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36 FEDA News & Views Joe Urban, Greenville County Schools Director of Food and Nutrition Services You can tell a lot about a person by their twitter handle. Relief pitcher Jason Grilli's—@GrillCheese49— pays homage to his favorite snack, while noted American chef and restaurateur Chris Cosentino uses his—@off alchris—to draw attention to the nose-to-tail cooking movement. Like Cosentino, Greenville County Schools Director of Food and Nutrition Services Joe Urban is a pioneer in his own right. Just this past fall, his school district became the fi rst in the nation to be licensed to use Certifi ed Angus Beef on a school menu. His handle is @ SchoolFoodRocks and is refl ective of the 80,000 meals Greenville County schools serve every day. Chicken and waffl e sandwiches, fresh fruit and veggies, build your own mac-and-cheese bars, and high-quality seafood (i.e., pollock, salmon, mahi-mahi, catfi sh and trout) defi es what most foodservice professionals believe is possible to rotate on districtwide menus. Greenville is the largest school district in South Carolina and roughly half of its students receive reduced or free lunch, so Urban has become accustomed to questions about the math. "I'm not the only one who has fi gured it out," he says. "For the most part, we all work with the same budget and there are other progressive districts out there like ours. "In Greenville, we threw out the book on what school food is supposed to be and brought in a bunch of experts. Many of us are ex-restaurant and higher- education foodservice people and we fi gured out how to serve better food." Voted Food Management magazine's 2018 Innovator of the Year for the K-12 segment, Urban has been tied to foodservice for 30 years. He grew up in a family-owned restaurant and managed a national pizza chain while earning a degree in business at Monmouth University in New Jersey. After college, he moved to Central Florida, where he opened a 1950s-themed diner called Kimberly's. "I had a restaurant for 15 years and franchised for about seven of those," he says. e Largest Food Franchise in Greenville Before selling his concept in 2006 and moving to Greenville, Urban had four units under the Kimberly's brand. As the head of nutrition services, he has 101, comprised of 92 full-service kitchens and nine satellite locations run by a staff of 750 employees. Approaching school foodservice like any other mainstream operation is what's helped the visionary elevate school food, and treat students to delicacies like alligator Creole. Used for Greenville County Schools' summer feeding program and special events, the district's food truck recently delivered the Cajun dish to 140 middle school students as a reward for making the honor role. "We're a very chef- driven school district," says Urban, alluding to his push to stay ahead of the trends and how he attacks the business of managing multiple kitchens. "We monitor our food and labor costs closely and, for us, they account for 75 to 80 percent of our total costs," he says. "We don't get a lot of money for a kid's meal, so it is important to watch the bottom line and we have to make sure that we're training our staff on how to manage their food and labor costs." Savings are reinvested into producing high-quality and healthier options, which is the highest priority for 36 FEDA News & Views Schools Director of Food and Nutrition professionals believe is possible to rotate on districtwide menus. Greenville is the largest school district in South Carolina and roughly half of its students receive reduced or free lunch, so Urban has become accustomed to questions about the math. "I'm not the only one who has fi gured it out," he says. "For the most part, we all work with the same budget and there are other progressive districts out there like ours. "In Greenville, we threw out the book on what school food is supposed to be and brought in a bunch of experts. Many of us are ex-restaurant and higher- education foodservice people and we fi gured out how to serve better food." e Largest Food Franchise in Greenville Before selling his concept in 2006 and moving to Greenville, Urban had four units under the Kimberly's brand. As the head of nutrition services, he has 101, comprised of 92 full-service kitchens and nine satellite locations run by a staff of 750 employees. Approaching school foodservice like any other mainstream operation is what's helped the visionary elevate school food, and treat students to delicacies like alligator Creole. Used for Greenville County Schools' summer feeding program and special events, the district's food truck recently delivered the Cajun dish to 140 middle school students as a reward for making the honor role. "We're a very chef- driven school district," says Urban, alluding to his push to stay ahead of the trends and how he attacks the business of managing multiple kitchens. "We monitor our food and labor costs closely and, for us, they account for 75 to 80 percent of our total costs," he says. "We don't get a lot of money for a kid's meal, so it is important to watch the bottom line and we have to make sure that we're training our staff on how to manage their food and labor costs." Savings are reinvested into producing high-quality and healthier options, which is the highest priority for In Their Perfect World