Nutrition for Education

Business Plan

December 7, 2018

Nutrition for Education

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 Ezekiel Nwaigwe, Founder & CEO

1600 Holloway Ave, San Francisco, CA 94132

(415) 338-1111

nutritionforeducation@mail.com

December 7, 2018

California Department of Education

1430 N Street Room 1500

Sacramento, CA 95814

United States

“National School Lunch Program (NSLP)”

To whom it may concern:

I am writing to request subsidies for a new and improved California school meal program,

Nutrition for Education. This will be a cost-effective, exclusively California-based program,

where all food will be sourced within the state. With our goal to continue to feed our ever-

increasing California student population, we believe quality should not suffer. We offer students

balanced and nutritious meals that will support them in their studies from kindergarten to the

12th grade.

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In order to serve California’s 10,315 schools with a total of 6,299,451 students, we request a

starting subsidy of approximately $55,116,690. All of this money includes the purchasing costs

of all food items and will be used to start and continue the costs for oncoming academic school

years. Because purchasing costs from state vendors may change depending on how the economy

is doing at any given time, our corresponding reimbursements will also differ for the future.

Our staff will include experienced chefs, Registered Dietitians, and coordinators who have years

of experience in both industry and working in education. In addition, we will also train our food

service workers, chefs, and coordinators to help with receiving and storing of food items. Our

training will help our employees to work efficiently in an organized manner with a tray-line

system where student meals begin from end-to-end, with main entree, side items, and cold items,

Each employee will be responsible for just one portion of a meal.

A month test-run of our program at several randomly selected schools across the state revealed

that providing state-sourced food was much more time-efficient, supportive of local economies,

and increased overall student academic success. Food arriving from as nearby as the same

community proved to increase productivity in schools by allowing faster preparation and

planning for meals. This, in turn, allotted more time for the programs’ cooking courses for

students, where students learn the basic life skill while also getting educated about nutrition and

community involvement. Our food product providers, including the local farms and vendors,

earned profit to enable them to continue their valuable contributions their communities. Last,

students reported feeling more “satiated, energized, and motivated.” Reviews of academic

progress showed a correlated 15% increase in academic achievements.

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I have researched the cost of purchasing foods from out-of-state and overseas and have a found

that our program can save California about $1.5 million by limiting business to the state. With

our growing population, it is paramount to have the necessary funds to support it. The money

saved can be used to invest in our schools and continue to serve our students, and create a more

efficient society.

I would like to thank you for your time in reading my request. I look forward to kick starting this

program and seeing all the successes to come. Please call or email me at your convenience, (415)

338-1111, nutritionforeducation@mail.com.

Sincerely, Ezekiel Nwaigwe

Founder & CEO

Nutrition for Education

Company Description/Executive Summary: Nutrition for Education is a United States

Department of Agriculture (USDA) sponsored nonprofit foodservice organization based in

California, with offices partnered with every major school district in the state. Dedicated to

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providing nutritious food to all children in public schools ranging from preschool to the 12th

grade, we believe that all students in California schools should have their nutrition needs met

with healthy food that is sourced both locally and/or from within the state of California.

Currently, many public schools in the state spend their subsidized money they have been

given by the USDA, to receive a large portion of their food supply from vendors and distributors

that are from out-of-state, across the country or from other countries. This includes produce, such

as apples, bananas, and oranges, and processed foods with long shelf-lives, which enable them to

be shipped long distances. We hope to reduce the need for foreign supply and out-of-state supply

by working with local and regional food distributors to feed all of California’s public schools.

California schools will benefit by saving on the expensive costs of shipping outside food

products into the state, and the students will enjoy fresher and healthier meals.

Unlike the typical procedure of purchasing foods from various distributors that are cheap,

fast, and/or otherwise more convenient for schools, Nutrition for Education’s standard is focused

on healthy, minimally processed, and in-state food. Also, because we work with the abundant

local farms and agricultural fields of central California, our selections will be of significant

convenience in terms of both cost and time. Additionally, with our branches working closely

with every school district in the state, we will always be ready for our food deliveries to make

sure schools are well supplied.

Mission Statement: Our goal is to be able to keep up with the demand for food across the state

as the population grows, by continuing to feed all California school children with healthy and

sustainable food that is all California-sourced. At the same time, we aspire to educate, train, and

equip students with the skills necessary to feed themselves nutritious home-cooked meals.

Eventually, if we consistently see success, we hope to expand beyond the state by going national

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and working with other distributors, vendors, and farms across the country. We hope to achieve

this grand goal with continued federal subsidies from the USDA.

Products and Services: Our organization will strive to provide the freshest and healthiest food

to kids from farm-to-table, as we will not be providing commercially processed foods. Our

breakfasts and lunches offered will be cooked and prepared from scratch, daily. Kitchen staff,

cooks, and chefs will be well-trained to provide the quality school children deserve. All students

will also be required to participate in mandatory cooking classes with varying difficulty

depending on their grade level. These classes will function as valuable extracurricular activities,

as well, in which students can get academic credit.

Classification and type of foodservice: Nutrition for Education is a food services and facilities

management company that utilizes various operations including but not limited to conventional,

ready prepared food service, cook-chill foodservice, assembly serve foodservice, and more. We

will be both supplying our clients, all California schools, with foods and also managing the

production and distribution on-site, by running school cafeterias. We believe that acting as a

multi-disciplinary system is crucial, and so, managing school cafeterias is another important step

to meet our goal of having a direct impact on the students we serve. We understand that variety

is an essential part of a healthy diet, and so to meet this need, we will be purchasing goods in

various stages of production from fresh and ready-to-eat produce to minimally processed and

packaged foods, such as whole wheat bread, that has been prepared and baked from Californian

vendors.

One-Day Sample Menu: Our menu will be dynamic, with different meals for different days.

Generally, we will be providing meals based upon the USDA food pyramid, which focuses on

the importance of having a serving of whole grains/complex carbs, protein, fruits, vegetables,

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and dairy, in which we will also be supplying our clients with dairy alternatives such as almond

or soymilk products. According to the USDA, variety is an important part of a balanced and

healthy diet, which includes foods from the different food groups grains, protein, fruits,

vegetables, and dairy (“WHAT IS MYPLATE?,” 2018). Also, with respect to food waste

management, all meals will be adjusted and prepared based on total enrollment and attendance of

students who expect to eat our food served in schools. A sample day would include a breakfast of

scrambled eggs, potatoes, steamed and seasoned spinach, a fresh orange, and milk. Here, kitchen

staff would portion out all food items for the day and prepare everything as needed. The eggs

will be cooked along with the potatoes and spinach that morning, while the orange and milk

would be placed on the plate from the fridges. For lunch, we would serve chicken breasts, with

lightly seasoned brown rice, cooked broccoli and carrots, a banana, and yogurt. Again, staff will

cook the chicken, rice, and vegetables prior to lunch time, while the banana and yogurt would be

easily served from cold storage.

Market Analysis: In this industry, many large food companies tend to be successful because of

the mass production of convenient ready-to-eat or instant processed foods. According to a study

done by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, more than seventy-five percent of

Americans purchase processed foods because of their convenience. Also, these foods tend to be

high in fat, sodium, and sugar, which do not make them particularly healthy (Poti, Mendez, Wen,

& Popkin, 2015). By running the whole foodservice departments in schools, we can help schools

avoid falling for suboptimal products from large competitors. At the same time, we can teach

students to enjoy less processed, noncommercial products by explaining the health benefits to

them. By educating students about how not all food is created equal and that taste, alone, should

not be used to determine the quality of foods, we will work towards making students more aware

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of what foods they choose and why.

Target population: Our specific target population will be school children from preschool to

highschool. This is a very vulnerable population group with respect to age, and susceptibility to

commercial influence. Unfortunately, due to long-term advertising, many grade school students

tend to have preference for many commercially-prepared foods. According to Bruce Watson of

The Guardian, children remain the most vulnerable population in the United States for falling for

advertisements. In this article, Michelle Obama, on behalf of her campaign against childhood

obesity, was quoted about how children are taught to make selections based on celebrity

associations instead of intrinsic quality of actual products (Watson, 2014). Our organization will

tackle this conflict by further educating students on the nutritional values of products, instead of

making choices based on popularity. We will also go in-depth at explaining long-term

consequences of unhealthy eating habits such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, to motivate

students to make healthier decisions.

Location: We will be located throughout the state of California. This decision to have statewide

locations was made to attempt our goal of reforming all school systems across the state.

According to the California Agricultural Production Statistics, in the California Department of

Food and Agriculture website, California is the leading state that with numerous farms and

agricultural fields are producing most of the countries food (“California Agricultural Production

Statistics,” 2018). We believe that if California is able to produce most of America’s food from

farm and agriculture, the state is more than capable of meeting all its citizens’ food and

nutritional needs. This also would satisfy our mission to avoid outsourced food, as well as easily

reach and serve our target population.

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Financial Plan:

Nutrition for education is a non-profit that will be subsidised by the USDA. As such, all

wholesale meal expenses will be matched and reimbursed to break even. Any extra money from

paid meals by children will be kept and used for business expenses such as wholesale purchases;

this will help to reduce the federal reimbursement. Employees are also paid with funds from both

the state of California and the federal government. So, employee pay and benefits will be

matched as well. Essentially, all operating expenses are matched by the government so that the

organization is running. An annual financial operating budget is as follows.

Food costs include meats at an average price of meat $3.70 per pound, veggies at $2.70

per pound, fruits at $3.20 per pound, bread and other starched at $2.40 per pound, and milk at

$2.40 per pound.

For payroll expenses, we have 5 chefs making $40,000/year, 15 food service workers

making $20,000/year, 5 coordinators who make $45,000/year, and 5 dietitians at $70,000/year.

Our occupancy cost is fixed at $15,000/year. This is rent money we pay to schools and the

city to run our organization.

All supplies including, kitchen matierals and cutlery, ovens, stoves, refirgerators, and

other food preparation and handling total approximately $30,000.

Food Costs $80,000

Payroll $975,000

Supplies $30,000

Occupancy $15,000

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 Total $1,100,000

California Department of Education

CNFS/CACFP-F-W (Rev. 04/2012)

Child Nutrition Fiscal Services

Fixed Percentage Claiming Method
Monthly Reimbursement Calculation Worksheet

Use rates applicable to claim year. Month

Year _1___

Reimbursement rates change annually. Please consult the USDA Website:

http://www.fns.usda.gov/cacfp/reimbursement-rates for current reimbursement rates.
================================================================================
===========
To compute the fixed percentages, enter the number of participants reported in each
eligibility category of the claim form on the lines below:

Free Reduced-Price Base-Rate

Total Enroll-ment

Next, convert these numbers in each eligibility category to percentages by individually dividing the
number of free, reduced-price, and base-rate participants by the total enrollment. Carry the percentages
to 4 decimal places.

(A) % Free (B) % Reduced-Price (C) % Base-Rate

To compute the Federal Reimbursement for meals served by meal type and eligibility category, multiply
the percentages computed above for each eligibility category by the total meals served for each meal
type, rounding the computed meals to the nearest whole number. Then multiply these computed meals by
the federal reimbursement rate using the table below:

(1) Breakfast Total __ ___6,299,451________

Breakfast Calculated Calculated Meals Breakfast Reimburseme

Total Percentage Rate nt

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 4724588 75% Free = Free Meals X $5.00 = $23,622,940
(A) (1a) Free
X

1574862 X 25% = Reduced X $ 2.50 = $3,937,155

Reduced (B) Meals (1b) Reduc
ed

(2) Lunch Total ___________6,299,451____

Lunch Calculated Calculated Meals Lunch Rate Reimburseme

Total Percentage nt

4724588 X 75% Free = Free Meals X $ 5.00 = $23,622,940

(A) (2a) Free

X 25 % = Reduced X $ 2.50 = $3,937,155

1574862 Reduced (B) Meals (2b) Redu
ced

Total Federal Reimbursement for Meals:

To compute the federal reimbursement for cash-in-lieu of commodities, multiply the total number of
lunches (2) and breakfasts(1) served by the reimbursement rate:

Lunches (2) 27558345 + Breakfasts(3) 27558345 = $ 55116690

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============

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Conclusion: Nutrition for Education is an innovative organization, focused on sustainable,

ethical, and healthy solutions to California grade schools breakfast and lunch programs. Our

mission is to feed all students with sustainable, state-sourced food that is fresh, healthy, and

minimally processed. We will be contracting with farms, agricultural fields, distributors, and

vendors throughout the state to help us supply schools. We will also be educating students about

healthy eating and have them actively involved in basic cooking classes to learn an essential life

skill. Our company will be handling both supply and management on school premises for better

efficiency and success of reaching our goals. Our subsidies from the USDA will be the starting

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investment into our business and will be used to service our clients, school districts, and students,

ultimately.

APPENDIX

Menu

(All meals $2.50)

Monday: Breakfast:Scrambled eggs, potatoes, milk, orange

Lunch: chicken breasts, brown rice, broccoli, carrots, banana, yogurt

Tuesday: Breakfast:whole wheat pancakes, milk, banana

Lunch: Turkey sandwich, peach, chocolate milk

Wednesday:Breakfast: Oatmeal, milk, almonds, raisins

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 Lunch: Chicken salad, mixed greens, apple, milk

Thursday:Breakfast: Whole grain cereal, milk, pear

Lunch: Soy veggie wrap, avocado, water, watermelon

Friday:Breakfast: Breakfast burrito, corn tortilla, lemon, milk

Lunch: roast beef, brown rice, mixed veggies, melon, water

References

Watson, B. (2014, February 24). The tricky business of advertising to children. The Guardian.

Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/advertising-

to-children-tricky-business-subway

California Agricultural Production Statistics. (2018, August 30). California Department of Food

and Agriculture. Retrieved from https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/statistics/

Poti, J.M., Mendez, M.A., Wen Ng, S., & Popkin, B.M. (2018, June). Is the degree of food

processing and convenience linked with the nutritional quality of foods purchased

by US households?. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Retrieved from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4441809/

WHAT IS MYPLATE? (2018, July 19). The United States Department of Agriculture.

Retrieved from https://www.choosemyplate.gov/MyPlate

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