Food Service Operations

Schools that offered any food services in 2005 indicated whether those services were operated by the school or school district, by a private entity under contract to the school or school district, or by some other entity. Schools that offered any foods for sale outside of full school meals indicated whether any companies had a contract to sell drinks or snack foods at the school. In addition, schools that had contracts with companies to sell drinks or snack foods at the school indicated whether there were various agreements with those companies for the school to receive a specific percentage of the sales receipts, sales incentives, or some other agreement.¹

• Food services were primarily operated by the school or school district (table 10). Of the 99 percent of public elementary schools that offered any food services, 81 percent indicated that their food services were operated by the school or school district, while 19 percent reported that their food services were operated by a private or other entity.
• The proportion of schools indicating that their food services were operated by the school or school district differed by locale and region (table 10). Schools located in rural areas were more likely than those located in other locales to report that their food services were operated by the school or school district (90 vs. 77 to 81 percent, respectively). Public elementary schools in the Southeast were the most likely to report that their school or school district operated the food services at the school, while schools in the Northeast were the least likely to do so.
• Twenty-three percent of public elementary schools indicated that one or more companies had a contract to sell drinks or snack foods at the school (table 11). The proportion of schools that had contracts with companies to sell drinks or snack foods at the school differed by locale, region, and minority enrollment. Rural schools were more likely than those in other locales to report that companies had a contract to sell drinks or snack foods at the school (31 percent vs. 18 to 21 percent, respectively), and schools in the Southeast were more likely than those in the West and Northeast to report such contracts. In addition, schools with the lowest percent of minority enrollment were more likely than those with the highest percent of minority enrollment to report that companies had a contract to sell drinks or snack foods at the school.
• Among the 23 percent of public elementary schools that indicated that companies had contracts to sell drinks or snack foods at the school, a majority (69 percent) reported that the school or district was contracted to receive a specific percentage of the sales receipts, 24 percent indicated that the school or district was contracted to receive sales incentives for a specified amount of sales receipts, and 2 percent reported some other agreement or incentive (table 11).
• Schools located in the Southeast were more likely than those in the Northeast to report that the school or district was contracted to receive a specific percentage of the sales receipts (78 vs. 55 percent) (table 11). Moreover, a higher proportion of rural than city schools reported that the school or district was contracted to receive sales incentives for a specified amount of sales receipts (32 vs. 12 percent), and schools located in the West and Central regions were more likely than those in the Northeast to report such a contract.

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¹ These types of agreements were not defined for respondents on the questionnaire; see appendix B (80 KB) for a copy of the questionnaire.