Successes and Challenges of Collaborating with Schools and School Food Service Providers: Lessons Learned from the Healthy School Food Collaborative Evaluation

In 2013, the Healthy School Food Collaborative (HSFC) successfully piloted an innovative evaluation in partnership with eight New Orleans schools and three school food service providers. The 2013 results proved the efficacy of the pilot’s methods, and the HSFC launched a second phase of the evaluation in 2014. The expanded 2014 evaluation added measurements of student satisfaction, fidelity monitoring, and scans of school policy and culture. These additions to the study’s methodology simultaneously increased the scale of the evaluation, thereby demanding a significantly larger involvement from all participating parties. To successfully collect data, evaluation staff worked closely with cafeteria staff to align processes and collect data without disrupting the school’s normal workflow.  With the increased level of rigor of the 2014 evaluation, establishing buy-in and support at all levels from each school and all school food service providers was essential for the success and sustainability of the study. A number of strategies were employed both proactively and reactively to ensure the success of the evaluation and satisfaction of the partners. These strategies included setting expectations, establishing common goals, outlining roles, defining outcomes, data sharing, and maintaining communication. This session will discuss successful strategies for partnering with schools and school food service providers based on lessons learned from two phases of this evaluation. This session will also detail recommended mechanisms that may improve future collaboration, such as increasing on-site food service employee roles and implementing a universal data dashboard that shares real-time data with all partners.