Marketing local food in your school food service program can be a positive educational experience and a fundraising program for your school. Learn how to create a responsible school food marketing program that is not only directed at students, but includes school administrators, teachers, parents and the community. Also learn how to replace competitive foods (soda pop and other unhealthy vending machine snacks) with healthy, active fundraising campaigns.

1. Kids are the Customers:
Marketing Local Food in Schools
Joan Rozelle, Eat Local Food LLC

2. Introduction:
Marketing to children has always been a commercial endeavor
instead of an educational endeavor.
Kid-focused marketing has long had a negative connotation
caused by the commercialization of education by big business
interested in increased profits. It has been concerned with
selling soft drinks and high-caloric low-nutrition foods in schools
to establish a life long customer relationship at an early age.
Needing funds to support school programs, administrators have
opted to improve revenue for the school system in exchange
for exploding obesity rates and a decline in the overall health of
the student body.

3. Introduction (continued):
Marketing local food in your school food service program can
be a positive educational experience and a fundraising program
for your school.
●Marketing for your school food service program should
responsible and be directed not only toward the students but
also to school administrators, teachers, parents and the
community.
●Students should be encouraged to follow a healthier way of
eating and their peers, teachers, parents and community
members should be encouraged to support this effort.
●Adults in the community have a special responsibility to
ensure that children are being educated about healthy
nutritious food choices and not being exploited as a life long
consumer.

4. “The school system
is where you build
brand loyalty"
John Alm, president,
Coca-Cola Enterprises,
quoted in The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
April 6, 2003.
"It is easier to build
strong children than
to repair broken
men"
Frederick Douglass

5. Marketing School Food
●How does marketing take place in schools – What is
marketing school food?
●Current School Marketing v. Responsible School Marketing
●Competitive Foods – What are they?
●Will your school lose funds if competitive food rules are
tightened?
●Fundraisers for your school and your community –
“community tie-ins” v. “corporate tie-ins”

6. Where Marketing can be found in Schools:
1.Promotion of Branded Foods
○Brand logos on vending machines
○Cafeterias and school stores
○Exclusive soda contracts
○Fundraising
○Incentive programs that provide awards
Source: 2009 Rudd Report School Food Opportunities for Improvement. www.yaleruddcenter.org

7. Where Marketing can be found in Schools:
2. Branded and Sponsored Materials
○ Program and activity sponsorship
○ Sponsored educational materials
○ Corporate sponsorship on scoreboards, sports equipment,
bulletin boards, text books
Source: 2009 Rudd Report School Food Opportunities for Improvement. www.yaleruddcenter.org

8. Transition to Responsible School Food Marketing
Marketing is your strategy for allocating resources (time and money) in
order to achieve your objectives (a fair profit for supplying a good product or
service).
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the
attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to
impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense,
presents information primarily to influence an audience.
Unethical marketing is often geared toward vulnerable groups in society
(children and the elderly) and attempts to influence that audience.
Responsible Marketing considers social and environmental responsibility as
well as respect for your customers and the message you send to them.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_ethics
The Entrepreneur Network www.tenonline.org and http://responsiblemarketing.com/blog/about-2

9. Examples of current marketing to school children:
● Misleading children regarding the emotional, social or health
benefits of a low-nutrition food
● Sponsoring sporting and other school events with low-nutrition
foods and brands
● Using images of physical activity or healthy foods (fruits and
vegetables) to market a low-nutrition food
● Linking a child's self image to the purchase of a low-nutrition
food by suggesting they will be more accepted or more popular
as a result of the purchase
● Exploiting a child's natural tendency to play by using cartoon
characters or toys to promote a low-nutrition food
Source materials extracted from The Center for Science in the Public Interest. http://www.cspinet.org/

10. Examples of current marketing to school children:
Offering children low nutrition foods as rewards or incentives
for good behavior or academic success
Encouraging students to sell low-nutrition foods in school
fundraisers
Showing films or news programs that engage in product
placement - the practice of showing branded goods that are
not in context with the storyline or news content.
Promoting any branded product on school property
Source materials extracted from The Center for Science in the Public Interest. http://www.cspinet.org/

11. Responsible School Food Marketing
Focuses on reversing the trend established with the current
type of school marketing.
Children and their parents should be respected.
School marketing should not interfere with the values parents
are teaching their children.
Nutrition standards and the school wellness policy should be
considered in all school marketing efforts.
Students should be presented with clear educational
messages without persuasive intent or commentary on
appearance, acceptance or popularity.

12. Competitive Foods: What are they?
Competitive foods are all foods sold in competition with the National School
Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program to children in food service
areas during the school’s designated lunch or breakfast periods.
The consumption of competitive foods is of special concern to those who
support the school meal programs since children who purchase these foods are
less likely to eat a reimbursable school meal.
Competitive foods include: extra foods and beverages sold through “à la
carte” lines (which offer other food items for sale alongside the federally-
reimbursed school meals); snack bars; student stores; vending machines;
and fundraisers (where school organizations sell baked goods or candy to raise
money.)
Competitive foods are often Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value. Examples
include carbonated soda, gum, hard candies and jelly beans. Other competitive
foods, such as candy bars, chips and ice cream, are not considered FMNVs
and may be sold in the cafeteria during meal periods.
(The full report can be found at www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/lunch)

13. Competitive Foods: Will you Lose Funds if you Tighten the Rules?
A review of four research studies and three state-based reports
published in the March 2008 Journal of School Health1
found that:
• Selling snack foods that meet improved nutrition standards did
not result in revenue loss in 6 out of 7 studies cited. Also known
as “competitive foods,” such snacks are sold in school vending
machines and on a la carte lines.
• There was increased participation in the National School
Lunch Program after healthier competitive foods were introduced.
This brings additional dollars to the schools and can compensate for
revenue loss coming from other areas.
• Some school revenue from competitive foods increased after
improved nutrition standards were implemented, according to other
anecdotal evidence.2
Source: The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity Study. Complete references available at www.yaleruddcenter.
org.

14. Replacing funds from competitive foods
●Students will choose the
healthy options offered
and there will be no
reduction in funding
●Students will choose the
healthy options offered
and there will be
increased participation in
the school lunch program
●Students will not embrace
the changes and
alternative fundraisers are
needed

15. Fundraisers for your school and your community
When you conduct a fundraiser, you are sending a message to your
volunteers and your supporters. That message contains a value
statement about your school.
Your fundraising message should be:
● Consistent with your school wellness policy
○ i.e., no candy or pop sales
● Consistent with a responsible marketing policy
○ i.e., no cartoon characters or corporate brands
● Supporting "community tie-ins", not "corporate tie-ins"
○ i.e., get involved with your community, not large corporations
that are not locally based. Often corporate involvement is
viewed as philanthropy, but it is 100% profit driven.
● Supportive of the environment whenever possible
○ i.e., don't waste limited resources (water) or create waste.

16. Marketing Strategies for your School:
1. Develop a marketing plan to support your program. Devise a program
name, menu, signage, educational information to promote menu items and
local food
2. Create seasonally appropriate theme days involving local food (Apple
Harvest Day, Lettuce be Friends with Lunch).
3. Celebrate a "Vegetable or Fruit of the Month"
4. Post signage that instructs kids to try a new fruit or vegetable
5. Implement a non-food reward for students that try a new food (stickers,
public recognition in class, 5 extra minutes of recess)
6. Plan field trips to local farms and orchards and incorporate lessons about
the source of your food.
7. Cultivate on-site school garden - use the White House garden as an
educational example.
8. Host Local Farmers visiting your school to talk about farming.
9. Create family surveys to foster family participation in the program. Keep in
mind if you use a family survey you must be prepared to publicly address
the feedback and your application of that feedback.
10. Create games involving local food.

17. Fundraisers for your school and your community
● Establish fundraisers involving local
food and food-themed merchandise.
● Host Harvest Lunches and sell tickets
to the entire community
● Publish recipe cards and cookbook
from the school lunch program,
encouraging families to eat nutritious
meals at home.
● Publish a school calendar with recipes,
food purchasing tips, and food safety
tips.
● Sell fruit and vegetable themed note
cards, postcards, tote bags promoting
your school lunch program.
● Sell locally grown flowers for Easter,
Mother's Day, Christmas.
● Sell heirloom bulbs and unique
plants to gardeners each fall.

18. Fundraisers for your school and your community
● Sell items that promote physical activity such as
kites, hula hoops, jump ropes, packages of seeds,
window box herb garden kits
● A Dance Marathon is another kid-friendly, physical
activity event. Profits are generated from ticket
sales and local food "heart-healthy" concessions.
● Have an "earth-friendly" fundraiser. Organizing a
community cleanup project, is another physical
activity based fundraiser that sends a positive
message at the same time. Participants pledge
dollars per pound.
● Host a weekend specialty sale of a seasonal
item. Examples would be a Pumpkin Patch sale, a
Christmas Tree sale, a Spring Flower Bulb Day.
● Host a Pancake Breakfast fundraiser at your
school cafeteria, serving healthy beverages and
fresh fruit toppings for the pancakes.

19. Collaborative Fundraisers with Community Members
Collaborate with like-minded community members for
creative fundraising efforts. Utilize their resources
and membership base to promote your school lunch
program.
Consider contacting your:
● Local food co-op's education and outreach
department.
○ Co-host a fundraising event and invite the food co-
op's membership.
● Local farmers market
○ Conduct school food/chef demos using local
produce at the farmers market. Hold a raffle
during the school food demos.
● Locally owned independent restaurants
○ Organize a theme night where local restaurants
donate a portion of their proceeds to your school
lunch program
● Downtown Business Authority or your local business
association
○ Ask for your school lunch program to be the
recipient of their charitable event