School Food Service Companies

Food service companies at schools usually work with limited budgets and have pressure to serve food that will be acceptable to students. This can result in prioritizing cost-effectiveness and palatability, sometimes at the expense of actual nutritional content. Although School Food Service Companies ​might think they are serving a nutritious lunch under the limitations they encounter, their idea of “nutritious” could be narrow. For example, they may focus on achieving minimum calorie levels and certain USDA standards for some food groups, without sufficient regard for the quality of those ingredients, the amounts of processed foods, or the balance of macronutrients and micronutrients required for maximum student health and development.