School Food Procurement

Associated Courses

$99.00

Course Length: 2 Hours

Course access lasts for 12 months from purchase for all individual courses and Certificates.

With over 30 million school lunches served every day, school food is big business. In School Food Procurement, we’ll discuss why procurement is so important in school food, and how to align your procurement practices with the mission and vision of your school meal program.

Please note: Our website is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance to improve your shopping experience. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you want to purchase a course while our site is offline, please contact us directly at sfi@chefannfoundation.org and we’ll be happy to assist you with your order. Thank you for your patience!

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Description

Course Description

With over 30 million school lunches served every day, school food is big business. In School Food Procurement, we’ll discuss why procurement is so important in school food, and how to align your procurement practices with the mission and vision of your school meal program. We’ll look at how to use your menus to project procurement needs and how to write an effective Request for Proposal (RFP) to find the right vendor for your school food program. We’ll discuss the options for school food vendors and how to use USDA Foods, prime vendors, local purveyors and farmers to procure fresh, healthy, and local food for a scratch-cook operation. Throughout this course, you’ll learn procurement strategies that allow you to have more control over your ingredients and serve the highest quality food to your students.

Please note: Our website is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance to improve your shopping experience. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you want to purchase a course while our site is offline, please contact us directly at sfi@chefannfoundation.org and we’ll be happy to assist you with your order. Thank you for your patience!

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

  1. Align your procurement practices with your mission, vision and wellness policy.
  2. Identify strategies for selecting and purchasing ingredients that balance financial considerations with your program values.
  3. Utilize menu forecasting tools to project procurement needs.
  4. Understand the federal guidelines for procurement and the formal and informal processes for procuring food for school meal programs.
  5. Develop a Request for Proposal (RFP) that supports scratch-cooking and reflects your mission, vision and wellness policy.
  6. Identify strategies for maximizing USDA Foods and prime vendor purchases to support scratch-cooking and control food costs.
  7. Develop relationships with local and regional vendors and farmers to increase local foods in your program.

USDA Code

  • 2400

Course Outline

  • Course Introduction
  • Setting the Stage for your Procurement Decisions
    • Connecting to your Mission, Vision and Wellness Policy
    • How to Prioritize High Quality Ingredients
  • Projecting What to Buy
    • Using Recipes and Menus
    • Menu Forecasting Tool Demo
  • The Procurement Process
    • Procurement Guidelines
    • Writing and Evaluating RFPs
    • Cooperative Purchasing
    • Line Item Bidding
  • USDA Foods
  • Vendors
    • Prime Vendors
    • Local and Regional Vendors
    • Vendor Relationships
  • Procurement Management
    • Vendor Velocity Data
    • Inventory
  • Sustainable Practices in Procurement
  • Course Conclusion

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