Why Now, Why Chicken? Transformational Procurement in Action through Boost The Roost

WHY NOW?

Behind the Boost the Roost Initiative through the Urban School Food Alliance (USFA) is a much-needed thought shift in how we talk about and handle procurement. The leadership team and members of the Alliance have coined the phrase, “Transformational Procurement.” And before we talk any-further about the clean-label chicken initiative, we must talk about Transformational Procurement.

No, it is not another “toolkit” to adorn your shelf with hopes that you can miraculously breathe in the information. We, as an industry, have done plenty of “talking” about procurement over the decades – but what progress has been made? Very little. Every year we still gather in groups to “talk” about procurement! This talking has mostly led to creating toolkits which generally results in more talking, to create yet another toolkit…

All this “talking” is detrimental to two very important groups. On one hand, we have vendors that are frustrated with antiquated and incomplete bid documents, paying high costs for a constant demand in samples that don’t result in sales, and districts not buying what was originally on the bid. On the other hand, we see school nutrition directors frustrated with product shortages, substitutions, and incomplete or inaccurate product formula sheets.

A LITTLE LESS TALKING AND A LOT MORE ACTION

The solution is… Transformational Procurement in school nutrition. But guess what – chain restaurants have been doing it for years! The Urban School Food Alliance decided it was time to jump into a brave new way of doing business. We don’t have a toolkit to offer – we only have our knowledge of the program and the courage it takes to make a bold move.

As an Alliance, we decided to stop “just talking” about procurement and move into action. This change in process means that we are no longer going to be subject to the marketplace, we will drive the marketplace. It is our mission to leverage purchasing power to drive food quality UP and costs DOWN while incorporating sound environmental practices.

There are four goals of Transformational Procurement through the Alliance:

1. To proactively craft bids and policies that focus on elevating school meals for the health and wellness of students
2. We will champion quality food, environmentally friendly supplies, local sourcing, and lower overall prices
3. Our Alliance will be a disrupter in the marketplace
4. We will push against the industry norms and test new and innovative procurement models

HOW DO YOU RESET AN OUTDATED PROCUREMENT MODEL?

The Urban School Food Alliance members determined that we would focus on four specific steps to achieve this must-needed procurement reset:

1. Unification
2. Volume
3. Purchasing Power
4. Quality

Now that we had determined the need, set goals, and created a step-by-step plan, the next step was to begin moving the procurement needle toward transformation. And we did it with chicken.

And so, the Boost the Roost Initiative was born. We set out as a UNIFIED procurement group, to achieve significant product VOLUME to strengthen our PURCHASING POWER which would ultimately drive the prices down of QUALITY products.

“This change in process means that we are no

longer going to be subject to the marketplace, we will drive the marketplace.”

WHY CHICKEN?

Chicken is the highest volume protein item consumed throughout the 18 USFA member districts across the United States. Having such a large quantity of product to work with allowed the greatest opportunity for improvement while also reducing production and purchasing costs. But the perfect chicken product didn’t exist – so we moved into action to create our OWN recipe.

By creating our own recipe for two chicken products we were able to: 

• Meet all the standards and specifications of our members choosing 
• Eliminate unwanted ingredients listed in the Ingredient Guide for Better School Food Purchasing
• Ensure that each product meets No Antibiotic Ever (NAE) classification

The biggest key was commitment. No turning back – once the product order was committed, it was committed. This was an all-in, all-hands-on-deck, no-looking-back project. And we did it.

HOW, YOU ASK?

With bold and courageous steps, we:

• Did research, counted the costs, developed budgets, and set forth a plan
• Hired a firm to help us develop the chicken  product recipes
• Partnered with a large purchasing CO-OP for proposal management
• Conducted student taste tests to ensure satisfaction
• Successfully purchased 955,550 pounds of clean-label chicken product
• Served the high-quality chicken products in over 16 districts across the United States while maintaining its affordability to districts.

Beyond the successful completion of the task at hand were the invaluable lessons that were learned during this project. There is still a long way to go in the journey to Transformational Procurement in the K12 marketplace, but the Urban School Food Alliance will continue to lead the way.

Read more on this topic in the full digital publication HERE.

Access FREE Boost The Roost downloadable resources on our website HERE.