USDA Foods: How to Maximize Your Funding Source
March 31, 2025
If you are like most professionals, you decided on a job in school nutrition because you were excited to feed and support students. And while you may still have that passion, tackling menu development for hundreds or even thousands of students can be overwhelming and daunting. Serving food that students like and complies with USDA requirements is like putting together a puzzle with a million critical pieces. Along with juggling many tasks—coordinating with food vendors, managing budgets, and overseeing and training staff—you must make sure to put the puzzle together correctly and align with your organizational culture. To do so, you need a good understanding of nutritional standards in schools, strategic planning, and an ability to adapt to the changing demands and preferences of your students.
Why is Organizational Culture Important?
According to articles like these from the National Library of Medicine and Harvard Business School, this shared culture—our beliefs, attitudes, and values—is what ties everything together. It’s what guides how we treat each other, how we make decisions, and how we move toward our goals. In school nutrition programs, a positive organizational culture can make a big difference. When staff understand the bigger picture and feel motivated by the program’s mission, they often produce better results. Quality goes up, turnover goes down, and everyone benefits—especially the students.
How to Build a Strong Team Culture
So how do you build a strong organizational culture that meets today’s challenges and prepares your program for the future? It starts with knowing where you’re going and why. That’s where your vision and mission statements come in.
Your vision is your “North Star”—the long-term goal that inspires your work. Your mission explains what you do each day to move toward that vision. In school nutrition, both should focus on student health and well-being.
Vision and Mission Statement Example
For example, your vision might be To help students develop healthy eating habits that last a lifetime.
Your mission might be To serve all students nutritious meals that support their learning and overall success.
Connecting Your Vision and Mission to the Daily Work
Once you’ve defined your vision and mission, the next step is to make them part of your daily work. That means connecting the “why” to the “what.” If your goal is to inspire healthy habits through meals, are your purchasing practices, training efforts, and kitchen routines supporting that goal? Is your team making decisions that reflect those values?
To make your mission come alive, you need clear goals that everyone can understand and act on. That’s where SMART goals come in—goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. SMART goals help break big ideas into small steps that lead to real progress.
Let’s walk through a few simple SMART goal ideas from the SproutCNP team. These examples will show how you can build a student-centered organizational culture by focusing on smart purchasing, healthier food production, and excellent customer service—starting right now.
A Culture of Quality Begins with Procurement
Well-written specifications help ensure you get the product you want to pay for. Without well-written specifications, you never know what you might receive! Let’s apply the SMART Goal technique to specification writing for fresh, slicing tomatoes.
S – Clearly define the size, grade, and condition of the tomato you intend to purchase and serve to students. If you are not specific, you might receive extra-large, high shoulder tomatoes that are great for pico de gallo but way too big for sandwiches!
M – Success is measured by whether or not your kitchens receive the intended product. This will result in fewer complaints from individual kitchens and reduce food waste.
A – Specification writing for fresh produce is absolutely an achievable goal, especially when using recommended resources, including:
USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Fruit Specifications and USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Vegetable Specifications
R – Specification writing is critical to procuring the food, supplies, and equipment you want to purchase in your program so you are on target.
T – Establish a timeline of when you will develop or update specifications and stick to that timeline. (Sign up for our newsletter and get a procurement timeline.)
Organizational Culture Drive Transparent Procurement Decisions
Creating a non-approved ingredient list is trending nationally and in some state legislatures. Food additives and food dyes in ultraprocessed food (UPF) in children’s diets have been of growing concern, especially since these foods now represent greater than 60 percent of energy intake in the U.S.
S – Once you decide to develop a non-approved ingredient list, be specific about those items you will exclude from your program. Consider researching lists from other school districts or using the free tool for school districts available at Green Onion. Engage in important conversations with your food manufacturers and vendors.
M – Each ingredient on the list may lead to the disapproval of certain food items in your program. Identify which foods will need replacements and discuss with your suppliers. If the list is extensive, you may be looking at replacing a significant number of items.
A – Although the task may seem overwhelming at first, creating your list of non-approved ingredients is achievable. Be sure to update the list as needed.
R – Today’s school nutrition environment demands greater accountability, so yes, this is a relevant goal.
T – Set a date for when the non-approved ingredient list will become effective and work backwards to complete the necessary steps.
Scratch Cooking is Decision + Planning
Scratch cooking is a decision that takes more than a belief in the premise that “whole and minimally processed foods are best for children.” Moving from convenience foods to scratch or even speed scratch preparation takes thoughtful planning. If you want less pushback from staff, start slowly and add one scratch menu item at a time.
Chef Brenda recommends starting with simple items like sandwiches. Move over Uncrustables and convenience store packaged grilled cheese. Let’s make our own PB and J’s (or nut butter substitute and jam) and golden browned grilled cheese sandwiches. Move to the next level with Gourmet Grilled Cheese and show your students you’ve got skills!
S– Identify and specify the food items you plan to transition from convenience to scratch or speed scratch cooking. Select a few items at a time to encourage staff buy-in, and give you, as the director, time to modify the menu, utilize purchased stock items, and train on new recipes.
M – Measure student selection of the identified food items before the transition from convenience items to scratch or speed scratch prepared. After the transition, measure the increase in student selection to evaluate the impact of the change.
A – While staff may push back and resist the change initially, this goal is achievable. Rest assured districts across the country have successfully improved food quality and program reputation by adopting scratch and speed scratch cooking food production methods.
R – In today’s society, with so much emphasis on chefs, culinary adventures, and quality food, students have the right to expect good tasting, attractively presented, whole or minimally processed foods cooked at school. This goal is relevant to our youth and to those who care about nutritious and appealing food for students.
T – Develop a detailed timeline and commit to the gradual removal of convenience foods in favor of scratch or speed scratch prepared items. This is a longer-term goal, so take your time to implement it effectively, but get started as soon as you can.
Customer Service is an Attitude Not a Department
Students should not be underestimated. A child can recognize poor service as fast as an adult. It’s no surprise that student participation rates are impacted by unpleasant dining experiences. Every interaction and every gesture influences customer satisfaction. Smart leaders emphasize a sense of caring and warmth when interacting with students and other stakeholders through internal and external customer service skills training.
S – State the issues that have been stumbling blocks to providing good customer service and identify specific strategies you can implement with your staff to enhance the customer dining experience in the school meals program.
M – Measure improvements in customer service by tracking the reduction in customer service complaints after implementing a customer service strategy. Additionally, observe and track customer service interactions between staff and students to gauge progress.
A – Achieving excellent customer service is not only feasible, but critical for the ongoing success and viability of your school nutrition program!
R – Customer service is crucial for a positive customer experience, job satisfaction, and financial performance. We want our students to enjoy their dining experience, leave happy and content, and eager to join us again at the next meal occasion.
T – Establish a timeline. Address key issues such as:
- Identifying customer service challenges
- Determining training needs
- Conducting follow-ups
- Maintaining constant communication about the positive impact of improved customer service on the program, including increasing meal participation and possibly adding staff hours to meet the increased demand.
Building a healthy team culture in school nutrition programs is essential for meeting today’s challenges and preparing for the future. By defining clear vision and mission statements, setting SMART goals, and focusing on quality procurement, scratch cooking, and excellent customer service, we can create an environment where everyone—from students to staff—thrives. Remember, the key to success lies in understanding the “why” behind our actions and ensuring that our daily practices align with our overarching goals. Let’s continue to listen, learn, and communicate authentically to make a positive impact on the lives of the children we serve.
