Dish machines repurposed: Either by heat or chemicals, dish machines
sanitize effectively. We have seen an uptick in daycare centers using
these for toy sanitation. Whether the nursery, Sunday school or weekly
childcare, you too might want to repurpose yours.
The power of the pivot …
in your church’s foodservice mission
By Rhonda C. Proctor
Forehead temps will be taken: Employee screening is already underway
in some kitchens, but what’s coming might be a surprise. If you offer
transportation for school, daycare or other services, bus drivers are
required to temperature scan riders in some states.
Serving considerations: Remember to serve the elderly first in shared
spaces to limit their exposure. When food is shared, serve individual
packaged pieces, like cupcakes instead of a sheet cake.
Pivot. I suspect in the last 120 days you’ve used
this term to describe a variety of swift actions your
church has taken to honor its mission during the
pandemic. My guess is that those actions haven’t
centered exclusively on foodservice … yet.
So, let’s drill down on some important pivots in
the foodservice industry that will likely impact
how you expand, operate or deliver foodservice
going forward.
Surprising pivots
After the mid-March shutdowns announcements,
we were stunned to learn that construction for
foodservice projects didn’t stop. Job sites remained
accessible, construction meetings continued, deadlines
did not move. If anything, the contractors involved in
those projects advanced with more fervor.
We predict this practice will continue, even with
changing Covid outbreak patterns around the country.
Why? Because food is essential.
So, if you halted your church’s new kitchen
project, and your team is able to proceed, it’s likely
your contractor is ready as well.
Note: any layout, design and equipment decisions made pre-pandemic
should be reviewed as new public health protocols and material supply
chains were significantly disrupted. There are manufacturers in the
industry that might not survive under heavy debt burden, and some
equipment dealers, woefully unprepared to deploy a remote workforce,
have made permanent layoffs. Openly ask questions of your contractor
and evaluate your supplier relationships.
Pivots in progress
Disruption in any industry is a challenge. Disruption in every
industry is unprecedented, but that’s today’s reality. Beyond the nowcommon
practices of foodservice workers wearing facemasks, sanitizing
tables and offering sanitizing stations, here are a few other things that
may impact your church to varying degrees:
Buffets/salad bars are gone: Thought leaders agree that self-service
food, available to many people in confined spaces, is simply too risky a
practice to continue. Perhaps inventive sneeze guards will emerge, but
right now buffets will be eliminated or converted to cafeteria-style server
plated items.
Shelters/soup kitchens are open, but changed: Individually packaged
meals, passed across a 6-foot table to hungry people waiting in long lines,
is the norm. It works, thankfully, but with greater community need
pivots will emerge: additional queuing ropes, pick-up stations, serving
carts, dry storage space and waste receptacles might affect budgets.
Plan your pivot
Pivots require removing the rose-colored-glasses and thinking about
Plan B. The reality is, in the short term Covid-19 is here to stay. Someone
in your church community will contract it or be exposed to someone
who has. Be smart and practice the necessary measures to protect
everyone, and then try to get ahead of it:
Protocols: Know the sanitation protocols of your public health
department and how to access updates quickly.
POC: Identify a Point of Contact who can be prepared to mobilize
workers/volunteers/vendors on protocols and is A-OK taking command
and control of the situation.
Messaging: Create your planned responses to an outbreak now, before
it happens. For minimal downtime and to restore trust, you’ll be glad
you didn’t waste valuable time figuring out what to say, how to say it and
who needs to say it, before it’s said.
Pivoting is anything but easy. But as we move through
unpredictable times, there’s comfort in knowing everybody else is
doing the same thing.
Rhonda C. Proctor is president of KECdesign [ www.kecdesign.com ], a
foodservice equipment & supply contractor/design firm headquartered in
Champaign, Ill., serving customers throughout the U.S.
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