School Business Now: Breaking the Mold in School Food Procurement

Stakeholders across the school nutrition landscape struggle with today’s food procurement practices because of the complex regulatory environment in which they must operate. This includes school food authorities (SFAs), school business and procurement leaders, school food service professionals, and industry partners who produce, process, and distribute products to support meal programs.

 

To help address these and other challenges, the Urban School Food Alliance (USFA), a nonprofit organization representing school food service professionals that advocates for student wellness and better school food procurement practices, is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on a three-year cooperative agreement to rethink how the school meal marketplace does business. The project focuses on redesigning procurement processes to empower school nutrition program administrators and developing processes to build better partnerships across the industry.

 

Dr. Katie Wilson, SNS, USFA’s Executive Director, highlights the importance of this initiative. “Federal, state, and local procurement rules in public entities are not designed for purchasing food,” she says, “Our cooperative agreement is for the purpose of getting all the stakeholders at the table and redesigning a more efficient, cost-effective way for schools to purchase the freshest, healthiest food for their communities in a manner consistent with large food purchases.”

Via School Business Now