Name: My Action Research
Uploaded: 2022-04-10
Duration: 5 min 25 s
Description: . . [ My Action Research] Sappna Nanda. Action Research – Uttam Cafeteria.

. . [ My Action Research] Sappna Nanda. Action Research – Uttam Cafeteria. 

Scene 1

Uttam School for Girls always believes in the overall development of their students. We at Uttam 
School understand that nutrition and diet are vitally important during these life stages.

It runs a cafeteria on a no profit no loss basis to ensure that students get healthy, fresh and 
nutritive food in school. It was initially started in 1996 under the able guidance of our Director 
Mrs. Vimla Bhusry on a very small scale according to the strength of the school. At that time one or 
two snacks were served to the students.

As our school started growing so did our cafeteria. We grew in terms of infrastructure, 
equipment, staff and cuisine. Diverse chefs with specialization in different type of cuisine were 
hired in 2005. School focuses its priority on both personal and kitchen hygiene at utmost level to 
ensure health of our students. Our school also offers complementary food to our pre-primary wing 
on every Friday. This not only helps tiny tots develop their eating habits but in addition teaches 
them dining etiquettes, use of right cutlery and napkin. The social skills of the students also get 
enhanced as the school ensures that the children develop taste for all kinds of food as they start 
eating whatever is served to them in the company of their friends.

. . [ My Action Research] Sappna Nanda. Initially we started on a weekly menu with one dish a day with relevant accompaniments. It was initially started with an objective to make our students accustomed to eating variety of food without being fussy eaters.. 

Scene 2

Initially we started on a weekly menu with one dish a day with relevant accompaniments.  It was 
initially started with an objective to make our students accustomed to eating variety of food without 
being fussy eaters.

This system worked very well for few years though we worked on adding on few seasonal drinks. 
In summers, cool refreshers like fresh lime and Aam panna were served whereas in winters we 
balanced it with hot simmering soups and corn. To begin with,  we worked on a weekly menu which 
was later converted into a monthly one,  This menu gets displayed in advance at a notable place 
outside cafeteria and even on our website so that students can plan their food choices accordingly.

Identify – Description of Study Research

To improve functioning of cafeteria we even visited some schools. During this course of time, we 
started realizing that our entire system needed redesigning as we were facing certain issues, such 
as:

 Time Crunch: Food was being provided in really subsidized amount therefore the takers of food

started increasing with the increase in the strength of school and it started becoming difficult to 
cater all students during the 20-minute break slot.

_____________________________________________________________________________

To deal with this, we introduced two breaks in school time table. One for junior wing and the 
other one for senior wing with sufficient time gap so that better service of food can be provided.

 Quantity analysis: Two break system led to another issue as sometimes food finished too early

and when made extra was left unused. It became difficult to predict the takers for food on a 
particular day.

 We even had language issues with one of our chefs as he was from Kerala. 
 The next problem we faced was how to balance the quantities between the main dish and the

. . [ My Action Research] Sappna Nanda. The roadmap of the Research Study. 

Scene 3

During this course of time, we shifted from cash to coupons so that things can be streamlined 
better as just a token should be enough at a food counter rather than taking a long time to settle 
money issues.

We also felt that we need to work further on

menu for the day rather than menu for the month

so with the guidance of our Principal ma’am,

Mrs. Sharmila Raheja, we started working on

giving more variety of dishes to the students for a

particular day and our menu started becoming more

elaborate with 4-5 items a day which was really

appreciated and welcomed by all students.

We even allocated different areas for the service of different food items like soup, snacks, main 
course so that the students had lot of choices and for better organization. We started working on 
more effective use of our resources especially our support staff. Some of the members were not 
involved in other duties during break time so we started using their inputs for that time slot which 
included distribution and collection of coupons, involving more people in service of food at food 
counters to ensure smooth distribution of food. As a result, our chefs were relieved from the service 
of food and could work on making of extra food in case required. Even tasting of food is done 
initially by our support staff on roster basis and then tasted by the teacher in charges along with 
ma’am principal.

Some teachers who belonged to south India helped us in effectively conveying our South Indian 
chefs about the kind of food and taste we were looking for.

Introducing grilled and tandoori food in school was highly appreciated by everyone. Being head of 
the department of home science my special emphasis is on nutrition. For this we even take regular 
feedbacks and suggestions from our students. To further improving  our menu we even called a 
nutritionist who interacted with many students during break time to get inputs from students on 
their food choices.

Not only this, we even started serving fresh cut, seasonal fruits to our students, and that counter 
started attracting a lot of students and helped us in instilling healthy eating habits in them.

. . [ My Action Research] Sappna Nanda. Findings. 

Scene 4

Initially when we started with this system, we faced many challenges especially deciding upon the 
quantities of a particular food item that were to be consumed on that particular day. Research was 
done through data collection in analyzing which were the popular food items amongst students, for 
this separate coupon boxes were kept for different food items so that later we can calculate how 
many plates on an average are consumed for that particular food item. It took us 4-5 weeks to 
clearly demarcate the more popular dish amongst students as we made a proper format of daily 
sales and started posting all entries there.

. . [ My Action Research] Sappna Nanda. 12150 66900 Sales 76450 70850 53950. 

Scene 5

93550
76500
Sales 2018 -19
97450
86100
80100
iiiiiiiiiii
April
May
July
79250
Aug
sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Saks
March

. . [ My Action Research] Sappna Nanda. To balance the quantities between the main dish and the accompaniment so for this as well we started posting all entries of the raw material and got a clear idea that how many plates would be produced from this. After comparative study we got a clear idea about the quantities of ingredients.. 

Scene 6

To balance the quantities between the main dish and the accompaniment so for this as well we 
started posting all entries of the raw material and got a clear idea that how many plates would be 
produced from this. After comparative study we got a clear idea about the quantities of ingredients.

5KG BENGAL GRAM 
7KG FLOUR + 1KG 
SEMOLINA

We even worked on standardisation of recipes so that similar taste and consistency of the dish can 
be maintained, after analysing the data we had a clear idea that how much quantity needs to be 
made for a particular day, depending upon popularity and strength of school on that particular day 
to minimize wastage.

Sales 2019-20
75400
112047
105500
103152
77450
75250
113960
109645
113405
• Saks
1571S

. . [ My Action Research] Sappna Nanda. We even worked on how to ensure minimum wastage of food. Leftover food from the plates is collected and taken by one of our support staff members for feeding the cattle and the unsold food is distributed at subsidised rates to the staff members as our school believes in serving freshly cooked food to the students every day.. 

Scene 7

We even worked on how to ensure minimum wastage of food. Leftover food from the plates is 
collected and taken by one of our support staff members for feeding the cattle and the unsold food 
is distributed at subsidised rates to the staff members as our school believes in serving freshly 
cooked food to the students every day.

During the pandemic the support staff was actively making food for the covid affected families. In 
their leisure time they make preserves as they have been trained in their skill enhancement 
sessions.

Our school has always tried its best to cater to the needs of its students. We wish to work and 
improve to strive for better results with the cooperation of our students and staff.

My Action Research

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