School districts can implement best practice strategies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their food service operations. These options include

• establishing strong management systems that provide a framework for short-term and long-term decision making and help ensure that district food service programs remain in a healthy financial position;
• reducing food costs by joining cooperatives to receive volume discounts, maximizing use of USDA commodities, and improving food purchasing practices;
• ensuring that food service employees carry out their functions in an efficient and effective manner, implementing alternative meal counting methods and making program changes that reduce the number of employees needed to prepare meals; and
• identifying and removing barriers to student participation in breakfast and lunch programs, catering school-related functions, negotiating single-source vending machine contracts, and considering meal price increases.