News
A new pizza operation is about to burst onto the local scene, and it's doing everything it can to get attention and create a buzz among its carefully targeted audience — Chico high school and junior high students.
The pizzeria, which is yet to have a name, is part of the largest food service operation in town. But even though the organization serves about 9,000 meals a day, that doesn't mean the new pizza product is a slam duck for success.
Tanya Harter knows she is facing some tough competitors. She is the director of Nutrition Services for the Chico Unified School District, and on the high school level her products are challenged by every eating establishment in town.
But the big competition comes from a much tougher source.
"I'm competing with Mom actually," said Harter, pointing out that anything a parent can put into a bag lunch is in direct competition with the hot lunch operation.
To draw the kids into the cafeteria, the offerings have to be something the students "identify with," something that tastes good, and something that meets all of the nutritional requirements her department has to meet.
That's where a $110,000 federal economic stimulus grant that arrived last fall, comes into play.
The money was used to purchase an industrial-grade, automated pizza oven, and all the other associated equipment necessary to produce 300 pies an hour, putting CUSD into the pizza business.
While she wants a unique CUSD product, Harter didn't want to re-invent the wheel, so she consulted with food services in the Paradise Unified School District, which she says has been running a pizzeria for nine or 10 years.
For the crust she used the PUSD recipe, "but we tweaked it a little to make it Chico Unified."
They came up with a from-scratch whole wheat crust, a handmade sauce with a blend of tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, herbs and olive oil, and a cheese blend including mozzarella, cheddar, provolone and parmesan.
However, having the recipes and the plans still weren't enough.
If the pizza effort is going to fly among her choosy consumers Harter knew she had to create a "buzz" and even a sense the students were part of the planning process.
That led to marketing campaign that included taste testing by students at all of the involved schools and also a range of adults, all of who were more than willing to wolf down a slice of pizza — or six slices — to review the product and make suggestions.
During one such taste test among roughly 30 students at Chico High, most of the comments were positive, if non-specific.
"It's good," exulted one girl in the class.
"So good," chimed in a male classmate.
While positive comments are good to hear, there were other more substantive thoughts.
Harter said one of the adult taste-testers observed, "You need to make a pizza that doesn't have red sauce. So we came up with a chicken Alfredo pizza."
At the recent student tasting, several of the boys asked for more sauce, so Harter asked her staff what would have to be changed in crust thickness to add additional sauce.
The pizza menu will include cheese, pepperoni, Hawaiian style with Canadian bacon and ham, chicken Alfredo, and a veggie version with cheese, fresh zucchini, mushrooms, red and green bell peppers and black olives.
The pizzas are the center of a full meal that includes fruit and other items.
She explained the pizzas will hit the high schools and junior high schools almost immediately on a rotating basis, one school per day, the whole project remains a "work in progress."
With only a handful of weeks left in the school year, Harter said the rest of the semester will be used working out the kinks and massaging all the aspects of the pizza operation.
"We really want to make this a big deal," she said
The homemade pizza will replace an existing store-bought offering on the day it is available on each campus.
Part of the goal is to entice more students into eating in the school cafeterias, and if it works, it will be building on a history of success.
Nutrition Services is a self-sustaining operation that takes no money out of the district's general funds. It works on federal funding and food sales, and while the enrollment in the CUSD has been sliding in recent years, the number of meals served has steadily climbed, which brings the discussion back to pizza.
"It's going to be very exciting, and new kids will be eating with us," she said.
As part of keeping the buzz going, her department is running a contest among CUSD students to name the pizzeria. The winner will be awarded an Apple iPod Touch.
The pizzeria, which is yet to have a name, is part of the largest food service operation in town. But even though the organization serves about 9,000 meals a day, that doesn't mean the new pizza product is a slam duck for success.
Tanya Harter knows she is facing some tough competitors. She is the director of Nutrition Services for the Chico Unified School District, and on the high school level her products are challenged by every eating establishment in town.
But the big competition comes from a much tougher source.
"I'm competing with Mom actually," said Harter, pointing out that anything a parent can put into a bag lunch is in direct competition with the hot lunch operation.
To draw the kids into the cafeteria, the offerings have to be something the students "identify with," something that tastes good, and something that meets all of the nutritional requirements her department has to meet.
That's where a $110,000 federal economic stimulus grant that arrived last fall, comes into play.
The money was used to purchase an industrial-grade, automated pizza oven, and all the other associated equipment necessary to produce 300 pies an hour, putting CUSD into the pizza business.
While she wants a unique CUSD product, Harter didn't want to re-invent the wheel, so she consulted with food services in the Paradise Unified School District, which she says has been running a pizzeria for nine or 10 years.
For the crust she used the PUSD recipe, "but we tweaked it a little to make it Chico Unified."
They came up with a from-scratch whole wheat crust, a handmade sauce with a blend of tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, herbs and olive oil, and a cheese blend including mozzarella, cheddar, provolone and parmesan.
However, having the recipes and the plans still weren't enough.
If the pizza effort is going to fly among her choosy consumers Harter knew she had to create a "buzz" and even a sense the students were part of the planning process.
That led to marketing campaign that included taste testing by students at all of the involved schools and also a range of adults, all of who were more than willing to wolf down a slice of pizza — or six slices — to review the product and make suggestions.
During one such taste test among roughly 30 students at Chico High, most of the comments were positive, if non-specific.
"It's good," exulted one girl in the class.
"So good," chimed in a male classmate.
While positive comments are good to hear, there were other more substantive thoughts.
Harter said one of the adult taste-testers observed, "You need to make a pizza that doesn't have red sauce. So we came up with a chicken Alfredo pizza."
At the recent student tasting, several of the boys asked for more sauce, so Harter asked her staff what would have to be changed in crust thickness to add additional sauce.
The pizza menu will include cheese, pepperoni, Hawaiian style with Canadian bacon and ham, chicken Alfredo, and a veggie version with cheese, fresh zucchini, mushrooms, red and green bell peppers and black olives.
The pizzas are the center of a full meal that includes fruit and other items.
She explained the pizzas will hit the high schools and junior high schools almost immediately on a rotating basis, one school per day, the whole project remains a "work in progress."
With only a handful of weeks left in the school year, Harter said the rest of the semester will be used working out the kinks and massaging all the aspects of the pizza operation.
"We really want to make this a big deal," she said
The homemade pizza will replace an existing store-bought offering on the day it is available on each campus.
Part of the goal is to entice more students into eating in the school cafeterias, and if it works, it will be building on a history of success.
Nutrition Services is a self-sustaining operation that takes no money out of the district's general funds. It works on federal funding and food sales, and while the enrollment in the CUSD has been sliding in recent years, the number of meals served has steadily climbed, which brings the discussion back to pizza.
"It's going to be very exciting, and new kids will be eating with us," she said.
As part of keeping the buzz going, her department is running a contest among CUSD students to name the pizzeria. The winner will be awarded an Apple iPod Touch.
