Food

Dining dayparts, once crisply defined, have gotten fuzzy. Breakfast spots that saw a reliable pre-9 a.m. rush now have traffic trickle in all morning. Cafés have remote workers lingering at tables, lunching as they work on their laptops. The dinner rush has expanded into the afternoon, as customer pick up meals while they’re out and about.

“The key to the industry’s recovery will be the strength of each daypart,” The NPD Group reports. Each daypart, from breakfast to evening snack, will be shaped by “new rhythms of home, school, and work-life.”

As consumers’ new work-from-home/hybrid schedules alter when — and how — they eat, how can restaurants adapt? Let’s take a closer look at each daypart.

In the United States, food waste is a staggering problem. Approximately 20 percent of the nation’s cropland is used to grow food that isn’t consumed, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Wasted food produces more greenhouse gases than 37 million cars.   

School nutrition programs are a key touchpoint in reducing food waste, not only in how meals are served today, but in teaching children mindful eating strategies they can use lifelong. But it can be tough to implement strategies for reducing food waste in schools while still meeting federal school lunch nutrition standards and health-code regulations — and keeping kids happy!

 In the lunchroom, several strategies have been proven to work:

• Setting up a sharing table, where kids can place items they are not going to consume (milk, packaged items, or fresh fruit; only USDA food is allowed).
• Letting children take their food to go — specifically fruits, vegetables and healthy hand-held snacks
• Not pushing milk on children who don’t want it.
• Scheduling lunch after recess, which can reduce plate waste by as much as 30 percent
• Enlisting students’ help in reducing food waste with waste weigh-in competitions, taste-testing sessions for new menu items, etc.

 But what about the back of the house? Here are some best practices finding success in local school districts.

Your mother was wrong: Breakfast probably isn’t the most important meal of the day — from a health standpoint, anyway. From the perspective of restaurant operators, however, breakfast is very important indeed.

At a time when restaurant sales are slumping, breakfast consumption continues to climb. The NPD Group’s research forecasts breakfast occasions (both in restaurants and at home) will grow by 5 percent through 2019. If you’re currently offering breakfast, are you hitting customers’ sweet spots? And if you’re not, is it time to expand into this segment? It’s worth keeping an eye on current breakfast trends. 

We take great pride in our partnerships with leading foodservice equipment and supply dealers. To that end, Hamilton Beach® Commercial products were recently showcased by Hillphoenix, a pioneer in designing environmentally sustainable refrigeration systems and refrigerated display cases, in their presentation to grocery stores about creating Destination Centers to draw in more customers to the fresh perimeter areas of their stores. This piece was originally published on their Fresh Thinking blog on July 5, 2016. Read on to learn more about their strategy and recommendations for boosting business.