Supervisor of Food Services
Karen McGahey

Demographics

Eight elementary schools, one middle school, and two high school cafeterias are administered through a financially self-supporting centralized system of menu planning, bidding, purchasing, and employee training.

Meals 

Nearly one million meals are prepared annually by sixty full and part-time employees.  Breakfast costs $1.00 at the elementary schools and $1.25 for Indian Trail and Science Hill students.  Lunch costs $1.75 at the elementary schools and $2.00 at the middle and high school cafeterias.  School employee meals are $3.00 and visitor meals are $3.50.  Approximately 40% of all meals are served at a free and/or reduced price rate.

Menu Planning

Central menus are planned using the Enhanced Food Based option.  Self-service lines allow students to select and serve themselves from a variety of choice menus.  Choices include salad bars, fresh fruits, 100% fruit juices, 1% low-fat and non-fat milk, and whole wheat and whole grain bread and cereal selections.  The system strives to avoid trans fats whenever possible.

Wellness Initiative

The department meets all current State of Tennessee requirements of the K-8 Vending Law.  This requirement sets forth stipulations on nutritional content and portion size limits as well as strict limits for calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and sodium levels sold ala carte.  These are items sold outside of the regular meal pattern such as desserts, beverages

Facilities

The kitchens have state of the art preparation, holding, transporting, and bussing equipment.  Combo ovens, atmospheric steamers, a cooker/mixer, energy distribution centers, pulpers, and self-bussing dish machines allow the cafeterias to be environmentally friendly while managing food and labor costs.  The department has HACCP safety and sanitation guidelines in place for the proper handling, preparation, and storage of all foods and supplies.

Technology

The School Food Service Department operates a Point of Service computer system (SchoolHouse) that allows all students to have a unique bar-coded account that monitors eligibility status, the required State and Federal accountability information, and student money.  Parents can make on-line payments into their child’s meal account through www.myschoolbucks.com.  The department also notifies parents when a child’s account is out of money through an automated calling system, School Messenger.  Yet another software program (Horizon) manages the purchasing, inventory, production records and nutrient analysis. 

Cooperative Purchasing

Johnson City School Food Service was instrumental in the formation and development of NETCO, the Northeast Tennessee Cooperative, in 1997.  NETCO was the first school food service purchasing cooperative in the state of Tennessee.  The cooperative is comprised of twelve individual school systems serving an average of 50,000 students per day with an annual food budget of over eight million dollars. Visit www.netco-tn-snp.org for more information.

Awards 

A USDA Best Practice award was received in 1993 for the implementation of a Universal Breakfast Program.  The program served breakfast at no cost to all students in the Keystone Elementary (rebuilt and relocated as Mountain View Elementary) classrooms as the first activity of the day.  Studies showed an increase in test scores and attendance and decreases in tardiness and hunger-related complaints.  The Universal Breakfast program has been expanded to two other elementary schools, North Side and Woodland.

Woodland elementary was awarded the Tennessee School Boards Association School Design of the Year in 1993.  In 1995, the design was chosen to be exhibited at the ASFSA Annual Conference Architectural Design Display in Anaheim, CA.

Karen McGahey, certified School Food and Nutrition Supervisor, received national recognition with the Foodservice Achievement Management Excellence (FAME) Silver Star Special Achievement Award in 2005.  The award was given for exceptional ability to recognize and solve problems unique to small school districts.

For more information, please contact:

Karen J. McGahey, SFNS, School Food Service Director
PO Box 1517
Johnson City, Tennessee, 37605
423-434-5228

mcgaheyk@jcschools.org