On the front lines in school cafeterias: The trials and tribulations of food service directors

This paper explores the role of food service directors in local school districts in Dayton, Ohio, Omaha, Nebraska, and Newark, New Jersey in the provision of school meals. Given the decentralization of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and its ancillaries, food service directors oversee its implementation in the thousands of school districts nationwide. These individuals are both administrators of the program and subject to the program’s regulations, yet their role and perspective on the program and its implementation remains woefully understudied. In this exploratory study, we present the results of our interviews with food service directors at the school district level in three metropolitan areas and provide some insight into the following questions: What do the food service directors in local school systems think about the school food regulatory regime? What are their experiences with administering lunch and breakfast programs? What challenges do local food service directors face in implementing these regulations?.