Industrial catering companies embrace the cycle menu, so it is not only in a hospital or cafeteria that this type of menu is being used.Īnother great thing about cycle menus is increased efficiency since you will know all the recipes by heart. Food waste is caused by not using your ingredients before they go bad or even over preparing and having to much product in the form of leftovers. Cycle menus have a few benefits like, being able to buy in bulk and it also reduces your food storage costs since less items will turn to food waste. A La Carte menus have a price for every individual item instead of a set price for a whole meal. They are different but both are good cycle menu examples.Ĭafeterias may use an A La Carte menu instead of a cycle menu. In these two cycle menu examples you will see that one side is only for a week, while the other is more of a menu calendar. This shows the difference between a cycle menu that is only one week vs one that is almost a whole month. Good food is great for your mental health as well as for your body. Having the knowledge of what is going to be served can give you something to look forward to like pizza Friday or Taco Tuesday. I pack his lunch on days he doesn’t like what is being served. Where my husband works, they have a cafeteria that uses a three-week cycle menu. Knowing what is planned in a cycle menu allows you to plan ahead, in case you don’t like what is being served on a specific day. Also having a regular changing menu means you are not eating the same thing every day. Having options is great it makes it easier for me to find something to eat. I personally like a varied menu because I go through food stages of what I like. Plus, always having the same food items can get boring. You’ll also see the cycle menu in places like hospitals or large work offices.Ĭycle menus are good for having a menu that changes regularly, so options feel more varied. In the school menu they usually use a month instead of a couple of weeks. Ideally the cycle menu examples will show you how they go about repeating, school menus are a great example of a cycle menu. The menu on the right hand side would be used only after the left has ran its course.

Even though they look almost identical, they are different solely because they are hybrid cycle menus. When looking at a cycle menu examples you will see that they repeat at a regular intervals in this case I will use a biweekly example. Unlike a static menu which never changes, a cycle menu repeats over a specific period of time such as a few weeks or even monthly. With the cycle menu examples I have prepared for you, understanding this menu type will be a breeze. It is one of the many menu types you will find at a food establishment, namely a cafeteria like in a hospital or school. This Cycle Menu Example is a three week rotation, in the forth column you can see it reverts back into column A.

6 week cycle school menu calendar