Attracting and retaining loyal cafeteria customers is a year-round project.

The captive audience concept is a myth. Yes, school lunch periods are short, the cafeteria is close and the competition can be limited, especially if yours is a closed campus. But you simply cannot compel students to select a school meal if they prefer to bring food from home, pick up grab ‘n’ go on the way to school, have meals delivered by restaurants, third-party services or even parents, purchase “black market” snacks from entrepreneurial peers or even go hungry until the final bell. Like every other type of foodservice operation, you need to feed potential customers a steady diet of good reasons to choose yours. 

In this issue of School Nutrition, we stand ready to help you launch, refresh or elevate your school meal marketing efforts. We start with some best practice approaches and ideas presented by four SNA members who have been selected to share their marketing expertise and innovations as speakers at SNA’s Annual National Conference (ANC) in Denver this summer...