California Thursday entrees in themonth of Octoberin 2015.
The informationwas further aggregated bygrouping allhigh schooldatatogether,all
middleschooldatatogether,allK-8 schools togetherandall K-5 schools together.Afterwards,
we exported our datato graphs for visual comparison. Although weobserved that 17 different
entrees were served in this month,we chose to focus theanalysis on the entrees that each
schoolhadin common ( Grilled cheese, Cheese quesadilla,BBQ Chicken with red beans & rice,
Asian chicken, BeefChili with tortillachips,VeggieTacos, Jambalaya)with the additionofan
entree served only in high schoolsand middleschools, but with an exceptionally high
frequency (cheese pizza).
Results: According to the OUSDtables,patterns in thefoodpreference of each school
are easily observed. Certain entrees are clearly more popularthanothers. This is shown in the
databythe largequantity productionand littleto no waste by thestudents. BeefChili with
Tortillais themost popularentree, whose waste rates never exceeded 5%. Cheese Pizza,
served with the most frequency (18 in MiddleSchool,18 in High School)ishighlypopular.BBQ
Chicken with Red Beans & Rice also receives high preference from three groups. There are less
preferred entrees reflected with lower consumption rate. Cheese Quesadillaand Grilled
Cheese havethe highest serving frequencies, but generate largest percentage ofwaste among

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allentrees served. Many otherentrees show unpredictableand inconsistent results among
different groups, but theyare mostlyserved with relativelylow frequency. For example,
VeggieTacos show different consumption levels at different educationalstages.Serving
VeggieTacos in K-8 results in 50% waste, but it only produces 6% waste in high schooland K-5.
With respect to the general foodwaste trend, the totalpercentageoffoodwaste for high
school,middleschool,K-8 and K-5 are 6%, 4%, 7% and 4% respectively, with K-8 schools
producing themost waste among all schoolgroups.
It is important to note that thedatacollectionprocess can produce a margin of error.
There are dates at multiplesites where thekitchen staff didnot record thedataso we didnot
have values to calculate.The staff has also been known to write down informationin front of
Amy that may or may not be correct just to have numbers on thepaper. Human error can
always occur and thismay be something that affected our group datacollectionas well.
However, themargin of error is small enough relative to theamount of datawe processed so
that our values can be considered an accurate representationof the schoollunch trends of
OaklandUnified SchoolDistrict.
Conclusion:Cheese pizzais themost popularentree for MiddleSchoolandHigh
School.Thisis contributed to pizzabeing theconstant and default entree for each Thursday
while otherentrees are cycled onto the menu. This is reflected in thefrequency ofpizza served
relative to otherentrees served. Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Cheese Quesadilla are also
served with high frequency, but have a higherpercentageof waste. Thismay indicatethe need
to decrease thequantities of these entrees and increase thequantities of more popularentrees
such as Beef Chiliwith Tortilla.There are otherentrees that are onlyserved once and have no
waste, which indicates that theseitems couldbe served in more volume and with more
frequency, such as SpicyChicken Sandwich,BBQChicken Sandwich,and Turkey Sandwich.
After completing thisanalysis, it has become clear that quantitativetracking ofstudent
preferences contains a lot ofcomplexitiesthat need to be addressed. The next step:
1. With theinformation provided,preference was calculated byamount of foodwasted
and thefrequency an entree was served. A suggestion wouldbe to have foodservice

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staff track thetime an entree runs out to determine popularityofafooditem rather
than relying on foodwaste datato determine preference.
2. Certain schoolsconsistently show zero waste which may be an area of concern. While it
is great that allfoodis consumed, it brings about thefollowing questions: didstudents
go hungry that daybecause there is not enough foodprepared?Is there an acceptable
margin of waste to ensure that thereis enough foodavailablefor allstudents who need
lunch? Are thereprocedures in placeto produce foodfor hungry students on daystoo
few entrees were prepared?
3. Improve staff training on tracking foodconsumption because there is a lot of missing
data,which may have affected our results.
4. Switch from logging datamanuallyto computerized entries for more accurate and real-
time data.
Resources:
Glodde,Amy RD, MPH. Menu Planner & Training Supervisor. OaklandUnified School
District Nutrition Services
OaklandUnified SchoolDistrict DailyProductionRecords. October2015
High Schools-Skyline,OaklandHigh,Fremont High,Havenscourt
MiddleSchools- Elmhurst, West Oakland,Roosevelt, Havenscourt
K-8 Schools- Piedmont,Hoover, Parker, Melrose
K-5 Schools-Franklin, Highland,Stonehurst F, Lincoln
"NutritionServices." / Overview. OUSD, 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
"NutritionServices." / Current Events. OUSD,30 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.

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All High School Entrées Frequency
Qty
Prepared
Students
Served
Excess
Food
% waste
per item
Grilled Cheese 12 693 636 57 8%
Cheese Quesadilla 7 354 273 81 23%
BBQ Chicken with Red Beans & Rice 4 969 946 23 2%
Asian Chicken 3 591 552 39 7%
Beef Chili with Tortilla Chips 3 530 505 25 5%
Veggie Tacos 3 450 420 30 7%
Jambalaya 3 530 440 90 17%
Cheese Pizza 18 3682 3510 172 5%
Spicy Chicken Sandwich 1 111 111 0 0%
BBQ Chicken Sandwich 1 360 360 0 0%
Hamburger 1 320 260 60 19%
Chicken Patty 1 60 60 0 0%
Nachos 1 200 200 0 0%
Turkey Sandwich 1 230 230 0 0%
High School Totals 59 9080 8503 577 6%
All Middle School Entrées Frequency
Qty
Served
Students
Served
Excess
Food
% waste
per item
Grilled Cheese 11 378 300 78 21%
Cheese Quesadilla 9 424 330 94 22%
BBQ Chicken with Red Beans & Rice 4 774 734 40 5%
Asian Chicken 3 437 361 76 17%
Beef Chili with Tortilla Chips 4 415 401 14 3%
Veggie Tacos 3 372 305 67 18%
Jambalaya 3 400 367 33 8%
Cheese Pizza 18 3332 3260 72 2%
Middle School Totals 36 10172 9801 371 4%
All K-8 (Satellite Kitchen) Entrées Frequency
Qty
Served
Students
Served
Excess
Food
% waste
per item
Grilled Cheese 9 633 589 44 7%
Cheese Quesadilla 6 650 576 74 11%
BBQ Chicken with Red Beans & Rice 3 525 416 109 21%
Asian Chicken 3 525 437 88 17%
Beef Chili with Tortilla Chips 3 525 513 12 2%
Veggie Tacos 3 371 185 186 50%
Chorizo & Red Greens 3 525 446 79 15%
K-8 Totals 30 3754 3162 592 16%
California Thursday Data for the month of October, 2015

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All K-5 (Cooking Kitchen) School Entrées Frequency
Qty
Served
Students
Served
Excess
Food
% waste
per item
Grilled Cheese 5 837 801 36 4%
Cheese Quesadilla 9 1229 1136 93 8%
BBQ Chicken with Red Beans & Rice 3 1080 1057 23 2%
Asian Chicken 2 965 914 51 5%
Beef Chili with Tortilla Chips 1 450 450 0 0%
Veggie Tacos 1 550 518 32 6%
Jambalaya 3 1020 958 62 6%
Spicy Chicken Sandwich 1 111 111 0 0%
BBQ Chicken Sandwich 2 700 677 23 3%
Chicken, Oven Baked 2 1070 1042 28 3%
Chorizo & Red Greens 1 200 193 7 4%
Nachos 1 200 200 0 0%
Turkey Sandwich 1 230 230 0 0%
Beef Taco 1 550 542 8 1%
Totals 33 9192 8829 363 4%

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0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Grilled Cheese
Cheese Quesadilla
BBQ Chicken with Red Beans & Rice
Asian Chicken
Beef Chili with Tor lla Chips
Veggie Tacos
Jambalaya
Cheese Pizza
Entree Preferences in Oakland High Schools
Students
Served
Excess
Food
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
Grilled Cheese
Cheese Quesadilla
BBQ Chicken with Red Beans & Rice
Asian Chicken
Beef Chili with Tor lla Chips
Veggie Tacos
Jambalaya
Cheese Pizza
Entree Preferences in Oakland Middle Schools
Students
Served
Excess
Food

8. 8
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Grilled Cheese
Cheese Quesadilla
BBQ Chicken with Red Beans & Rice
Asian Chicken
Beef Chili with Tor lla Chips
Veggie Tacos
Chorizo & Red Greens
Entree Preferences in Oakland Schools K-8
Students
Served
Excess
Food
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Grilled Cheese
Cheese Quesadilla
BBQ Chicken with Red Beans & Rice
Asian Chicken
Beef Chili with Tor lla Chips
Veggie Tacos
Jambalaya
Entree Preferences in Oakland Schools K-5
Students
Served
Excess
Food