We prepare our food in small batches, with wholesome ingredients, just like our customers do for their own families. By cooking in small amounts throughout the day, our meals remain fresh and delicious, from the first meal served to the last student at the end of the lunch period. Our purchased items, including meat, produce and other ingredients, are delivered fresh or flash frozen, and often come from local vendors. Our cooks are guided by Whitsons-developed recipes that our culinary-trained executive chefs have tested and refined. Wherever possible, we do “scratch cooking,” making our own sauces, soups, marinades and gravies. We add fresh herbs and spices for the best flavors. The result is healthy foods made from simple, natural ingredients.

Local purchasing is an important part of our overall purchasing strategy and we partner with local farms and vendors whenever possible. We believe it is important to provide local produce, dairy and other meal components for increased quality and freshness, and to support our local economies. We also require our local vendors to adhere to the same strict quality guidelines as our regional and national suppliers. One requirement is that farms follow Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), including approved testing of their water quality and irrigation process. We also have safety and packaging expectations that must be in place to ensure that quality and integrity of all products are maintained, as well as HACCP plans, lot traceability, full ingredient and allergen disclosure and satisfactory third party audit results. Through our local sourcing efforts, we currently purchase an average of 41% of our products from local suppliers.

Effective utilization of government commodity foods is essential to ensure affordable school dining programs for parents and school districts in the communities we serve. In our menu development, we carefully consider government commodities and their use in preparing fresh meals every day. It is important to recognize that, although the use of commodities is essential, our primary focus is to deliver meals that are tasty and nutritious and meet the needs of the students. We utilize commodities in conjunction with our primary goals whenever possible, but we do not create menus based on the availability of commodities alone. We have proven methods in place to ensure cost effective means of maximizing the use of commodities and commodity dollars in all of our school nutrition programs.

As with all of our vendor relationships, we evaluate the manufacturers of the commodity products to ensure all products used are of the highest quality and nutritious value. In order to purchase their products, all manufacturers must have letters of guarantee for each product, HACCP operational plans in place at the plant, conduct third party audits and allow Whitsons to conduct our own audit, and meet USDA standards. This process is critical to ensure only the best products are purchased and served to our students.