Catering For Kids Business Plan: Mission

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Catering For Kids Business Plan

Mission
Catering For Kids is dedicated to providing at-risk youth with an opportunity to gain
work experience and transferable skills by providing our customers with
healthy, homemade foods and excellent service at reasonable prices. Employees of
Catering For Kids will be students who are enrolled in the culinary arts program at the
Chambers School and Career Center and are interested in gaining work experience in the
restaurant and food services industry. The experiences the students have while
participating in this program will assist them in making the transition from school to
work and will allow them to develop entrepreneurial skills that will be transferable to any
job in the future.

1.2 Keys to Success

Cultivate an identity (brand) for the Catering For Kids business in


the Eugene/Springfield community.

Expand our customer base into new areas within


Eugene/Springfield.

Hire a year-round business manager for the catering business,


thereby providing student employment twelve months of the year.

Expand the donor/corporate partner base and corporate


contributions that add to the financial resources of Chambers
School's programs.

Provide students with entrepreneurial job skills that can open


doors to future employment opportunities.

Acquire additional equipment to support future growth and offer


greater flexibility, leading to expanded services offered by Catering
For Kids that will further the goal of providing valuable work
opportunities for homeless and at-risk youth.

1.3 Objectives

Enroll approximately 25 Chambers School students for stipend


and school credit based positions in the next school year.

Serve a sufficient number of clients to break even financially,


covering pay for student employees, staff and all inventory
expenses.

Move from serving internal clients of Bright Future to external


clients, especially other nonprofit organizations.

Develop an entrepreneurial curriculum for the culinary arts


program and other students of Chambers School.

Executive Summary
Bright Future Youth and Family Services is a private nonprofit organization that serves
more than 7,000 children, youth and families each year in Lane County, Oregon. We
provide a continuum of services ranging from prevention to treatment for clients ranging
in age from two to 24. Our agency also works closely with, and helps shape, the major
systems that impact the young people and families in our community and state. You will
find us involved in such diverse areas as mental health, juvenile justice, positive youth
development, education, and work readiness.

The Chambers School and Career Center is one of ten tax-exempt nonprofit programs of
Bright Future Youth and Family Services. Our mission is to assist at-risk youth in the
Eugene/Springfield area in becoming productive citizens by providing a learning and
work environment where they feel challenged, respected, and accountable as they strive
to meet the demands of adulthood. We have a staff of approximately 250 employees and
also utilize several volunteers each year who play a vital role in the organization. Bright
Future prides itself on its diversity of funding sources that make for a fiscally strong
organization. Agency revenues come from governmental contracts, charitable gifts,
United Way funding, and fees for service.
Chambers School is proud to be the premier provider of at-risk youth alternative
education and career assistance in Lane County, and seeks to make this experience even
more valuable for its clients. This is done through a series of curricula funded by the Lane
Workforce Partnership, Oregon Youth Conservation Corps, Oregon Department of
Human Resources, and the local school districts. The most recent program we have
developed is a culinary arts program in which students learn about food preparation and
safe handling and then put this knowledge to use by preparing lunches for their peers at
the Chambers School. After completing the 9-week curriculum, students are placed with a
local food service business for a 60-hour practical training where they can continue to
develop their skills. Currently, the culinary arts program is available to five students per
9-week school term, or approximately 25 students per year. Students enrolled in the
program are selected because of their sincere interest in the culinary field and their
excellent attendance.
After a successful first year of operating the culinary arts program, we are looking to
expand the program further. By developing the program into a full day program of
academics and culinary arts training, we can develop an entrepreneurial curriculum that
will allow our students to gain an insight into the operation of a small business.
Specifically, by launching a lunch box catering business (called the Catering For Kids),
we could offer our students the opportunity to gain valuable work experience for which
they can earn both school credit and a stipend, acquire entrepreneurial business skills and

achieve a real sense of accomplishment. According to the National Foundation for


Teaching Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial training can help foster in students a sense of
vision and personal responsibility for their future, creating a beneficial effect on selfesteem and outlook.

However, major challenges face Catering For Kids in the future. These include the need
to:
1.

Fund the program, including possible expansion of the existing commercial


kitchen or lease of a larger kitchen off-campus.

2.

Employ additional staff to teach the afternoon curriculum.

3.

Purchase the additional food inventory required to launch the catering business.

The Board of Directors, staff, and volunteers of Bright Future continue to work toward
providing a quality experience in the most effective and efficient manner possible with
optimism for the future of this program.

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Products

The Catering For Kids will offer its clients a variety of healthy, fresh lunch options.
These options are described in detail in the following section. Our menu will be reviewed
and modified regularly, allowing us to constantly provide new and appealing boxed lunch
options for business meetings.

3.1 Product Description


Corporate customers demand that food and presentation quality be consistently high,
which is why Catering For Kids will strive to maintain the best quality possible. For
example, our ingredients include excellent products like Tillamook cheeses, La Petite
Croissant Bakery breads, College City coffee and Martinelli's sparkling apple juice. Our
cookies are fresh baked daily and each boxed lunch is packed with the utmost care in
environmentally responsible packaging. Sandwiches are hand-wrapped in deli paper and
are closed with our signature label and thank you card, a sign of ongoing committment to
serving only the best-quality foods and to giving at-risk youth in the Eugene/Springfield
area the opportunities they deserve.
Food Product Descriptions
Boxed lunches: a sandwich or salad with dressing packet, deli salad (i.e. pasta salad or
cottage cheese, cinnamon and fresh fruit), fresh seasonal fruit, chips and a cookie.
Sandwich or salad options will include:

Roast beef and havarti dill sandwich;

Avocado, smoked turkey, lettuce and tomato sandwich;

Chicken caesar salad sandwich;

Chicken salad with red grapes croissant sandwich;

Garden hummus and provolone sandwich;

Hawaiian sunrise with turkey ham;

Pear, walnut and goat cheese salad.

Buffet style lunches:

Party platters of meats, cheeses, breads, fruit, condiments, chips


and dessert;

Sandwich wrap platters with several deli salad options, fruit, chips
and dessert;

Baked potato bar with toppings, macaroni salad, fruit and


dessert;

Lasagna bar (including several types) with french bread, salad


and fruit and desert;

Taco salad bar with fresh toppings, taco shells and fresh salsas.

Both styles of lunch catering will include vegetarian, low-fat, dairy-free and allergy-free
options and we plan to modify individual meals at our customer's request. Our desserts
include freshly baked cookies and dessert bars. Chips will be 1-1.5oz. store-bought
packages with a variety of popular flavors available. Each lunch box will include one
package each of mayonnaise, dijonaise deli mustard, a plastic fork, our trademark blue
straw and thank you card, a napkin and a Euphoria chocolate. Salads will come with the

customer's choice of dressings, packaged on the side. We will offer one variety of
dressing that is homemade in our kitchen; others will be store-bought individual packets.
Beverages will be available for purchase and will include a variety of fruit juices,
sparkling water and soda.
Both buffet and boxed style lunches must be ordered three days in advance so that our
staff has adequate time to prepare the meal. A minimum order of 10 is required for all
buffet style lunches. There will be no minimum for boxed lunch orders.

3.2 Alternative Providers


A number of other caterers offer boxed lunches for business clients. However, none of
these businesses specialize in serving the nonprofit sector, nor are they themselves a
nonprofit that benefits the local community. Catering For Kids will specialize in
developing excellent relationships with its nonprofit clientele. We believe that this unique
position, combined with competitively priced, fresh, high-quality meals will set Catering
For Kids apart as the premier caterer for the Lane County nonprofit sector.

3.3 Printed Collaterals


Literature used by Catering For Kids will include our organization's goals, logo, website
and physical addresses as well as a sincere thank you to our customers for supporting our
organization. Our menu, for example, is an excellent example of the type of literature that
we are proud to use to promote our business.

3.4 Sourcing
Food products for meal preparation will be purchased by the Catering For Kids marketing
manager at local grocery wholesalers, either Costco or United Grocers using a business
account.
Staff to prepare the food will be current students of the Chambers School's Culinary Arts
Program. These students will receive a stipend for their work as well as school credit.

Food preparation will be supervised by the Chambers School's Culinary Arts instructor.
Management of Catering For Kids itself, including finances, marketing and building
client relationships, will be handled primarily by a paid part-time staff member.

3.5 Technology
So far, only three Eugene caterers offer online ordering, which means that the primary
methods of ordering catered lunches in Eugene/Springfield is still by phone or fax.
Catering For Kids will offer fax/phone ordering with either trained students or staff
taking orders with a minimum two days in advance of delivery. During this first year,
Catering For Kids will primarily serve Bright Future internal customers only and online
ordering will be unnecessary. However, in the long term as more customers become used
to ordering lunch online, Catering For Kids may update its website to receive online
orders.
During year two, Catering For Kids will have a website that includes its complete menu
and contact information. We will include this website address on as many printed
materials as possible. For example, our thank-you notes, which will be included in every
boxed lunch, will have our website address printed on them. The administrative offices of
Bright Future currently updates and maintains the organization's websites and we
anticipate that this department will also handle the design and creation of the Catering
For Kids website.

3.6 Future Products


As our business grows, we foresee the need to expand our current kitchen, which may
mean opening a second location in which students can work to prepare meals and receive
instruction. This additional kitchen must meet strict guidelines set forth by the
Department of Human Services and will require our students to be transported to and
from this location under adult supervision. However, this second location will allow
Catering For Kids to allow an even greater number of at-risk youth to gain valuable work
experience before they graduate, thus furthering the ultimate goal of Catering For Kids.

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