Best Practices | Urban School Food Alliance

Expertise Sharing

One of the Alliance’s core principles is to share best practices not only among Alliance members, but with districts throughout the country as well. The Alliance offers a robust resource page on its website that enables visitors to access the group’s food and nutrition standards, compostable product specifications and key learnings that pertain to school meal programs. Alliance members have also attended and presented at prestigious conferences throughout the country and abroad to share groundbreaking efforts when it comes to school nutrition.

Learn more about Expertise Sharing

USFA members have shared expertise across the nation, including…

Congressional Aide Hearings on Capitol Hill, White House Conference on Food and Nutrition 50th Anniversary, American Commodity Distribution Association, and International Eating City Conference.

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Professional Exchange Program

“The opportunity to visit New York City Department of Education was refreshing and enlightening both personally and professionally. From this visit, I have no doubt that operational improvements we are considering for our district will benefit from the full support and institutional knowledge of our colleagues in the Urban School Food Alliance. I look forward to the many conversations and connections to come.”

Tarrah DeClemente
Chicago Public Schools

Learn more about the Professional Exchange Program

Members of the Urban School Food Alliance believe in hands-on learning, which is why it supports a professional exchange program.

Staff members from one district may request to be transferred for up to a week to another Alliance city where they can job shadow their counterparts in the areas of finance, marketing, grant writing, compliance, quality assurance, recipe and menu development, as well as farm-to-school practices. The program aims to inspire and educate participants, who will then in turn share what they’ve learned with fellow staff members in their home cities.

In the spring of 2019, for example, Chicago Public Schools Manager of Health Promotion, Tarrah DeClemente, visited New York City Department of Education to learn about the district’s meal program and operations. In the fall, members of Dallas Independent School District’s Food and Child Nutrition Services visited Orange County Public Schools to learn more about the district’s mobile truck meal programs and marketing plans.

View Membership Benefits