Rippe’s own, Sr. Project Manager Shane Cory, and Project Manager Karen A Thompson, offered their expert perspectives alongside other industry leaders in FE&S article.

Feeding boisterous kids during the school day has never been easy. But today, school nutrition directors face more challenges than ever before.

Of more than 1,300 school foodservice directors and supervisors for the School Nutrition Association (SNA) 2024 Trends Report, 99% cited increasing costs as a challenge. Other challenges reported include staff shortages (more than 90%) and sourcing the right menu items and ingredients (87%).

Other noncommercial foodservice operators face these challenges, too. But these three overriding issues play out a bit differently in the school foodservice world, particularly in public school districts that rely most heavily on federal per-meal reimbursements under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program.