GREAT TASTE AND PROFIT TOO!

With the theme, “Feed MORE Teens … Guaranteed!,” Smart Mouth, a Choice Partners awarded vendor, has done just that and more. This pizza manufacturer offers all the ingredients, machinery and training for school nutrition staff members to make personal-sized pizzas in-house for that fresh-from-the-oven experience most middle and high school students desire. It is the only pizza with self-rising dough that is handmade and baked onsite. The focus of the company is helping feed more children and fund the schools. Smart Mouth is a resource to market to teens and help school districts grow their bottom line.
As a site-based pizza program, Smart Mouth creates a pro forma statement before any sale so the district can gauge the effect of introducing its novel way of offering pizza. Customers may purchase the ingredients like dough, sauce, pepperoni and small individual-size boxes as well as 100 percent mozzarella cheese. A pizza conveyor oven is a must for this product. Smart Mouth offers the option to purchase one or a district/campus may use one already onsite. Each customer contract guarantees three days of staff training to ensure proper use and quality control of the product produced. Chris Bomberger, director of child nutrition at Denton ISD, said the program is overwhelmingly successful. “When you sign the contract, Smart Mouth helps you every step of the way. They train your staff staying for 3 days at every school where the program is implemented to ensure the end result is by their standards. Their follow-up is thorough. Smart Mouth is not a product; it is a concept,” Bomberger said.
As students age (like a good cheese), their interest in school food and cafeteria experiences decline. Offering onsite fresh pizza engages their attention as well as palates. This in turn creates a substantial revenue increase for any child nutrition director looking to do both. “I was given a directive by administration to increase revenue. When I saw Smart Mouth Foods at the SNA conference, they shared their program that included equipment purchase plus product that would do just that,” said Cheryl Rayburg, Boerne ISD food service director. “Our director of purchasing found access to a Smart Mouth contract through the district’s membership in Choice Partners Co-op and we were able to move forward. A portion of the weekly product ordered contributed to the equipment purchase until it was paid in full. We netted a $100K profit the first year. It was a big plus for me to be able to use Smart Mouth through Choice Partners.”

Smart Mouth pizza meets all nutritional guidelines and with this company on your team, you have several avenues to build revenue. The pizza may be sold as an a la carte item for profit or can be bundled with a fruit or vegetable to meet the nutritional requirements as a reimbursable meal through Texas Department of Agriculture USDA. Either way helps to increase the child nutrition budget which benefits kitchen staff in meal planning. Frisco ISD nutrition coordinator Katherine Smith said Frisco uses Smart Mouth in special promotional offerings to students. “Smart Mouth has provided us the marketing tools we need to promote limited time offers that increased our reimbursable meals and a la carte sales. We serve over 27,000 reimbursable meals weekly with Smart Mouth.”
Log on to the Choice Partners website for more information about CP Smart Mouth contract #17/035TJ-01. For more information about Smart Mouth, go to www.smartmouthfoods.com.