Planning the Canteen Menu

Planning the menu:

Think about the skills and work load of those who prepare the food and the equipment available. For example, does the cook have enough time to prepare the food planned?

Remember to consider children from different cultures and also those with special nutritional needs when planning.

• Take into account recent customer feedback about previous menus and consider the dietary needs or restrictions of you customers
• Consider what types of food you will be selling at different times of the day.  For example you may want to sell breakfast foods before school starts, soups at morning interval time and hot food at lunch time
• Use the menu planning template to start planning your menu.  Or if you are going to have a limited menu you could develop your own template

Concentrate on one category of food at a time.  For example:

• Plan the items that will be on the menu every day
• Plan the sandwiches, rolls and salads
• Plan the hot meal items
• Plan the hot snack items
• Plan the drinks

-Review the menu for variety and a balance of colours, flavours and ingredients each day