Collaboration Challenges and Opportunities: A Survey of School Foodservice Directors and Community Health Coalition Members

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The Healthy, Huger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) presents challenges for foodservice directors (FSDs) in sourcing and preparing foods that meet nutrition standards. Concurrently, community health coalition members (CHCs) are engaging schools through community and school nutrition initiatives. We hypothesized significant differences in perceptions between FSDs and CHCs related to implementation of HHFKA such that FSDs would perceive greater foodservice challenges, while CHCs would be more supportive of community nutrition initiatives. METHODS: A perceptions survey was administered by email to 528 FSDs and 334 CHCs during summer 2016. Experience, education level, urban/rural differences, school demographics, and involvement between FSDs and CHCs were compared. RESULTS: Overall, 132 FSDs and 80 CHCs responded (29.5% FSDs, 24.7% CHCs). Overall perception of HHFKA foodservice challenge ranged between neutral (eg, neither challenging nor unchallenging) to somewhat challenging, and did not differ between groups. CHCs were significantly more supportive of community nutrition initiatives, while FSDs responded neutrally. CONCLUSIONS: FSDs awareness of CHCs desire for collaboration may increase FSDs support for broader school nutrition initiatives such as school gardens, farm to school, and student/community engagement. There is great potential for integrating student and community health programs through partnerships.