Tracy Stuckrath  0:00  
Right. Yeah. Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of eating at a meeting. I am your host Tracy Stuckrath and we are here live every single Wednesday talking about food and beverage and I am excited to bring to you I do this every week. This woman next to me, her name is Kristen Mannion, Taylor, who is currently the senior vice president of in flight services at Delta Airlines my airline of choice, she leads a team of 25,000 plus flight attendants Wow. As well as Delta's onboard global food and beverage experience in operation, she and her team work every day to define and deliver the Delta brand. And I am going to talk to her today about catering at 30,000 feet in the air. So hello, Kristin.

Kristen Manion Taylor  0:48  
Hello, thank you so much for having me. Excited to have the discussion today. Yeah, I

Tracy Stuckrath  0:54  
and thank you, Gwen, for introducing us. Your your book, club friend and my friend from the events world. So we collide. So a couple of months ago, I reached out because a couple of months ago, you announced Delta announced that you were refreshing the food and beverage experience on board for 2023. And I was really impressed by the fact that you were adding vegan options and plant or plant based vegan options. And you were adding espresso and all these other things. So can you talk about why you were doing that refresh? Is this something that you do every single year?

Speaker 2  1:33  
Yeah, so we we are constantly refreshing our menus, I think now is a really unique point in time, because we're coming out of COVID recovery. So it was just about this time last year that we actually started putting food back on board planes, we had box meals, but traditional trace service in our first class cabins, multi step service and our international premium cabins was just starting to come back, it gave us an opportunity for us to look and see. What are our customers asking for? What would they appreciate and enjoy? And what did we want to do in this opportunity? You know, in this this moment, when we are starting to reintroduce food service, and our customer mix has changed through COVID. We, we've really seen a lot more what we call our high value leisure customers. These are folks who traditionally in our premium cabin, so our delta one cabin or delta premium select cabin or domestic first class, traditionally, you would see a lot of corporate sales customers, traveling for business consultants, bankers, you know, manufacturing, etc. And those folks are still there. But that business isn't fully recovered. But our premium cabins are full. And so what's happening is customers have been cooped up for three years, they're ready to have experiences, they're ready to get traveling for their vacations. And so they're willing to invest a little bit more in premium cabin since high value leisure customers are getting on board and flying with us. And as we end, you know, in our as our population changes, we've asked him what's of interest to you? What do you want? And that's what we heard was more plant based options, more choice, more personalization, more small businesses, more diverse businesses. And so those are the types of products are introducing.

Tracy Stuckrath  3:36  
Awesome. And I mean, I liked I was impressed when and I know I have a picture somewhere on my phone of the box meals during COVID. You know, because I flew a couple of times during that timeframe. And I did like the box meals and I liked and this is coming from a person who's talks about food and beverage and has food allergies. But the box meals, you know they had the prepackaged foods in there that had the full labels in them. And I really appreciated that because you also had introduced some things that were vegan, some things that were gluten free in there and I the Oh, the little blue bars that say no, or just eggs, or x bars, you have many RX bars in there. And so how are you? How do you decide what's going on to those onto the first class premium seat food and beverage menus as well. It's what's going into the back. And just touching on the allergens a little bit too is that I know you've removed peanuts, you remove peanut, you have peanuts, root peanuts, you put peanuts back on and you remove them again. So how do you make those decisions with what's going on on the cart as well as in the premium section?

Speaker 2  4:45  
Yeah, so to the first part of your question, it's it. Again, we really try to focus on customer demand and what are folks wanting? So what you'll tend to see from us when we get into on board With offering on board for, again, domestic first class or delta one, you'll tend to see really comfort foods, recognizable foods, so your short ribs, your pastas for our vegetarian customers, chicken dishes that people really recognize, where we're offering some more unique options that maybe folks hadn't seen before is when what we call pre select. So prior to your travel, we'll send you an email and you have the opportunity to tell us what it is you would like to have on board. And our menu selection is much wider on pre select. So that gives us indications about what people are interested in. And we learned from that, and that helps us in our next menu, cycle, refresh and update that. But that really is a big part of what goes into what we select. The other thing is we have a whole menu development and design team building for the scale that we're at 60 million meals a year 160,000 A day that we produce. So for the scale we're producing, for we have 130 kitchens around the world. So Wow. Right, that's a part of our scale, as well, we have multiple catering providers who support us in those kitchens. You know, and, and when you get into the air, your taste buds change your your, it's really interesting, but it kind of dulls your taste buds. If it's we have to plan for a very different flavor profile and venue profile than what you'd be used to on the ground.

Tracy Stuckrath  6:44  
Well, and I was listening, and I'm going to post the video from the Wall Street Journal that you guys just had they came to visit you in the cat, one of the kitchens. But I was one of the videos I was watching is that, like lettuces don't do well, but cucumbers and tomatoes, you because they they maintain the moisture. But then you do have to add more salt, is that right?

Speaker 2  7:05  
Well, traditionally, that's what airlines have done is they've added more salt to give it more of that flavor. What we've tried to do is expand out of that and leverage maybe more sauces, more relishes, more spices, that will make it more interesting. And again, taste give it that same flavor profile you're used to getting on the ground, which is a little bit more challenging once you get in the air.

Tracy Stuckrath  7:29  
So how do you what is that I mean, 60 million meals? And you said, how many a day 160,000 260,000 A day, which my gosh, I mean, that's much bigger than my catering functions, you know, in a convention center. So and it was interesting, because when we were chatting before, you're like, you wouldn't think that the airlines were in the food and beverage industry. But you are I mean, you've got your sky clubs, you've got your flights, but the the logistics of getting the food from that kitchen to the hotel or to the hotel to the plane. And then the flight attendants, you know, serving those. Can you share a little bit about what that whole process is? And because I want to talk to, if you can touch on as well, the farm to table aspect, because you are using a lot of local producers.

Speaker 2  8:19  
Yeah, absolutely. So you're right. There's the menu design and development again, which you know, we just discussed is super unique for the industry. So we have to be sure that we can purchase those ingredients at the scale that we need. So one of the ways to your last question were on farm to table that we're addressing that is we're okay with having some variation. We're okay in Atlanta, having a unique menu for Atlanta with locally sourced goods and providers and products on board which is different than maybe what we're doing in San Francisco with say, John and Vinny who's one of our providers, they're here in Atlanta. It's the mushaima Bailey menu, you know, acclaimed chef of the gray here, you know, we've got Union Square Hospitality Group that we leveraged in New York, etc. So we do have people we partner with and local providers, that helps supplement you know, our menus. And we really feel like that's important on our sustainability efforts, supporting small businesses supporting diverse suppliers and giving our customers things that they recognize and you know, from their from their local towns. So that's the menu design and development part of it. Yeah, and then we have to source all that product, we have to get it into warehouses in real time, we then have to get it out to these 130 kitchens and make sure that in those kitchens, it has to go into carts and is provisioned appropriately so that then it gets on a truck goes out to the aircraft. gets loaded into the galleys of those aircraft. And we have to make sure everything's there for the flight attendant, because you can't get 35,000 feet in the air and realize you don't have, you know, three of the meals that you needed. So we have handoffs and checks that go on between our flight attendants and our caterers to make sure that we've got everything we need. Don't always, you know, we there, of course, there are misses, and we don't always get it, right. But we've worked really hard to make sure there's no missing items, on boards too, just for an example. And a 350, which is our biggest kind of international plane, okay, guys, you know, to Europe or to the Pacific, it can take as many as 135, carts and carriers on that aircraft that have to be appropriately provisioned, to make sure we're delivering the service we need for everybody on board.

Tracy Stuckrath  10:53  
So right now, that are all those 130 carts upstairs with us in the galleys that we see. They are like below and brought up in an elevator or anything like that. It used

Speaker 2  11:05  
to be there were certain aircraft types like L 10, elevens, and others that used to have those and seven, four sevens that had this that type, but no, everything's on in the galleys at the same level that our customers are flying. So yeah. And then

Tracy Stuckrath  11:20  
and that just reminded me because you thinking about planes and thinking about our baggage is baggage and the weights and things, oh, we don't have enough cargo room for you to have your bag. But in one of the videos I saw is everything is weighed. Absolutely. Because those meals have to be a certain weight to meet the standard to get into that tray.

Speaker 2  11:41  
That is correct. And we need to know how much weight is on an aircraft, because that's how we plan for fuel. Right. That's how we plan for what the airport what how much fuel we need to have on board in order to you know, get from point A to point B and have buffers in place. So the everything that's in the belly of the plane cargo wise, we estimate passengers baggage weight, but we wait, we know how much all of our, you know, aircraft with the seats and the product and the galleys, how much all of that weighs. But yeah, there's, there's certainly a lot of science and engineering that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that everything is a safe, clean operation.

Tracy Stuckrath  12:21  
And it's funny because this, the scale that you use in one of the videos is the one that I use at home too. So to weigh the food, okay, so I want to talk about allergens a little bit too. And being a person who's been upgraded to fur, I usually don't buy my first class ticket, I wait to get upgraded. But you know, that it's a little bit challenging. But I want I just want to talk through how you will work through this. It's there's a whole bunch of people with food allergies like that. And that would be really hard, especially 30,000 feet to make sure that's all planned out. But the how I lost my question, but how do you how are the menus designed thinking about allergens? First and foremost, you know, the ones that are the premium ones. And then, and I shared with this with you this last week, or last year last week is that when I do get upgraded, I don't necessarily have the time to be able to pick my meal, like you mentioned, because it is that last minute. And flight attendants when they say or if I have done it, they're like, oh, Tracy, it just says gluten free. I don't know what I'm serving. So how do you? How do you work through that? And how are you going to work through that in the future?

Speaker 2  13:34  
Yeah, no great questions. So I think and yeah, sorry, you asked me earlier and I got off on a different tangent. So no, it's to to the box meals, you're right. We learned a lot through that process in terms of having those packaged foods that did have a lot of that labeling on it, we got a lot of great feedback from our customers that this was something that they really appreciated. So that is now on our roadmap, as we've gone back to a tray service, you know, and had that diversity of menu of how can we better inform our flight attendants and our customers about what it is we're serving on board. So we're on that journey now for how we can start to incorporate that make that more visible and available to you all and to our flight attendants so they can better inform you on that front, where we've done a ton of work is on the nuts side of the house. So peanuts most specifically. You know, we were chatting earlier about you know, we had them on board, we took them off board, we you know, we put them back on. At this point, we do not have any peanuts that we're serving or anything you know, with peanut oil, you know, to ensure the safest environment that we can for the most folks, we can't guarantee a peanut free environment because people could bring their own food on board. So what we ask is that our customers if they have a severe allergy Is No, let us know you can go into my trips on the delta.com app or website and let us know in my trips, that you've got that allergy. And then please let the gate agent know when you come, you know, to the boarding area for your flight, because then they can advise the flight attendants of what's going on. Also, when you board the aircraft, let that flight attendant who's greeting you at the boarding door, know that you have that allergy because there are things we can do, the gate agent can let you board a little bit early, if you want to clean the area around you in case someone prior to you had peanuts on board. Thing is there, we do a deep cleaning. And trust me, we got really good at cleaning through COVID. You know, so we do do that. But we want to give our customers that, that option to also clean that space for them if they would like to pre board or get on a little bit earlier and make sure that space is clear. The flight attendants can take the step of making an announcement that we have somebody on board and please ask the other passengers if they have brought something with them to be considerate of those on board. And we can create a safe space or area around that customer. So that if there is something that we're offering as a snack, now we're getting into like if you have a tree nut allergy, right, you know, so we do offer some tree nuts still as part of our snacks that we, you know, can ensure that we don't offer that in that snack basket, etcetera, around that area. So a lot of work. Those are the two biggest and first areas that we've addressed at this point. We also do have special meals, if customers want to request those gluten free meals. Again, vegetarian, they can request

Tracy Stuckrath  16:44  
that now. Yeah, sure. Oh, wow. Okay, because I thought it was just the peanut allergy. Yeah, no, that's great. For your

Speaker 2  16:51  
special meals. Yeah. So you are Yeah. So ahead of time, if you want to let us know that you prefer a gluten free meal, we can, you know, we can get that. But yeah, it's but we're on that journey and making sure that we offer our flight attendants and our customers more information, because we learned that that's something they really are interested in having.

Tracy Stuckrath  17:13  
Right? Well, and it's not like they can go and call the chef, the flight attendant, you know, or go into the kitchen. Right? So the I think we've all learned just in general society, the more information you give, I just flight attendants are like event planners, I'm just gonna, because they manage a lot. They're managing feeding people, they're managing, you know, safety, they're managing a variety of different things. And so they have a lot on their plate. And I think and that and that goes with to me, and hotel servers, and banquet captains and things like that they need to know as much as they possibly can to because they're the ones talking to your customers.

Speaker 2  17:54  
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So yeah. Don't be afraid to let them know they're problem solvers. By nature, I'll be able to support you as much as they can.

Tracy Stuckrath  18:05  
So how I'm let's talk beverages as well, because it was you creative cocktails, and I'm looking at premium wines. And espresso is like reading what I wrote up there. So talk about what you're doing cocktail or beverage wise and know your biggest providers, Coca Cola to Atlanta brands, which are strong partners. Love that. And but how, what are you doing for the beverage side of the flight?

Speaker 2  18:34  
Yeah, this is a place again, as we've kind of focused on diverse suppliers, small, you know, smaller suppliers. This is where we've really found opportunity is on that front. So as again, we kind of recovered and came out of our COVID period. There's quite a few beverage suppliers that we're really excited to be working with one that many folks probably know about is tip top. So that's the Espresso Martini that we just announced. They have an old fashioned, they have a margarita, and we rotate some of those drinks out on board. I will tell you, it for those of you who enjoy a potent alcoholic beverage tip tap is for you. It is a great product. And we get really positive feedback on that. But again, espresso martinis was our most recent launch on that one. The other one is like for example, du Nord, social spirits vodka, small provider, who's helping us with our vodka side of the house. We've got doon femme, which is a sparkling wine product produced women owned wineries. So we really are leaning in on looking for those unique beverage choices that maybe people aren't as familiar with. And, you know, maybe they can try something new or something different while they're on board with us.

Tracy Stuckrath  19:58  
Okay, well, I do Have a one recommendation. She's at a Chapel Hill. It's a conniption gin. And she's the first woman to be installed in the US gin guild. And so yes, get her gin on there, I can introduce you to her. Super. So what about the Kazak besides being gluten free person? I also don't drink alcohol and I don't drink soda. So I am I typically drink club soda with the line when I when I have the opportunity. But are you also looking at the non alcoholic market out there? I mean, 30% of people do not drink alcohol. And I don't drink coffee. So that espresso drink would not be my fan. But um, so what are you looking at those different products that you can bring in as well? Because there's lots of wine and you know, non alcoholic wine and spirits?

Speaker 2  20:50  
Yeah, we've really at this point leaned in on things like teas. So like Thrive farmers hot tea is another small provider we're working with really great business, explore cold brew. So sorry, not for you, you know, relative,

Tracy Stuckrath  21:06  
it's okay. Not all about me, Kristen.

Speaker 2  21:09  
For the caffeine drinkers in the world, he's in the coffee's. We really tried to find some options that are unique and premium. And again, really giving that opportunity to some of those more diverse suppliers that we wanted to be working with when it comes to non alcoholic beverages. And associated with that, that's on our roadmap as well, that's still work that we're doing identifying some of those key suppliers. And where is that opportunity? And what do customers really want the most in that space? So more to come on that front? Because you're right, our customer profile is changing a bit. They're asking for those types of options. And so that's, that's on our roadmap to

Tracy Stuckrath  21:57  
you. And I know because I took a tour of conniption recently and it's Durham distilleries. The name, the full name of the company, too, is that she's got canned ones as well, perfect. Well, that's actually alcohol. But looking at the non alcoholic versions, there's canned non alcoholic, a lot of those out there too. And I've got a couple of people I can introduce you to perfect. Yeah, um, because it is one of my Derrick Brown was a guest in January, and he wrote something, it's like the autonomy because you mentioned personalization, and being able to autonomy, as a person make a choice on a disk, you know, for being, you know, have options all the time. Um, so I want I want to go back to the Wall Street Journal article that I owe Jen Gilroy, who is with the I've mentioned you before we went live, and the oh my gosh, Jen. I just forgot what it is. But anyway, she's like, I love this question around that beverage option offering sorry, um, zero proof Collective is the company out of Minneapolis. And then, um, her business partner, our mission is to get them everywhere, including 30,000 feet in the air. And so, actually, Lynne weldless commented, too, that this is a fantastic content, she teaches hospitality and event planning. So it's really important because event planners buy tickets for a lot of their customers, their event attendees, right? So understanding what the options are, you know, for them to purchase, or to make the options choices for their customers is also a good thing, too. But I want to go back to that Wall Street Journal article, because or video I think, I should say, because you're using a lot of technology, which I thought was really cool. Putting the you have to everybody watch that video. You're putting robots or putting the places the things on the trace. Yes. And how has that streamlined that entire process for you?

Speaker 2  24:06  
Yeah, it's been tremendous. So as we've had the opportunity to invest in our kitchens, you know, especially some of our biggest hub kitchens, like here in Atlanta, we've identified places in the process where it makes sense for us to use technology or robots to help with that, versus the places where we really need a human to do those quality checks. And, you know, making unloading onto the trucks and make unloading into the galleys and having that conversation with our flight attendants about do you have everything you need? So how can we best use the human resources we got and how can we best use technology to do some of the more wrote tasks that'll help us produce at the scale we need to one and produce it safely? Because that is a big food safety is a huge area. Her focus for our safety is number one, in everything that we do in the airline industry. And that includes what we do on the food safety side.

Tracy Stuckrath  25:07  
Yeah, I just I, and I think that it makes a lot of sense to incorporate robots into putting the things on the trays, because that's, it's a little mundane. And then it gives your culinary team a lot more, you know, hands on in designing the culinary aspect of that. So and also in that video, I thought was interesting is about the safety of that is that they, the people who are in those kitchens making the food, they, they wash their hands, they do their things, they they suit up, and then they go through this machine that like blows air at them.

Speaker 2  25:40  
Yes, to make sure there's no contaminants, no hair, no anything as they're coming into that space. We are, like I said, passionate about food safety, we have third parties that audit us on a regular basis, we encourage our flight attendants to submit reports on anything related to food safety, we're just kind of fanatical about it. We just, we can't afford to compromise on anything relative to safety. We want people to have the best customer experience they can. And it starts with making sure we run in a safe operation.

Tracy Stuckrath  26:14  
Okay, so let's jump to the sustainability side of this too. I think it was one, a flight attendant long couple of years ago said yeah, the flight attendants are the ones that started actually using the bags to collect the plastic bottles. And they wanted to they were doing that recycling effort on their own, they chose to do that. So as besides the recycling of the plastic bottles, what sustainability practices do you have in place from from the beginning, local sourcing locally is one. But you know, all the way through the exiting of the plane and recycling, you know, after the flight?

Speaker 2  26:48  
Yeah, so you're right. Yeah, the local sourcing is a huge contributor to that. That's one, two, I was talking about pre select and allowing customers to choose what they want to be served on board, we've added an option in that pre select to say, Do you want to skip this meal? Okay, so that really, you know, if the back to the point of personalization, customers might say, Hey, I'm just coming from a lunch or, you know, I, especially on an international flight, I'm going to eat before I get on because when I get on, I just want to sleep until like, you know, get to London or get to Paris, or whatever the case may be. And so what that gives us the information to not board as many meals on that particular flight. And again, that's what pre select does for us too, is rather than guessing. We think this many people will eat the steak and this many I'll eat the chicken and this many elite the pasta, we can have more precision about what we need to load on board. And our intent is to get even more precise as we go. The thing that drives. So we've made tremendous progress in terms of sustainability around things like single use plastics. So at this point, we've reduced our consumption by about 4.9 million pounds per year. And that's with us focusing on things like the service wear. So if you've been on board recently, you may have seen us using bamboo service where versus plastics there. But gas is a crockery solutions. So what we serve our meals in, that's a highly compostable solution for us. And other materials that we know are easily recyclable is what we're leveraging. The next big frontiers for us are the plastic cups, and the water bottles. So that is where we are squarely focused, going forward. So as it relates to the plastic cups, we're actually testing some initiatives right now testing some products right now to see it's a trick, because it has to be a cup that can support hot beverages, cold beverages, alcoholic beverages and everything in between. We don't want you know, anything to disintegrate on you and we want you to have the best experience. So we're doing a lot of active testing, but really trying to find that solution for those those plastic cups. In the meantime, and and for the water bottles as well and exploring a lot of different solutions on the water bottle front. In the meantime, we are again through COVID A lot of our recycling programs really had to be put to bed for a period of time. So we're wasting a lot of that backup, in terms of getting this recycling, that recycling done on board. Making sure that when it's in the kitchens, that we're separating it and ensuring that we're recycling in those kitchens as best we can. And then we're partnering with the airports because they handle a portion of the recycling as well, to make sure that they're standing their recycling programs backup and that we can not contribute and We move forward with our sustainability efforts in partnership with them.

Tracy Stuckrath  30:03  
Well, and that's got to be very hard to you with all of the various places that you travel. Right. And in even within the United States, I mean, recycling is different levels and every different city, right, what the cities do, and then when you're going to some remote place in Asia or in, you know, Africa, however they recycle, or do I mean, that's going to be a challenge? Do you bring that stuff back with you? Or is it

Speaker 2  30:31  
sometimes it's again, it's hard in a market, like a lot of a larger market like that, when we're going to Asia because we need the space to, you know, to load everything back up to for the next flight out. But if there are some times where we do need to round trip things, so we make sure that it's disposed of properly and meets the needs relative to that, you were asking about technology earlier, we've just started using some technology to help us understand consumption. So as things are kind of coming off that aircraft we can we've got this kind of computer visioning tool that we're using to measure consumption so that we can start to reduce food waste on board and see if we can't, you know, that reduces we were talking earlier about weight on the plane. So again, the less we're loading, the less waste we have, the lighter week, why the less fuel we gotta burn for that is all important. But yeah, this aluminums we're recycling plastic, we're recycling cardboard, and food are the big areas in our kitchens.

Tracy Stuckrath  31:43  
Well, and I love the fact that you're monitoring the consumption, right? Because I tell that to meeting planners as well. I'm like, why are you ordering continuing to order croissants or bagels when your attendees don't eat them? Right? So buy them something different? Or even though all those muffins and those carbs in the morning? If they're not eating them, then why are you spent one spending your money on them? That's right and to wasting that food. So I love the fact that you're you're paying attention to what's not being consumed on the flights. Kate with the zero proof collective has another question for non alcoholic beer, wine and other two, if you're going to add those to your menus, do they all need to be in individual bottles? Or cans? Or is it better to have them? How do you decide on whether big bottles or the little cans

Speaker 2  32:34  
can and so typically leveraging right now for a lot of our beverage offerings, again through COVID, we use for juicers for the tech pack. So a little bit larger, I'll tell you, it does not work well. It leaks, it causes a lot, you know, it's hard for the flight attendants, it's hard for the kitchens to take that back, it results in a lot of waste. So cans are preferable. At this point. I will tell you, we're looking at technologies to say how do we even get out of the can business and start looking at things that are similar to like a soda cart, you know, or soda fountain type usage. So

Tracy Stuckrath  33:20  
Wow.

Speaker 2  33:22  
out of, you know, on the sustainability front, is there so that way, you know, talking about, you know, I was talking about water bottles earlier? Do customers start bringing their own on board and we just provide, you know, the Bevy machine are the place for them to get that that fresh water, you know, or other selection of beverages on board. So quite a few things that we're looking at, but in the near term. Yeah, individual cans are smaller CANS is what we've seen before.

Tracy Stuckrath  33:55  
Okay, I can't wait to see I have a picture of my grandparents on a flight coming to see me when I was a baby in Hawaii. And so it was like two so this is 1970 and they they're it's a picture of them smoking for one and to getting their beverages but I'm like now to see a beverage cart coming down Hey, let's tap that beer or do you want something from a keg instead of you know that can oh my gosh, full circle right? You never know. That's so fun. Um so what does when there's a lot that you go into with your with planning food and beverage, you know, 60 million meals a year and and have actually let's I'm thinking of going to the Far East location, right? Or, you know, to Indian and coming back, are you when you're coming back from India? Are those flights or those food choices really Indian based or are they US based with some Indian flair?

Speaker 2  34:55  
No, you're right. We do try to do something that flex the place you just came from. So if you're coming out of Paris if you're coming out so for example, on London, we just introduced a tea service. You know, midflight. Just, you know, it's a little tea, little biscuits, you know, something, to give a nod to the place that you just came from when we're coming out of Korea or out of Japan, we will do, we have a broad offering of Korean meals, Japanese meals, to acknowledge one the passenger mix we have on board who may very well desire and want that type of products and menu. Also, it's going to be incredibly fresh and easy to source and local is locally sourced. Because if you're a Japanese kitchen or Korean kitchen, you're used to making those types of meals, and they're going to be high quality and fresh and premium for us. So yeah, we do try to mix it up a little bit and give a nod to the place they just came from.

Tracy Stuckrath  36:00  
Well, and then that's another

Unknown Speaker  36:02  
say that again, or going to where they're coming.

Tracy Stuckrath  36:06  
Yeah. Well, it's there's a planner that commented the other day in a group, she's like, Hey, I've got a large, large contingency coming from Asia for this meeting here in the States. What should I be serving for breakfast? Right, you know, and thinking really thinking about what's on that when you go to a restaurant or hotel in Japan? What do they have on their menus? Right, they've got a full gamut of American Asian, you know, to meet those different things. So I like that.

Speaker 2  36:34  
That's right. Yeah, we're like Tel Aviv, you know, we just started Atlanta Tel Aviv service, we have a significant number of Kosher meals that we are sure that we board, you know, for that particular market set. So we try to be very specific and culturally sensitive to each and each of the individual markets that we're flying to. Well, that

Tracy Stuckrath  36:56  
reminds me of a guy who I sat next to, from Italy back to Atlanta years ago. And he he always orders the kosher meal, because he says it's gonna be fresher. Ah, he's not kosher. He's not Jewish. He just chose to do that. And he and he's like, and I always get it first before everybody else. But, and I was looking at it. I'm like, Oh, I can't eat that, because it's got my allergens in it, but which is fine. But I thought that was interesting as well. So do you have a lot of Kosher requests on the plains?

Speaker 2  37:27  
We do. But again, and there's there's specific markets where we see an increased number, of course, Tel Aviv, you know, there's some other key markets, but yeah, kosher meals, Hall meals, all of that is available, we try to take into consideration allergens, religious beliefs, and food sensitivities and everything in between and preferences.

Tracy Stuckrath  37:52  
Yeah. Okay, so question that I asked everybody, what does a safe, sustainable and inclusive food and beverage experience at 30,000 feet mean to you?

Speaker 2  38:08  
Alright, so I'll take each one of those. So safe means that we are running from from farm to 30,000 feet, that there is safety infused in every step of the process, so that we are ensuring the highest quality safest meal for our flight attendants to deliver an environment for them to deliver it in, and for our customers to be consuming. Again, where we're passionate about that. And I look at a food safety report every week on how we're doing relative to that sustainable, we have to do our part, we're on that journey, we've made some great reductions in the waste that we're producing on board. And we've got more to go with a single use plastics. And those water bottles are next up on our list to add and reducing food waste where we can. And and like you said earlier, the local suppliers. So everything in that whole food chain, how do we ensure that sustainability is also at the forefront of our decision making? So that we can deliver against that inclusivity incredibly important. And so that's where you see us, again, delivering these special meals or having these offerings available. But really, a big part of our focus is on personalization. So how do we give you the choice that you either want to have a meal or don't and if you do want to have a meal with us give you a broad choice prior to you getting on the aircraft to say what is it that you would like today and we're gonna get, you know, it's available for premium customers. Now, our intent is to continue to roll that out more broadly. So it's for the whole aircraft so that when you're on a service safer international wear You get a first meal and a second service before you land, you can tell us, you don't want that to be woken up for that second meal for breakfast, because you want to get that extra hour of sleep before you land in Paris or you know, Amsterdam, or that, here's your choice for what you would like to have again, so we don't board something that you're not going to consume. So a lot of, you know, a lot of accomplished but I think a lot more to go in the journey.

Tracy Stuckrath  40:29  
They brought up a couple of different questions, because I just think it's it's intriguing, but I'm going to bring up one from Kate here, she asked just the percentage of people based on what you're doing the research that you're doing now, does it fluctuate from by where the destination is? Or you're leaving? And or is it consistent? That's really good question, Kate.

Speaker 2  40:48  
Yeah, it's great question. So it. So what we see for example, is, let's take our Latin America flights. So down to Brazil or to Santiago, for example, those flights typically leave at night and come back at night to their their true red eyes, where you're, you're really sleeping on the plane both ways. For those types of flights, we see very consistent consumer behavior and wants relative to don't feed me, I'm going to eat before I get on because I want to sleep on board, there's no time change that we're contending with, you know, the time zones are relatively the same. And so it's that has a very different customer profile and need, versus when you go to say like a, you know, JFK to London type of flight, depending on when in the day people are departing, that is also very consistent. So if they're leaving a little bit earlier, they want to have the full meal service. And then they do not want to be woken up. Because they know at the end of their flight, because it's very early in the morning to their body clock, you know, if they're going to to London, you know, but somebody who's from London may very well say that they want to be woken up for that meal service. But But traditionally, what we find is there's each each flight based on the timing and how long it is, as most especially for International has a lot of consistency in it. The routes themselves whether you're going to Rio versus London, Heathrow that's going to have a very different profile.

Tracy Stuckrath  42:28  
So interesting. All the data that you have to analyze is just my nephew needs to come work for you. That's what he study, or that's what he does. But I mean, that's just amazing. And looking at that data and understanding it helps you be a better business. That's right.

Speaker 2  42:47  
That's right, better serve our customers, and back to it better, ultimately, more sustainable because, again, in a world where we didn't have that data or information we just bored, and we're like, ah, we'll do about 40% Steak 40% chicken, you know,

Tracy Stuckrath  43:03  
and the flight attendant salesy. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm out of the chicken. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2  43:06  
Exactly. Exactly. You know, and that's just, we have the opportunity to be smarter and more efficient and more effective for everybody. Going forward.

Tracy Stuckrath  43:17  
All right, I have two final questions. One is about staffing. You know, the food service industry has been hit hard. And we've determined that you are in the food service industry, not just flight attendants. But your back of the house, your kitchen staff. Have you seen have you been hit hard by the same thing that the the restaurants had been hit hard with?

Speaker 2  43:37  
Absolutely. So in our catering kitchens, that's where we struggled the most, you know, to support staffing, we saw really high turnover, really struggled with retention as we came through kind of COVID recovery. I would say now we're seeing it stabilized quite a bit. And that's for a few different reasons. I think our growth has stabilized a bit. You know, we're still growing, but not nearly at the the recovery pace that we had to in 21. Two as customers were really coming back. And I think also, as we've gotten back into normal processes, and we've got, you know, really, because it's also a manufacturing mindset, right in our kitchen. We're Lean process, you know, how do we flow the kitchen to make it make sense, as we've really honed those processes, and so people understand what it is they're coming in to do every day and how that process should work. We've seen satisfaction with the roll go up and retention rates remain high versus where we were seeing a lot of turnover previously. So certainly a struggle for the last couple of years, but we're really seeing that moderate this year.

Tracy Stuckrath  44:55  
Good. That's awesome. And then I'm just curious. This popped up When you were talking about the safety aspect and coordinating again, going back to that Wall Street video, it's like, how do you separate the the meals that have the allergens don't have the allergens? Or are they in separate carts? You know, do you have different kinds of labels on them?

Speaker 2  45:15  
We have different kinds of labels on them. So they're, they're typically in the same cards, unless there's some really, you know, you need to learn foiled and all that. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So it's it, but it's very clear and very much called out for the flight attendants, where those special meals are residing, where you know, where they are on their manifest, you know, in their paperwork, so that they know. So, and, yeah, that there's no cross contamination that's happening in any step in the process through the kitchen onto the truck. And getting into that galley for that flight attendant.

Tracy Stuckrath  45:56  
And this just reminded me of a story, I was going to the Food Allergy Research Education Conference in Orlando last fall, and the flight attendant made an announcement saying, Hey, we've got somebody on the plane with a peanut allergy. And if you would, please refrain from eating peanuts. And I'm like, I actually did a live video saying, Oh, my God, I'm so excited. They just did that. And he came and talked to me. And and then he was talking to her, and he knew what his seat was, and all of that, and, but he told her about me, and we were going and he goes, I think you guys, he told her, you're going to the same conference, because I told him, I was going to Orlando. So she and I met at the conference. Because she heard he said her name. He gave her my name, which is great, because I didn't want her to, you know, I don't want to divulge, you know, him to divulge anything. But he gave her my name. And so she overheard me talking to somebody she's like, Are you and Tracy that was on the Delta plane. That's awesome. I'm like, Yes. And so I love that. And it was a really great experience on how it was handled. And and so I really appreciate that. And one final question that I wanted. I did. So I'm lying. But what what might customer? What do you want it? What's one final thing that you want customers to know about? Catering? 60,000 meals at 35,000 feet? Yeah.

Speaker 2  47:19  
So it's that easy. But we were you know, and somebody said the other day, I thought they said it really, really well. You know, it's we're a restaurant in the air that people like they didn't choose to come to Delta necessarily because of our food and beverage offering. You know, but we, they came to us, you know, for the premium experience, the customer experience and the destination that we're working to get them to, but we take the job seriously in terms of delivering a moment that delights as you receive that, that meal, that beverage, try giving you the opportunity to try something maybe that you hadn't had the chance to try before. And do it in a way that is all the things you I love that the safe, the sustainable and inclusive, that those are absolutely our goals and values that we're trying to deliver against.

Tracy Stuckrath  48:21  
Awesome. And how many people do you have in the kitchens? Doing? Oh,

Speaker 2  48:25  
gosh, I should know that number off the top of my head. I do not. I hit with 130. Kitchens. Yeah, we're, it's 1000s 1000s? For

Tracy Stuckrath  48:38  
sure. For sure. Well, Chris has

Unknown Speaker  48:40  
dealt employees in summer summer. Okay,

Tracy Stuckrath  48:43  
that's true. Yep. Because you do have you work with a lot of catering partners. So Well, thank you so much, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. And I really appreciate you taking the steps to create more safe, sustainable and inclusive options in the food and the beverage that's on board. So you will continue to be my favorite airline. But I haven't found anything in 20 Anybody else in 25 years. So I really don't have anybody to compare it to. But I will stick with it.

Speaker 2  49:14  
Thank you for that. We appreciate it. And thank you for the opportunity. And it was I learned some things too, and great to hear your feedback and questions. And so I appreciate the time. Thank you.

Tracy Stuckrath  49:24  
And what's the best way to get in touch with I mean, is it through the ordering the plane on the plane or asking about preferences when they're flying with delta.

Speaker 2  49:36  
So if they want to take advantage of pre select, as long as you were signed up for the SkyMiles program, and we know your email address, we will get an email to you prior to your flight to ask you what you would like so please sign up for SkyMiles and give us your email address and we'll make sure to get that to you. And then if you do have food sensitivities or allergens, just don't be afraid to let us know put some I think in your profile, let your wrist if you're talking to a reservation specialist, let them know if you're talking with your gate agent, let them know, or let that flight leader when you board that aircraft or that person or know what's going on so that we can best support you.

Tracy Stuckrath  50:15  
And I love the person that I've had. And just on that note of the SkyMiles, if you do if you are SkyMiles, you can actually get free Wi Fi on the planes as well. Yes, yes. So actually don't sign up so that I get all the bandwidth. Now, but I like that when I'm booking a flight the other day, it said this is one and I know you're rolling it out to all of the flights, but all the planes but yeah, you can pick that right now too. So I appreciate, ya know. Thanks for that. Yeah, you're welcome. All right. Well, everyone, stay safe and eat well. I will be back next week. We're talking I'm talking to Courtney and Lauren about sustainable food and beverage following up from their site, global conference presentation and then may kicks off Food Allergy Awareness Month. So and Celiac Disease Awareness month so we'll be doing a lot on those there. So until next time, stay safe and eat well. Thank you