Identify Your Team and Engage Leadership

Building a Foundation for Food Service Guidelines

At a glance

One of the first steps in building a foundation for food service guidelines is to identify your team and engage leadership. Choose representatives with a variety of expertise and people who reflect the population being served. Leaders, internal champions, and key partners all have a role.

Woman having a video conference call with team members.

Introduction

A solid foundation is built with the assistance of leaders, internal champions, and key partners. The number and type of representatives for your food service guidelines team may depend on the scale of your efforts. For example, adopting food service guidelines at one food service location may require a different team than adopting the guidelines across multiple settings and/or food venues.

The food service guidelines team can:

  • Conduct a baseline assessment of food services.
  • Create an implementation plan with goals, strategies, and timelines.
  • Develop language for food service guidelines in purchasing requests for proposals (RFPs).
  • Provide technical assistance on food service guidelines.
  • Monitor implementation.
  • Evaluate progress.
  • Communicate positive changes throughout the agency and externally.

Build a diverse team

To put food service guidelines into practice, you will need to engage people from various groups. Form your food service guidelines team by choosing representatives from different functional areas. Consider the contributions and expertise each member can bring to the group.

When possible, include people who reflect the population who will be utilizing the food service setting. While one person cannot speak for an entire group, including people with diverse backgrounds can provide insight into food and beverage preferences. Also, engage leadership from relevant institutions, such as government facilities, hospitals, large businesses, and faith-based organizations. Their buy-in will contribute to the long-term success of your efforts.

In addition to leaders, internal champions, and key partners, consider inviting people from the following groups to be a part of your team:

  • Organizational leaders.
  • Public health department staff.
  • Building facilities managers.
  • Wellness coordinators.
  • Purchasing directors.
  • Legal department staff.
  • Food service staff.
  • Nutrition experts.
  • Evaluation staff.
  • Food vendors, including those working under the Randolph Sheppard Act.A
  • Representatives of various cultures of your population.
Food service guidelines team happily meeting around conference table in office.
Construct a food service guidelines team with varying expertise.

Roles of leaders and partners

Leaders, internal champions, and key partners offer key support for implementing food service guidelines.

Leaders

Leaders are essential for long-term sustainability of food service guidelines implementation. They will help you surmount obstacles, ensure availability of financial and other resources, and open networks for negotiating parameters and enlisting others who can help your efforts. Leaders can communicate your vision to other decision-makers, such as upper management, whose support may be needed for optimal results. Leaders can come from within your agency or institution, food service management companies, building facilities management, and more.

Internal champions

Champions can be anyone with the expertise and professional contacts to promote best practices. They help ensure support and resources for implementation of food service guidelines. Champions can help participants throughout the process. Depending on your organization, your internal champions may be a governor, mayor, local council members, wellness coordinators, and public health staff.

Key partners

You may need to develop partnerships with people and groups outside of your organization to reach your goal. The key to a successful partnership is that both partners bring something to the table such as knowledge, skills, or resources. Likewise, both partners stand to benefit from the success of the project. Key partners may include health and wellness organizations and consultants, relevant business groups, food service management companies, food distributors or manufacturers, and local producers.

Next steps

Man and woman meeting in cafe.
Develop a Logic Model and Work Plan
Questions to ask to inform your logic model and work plan. These provide direction for activities.

Return to "Building Blocks"

Use the "Building Blocks of Food Service Guidelines" to navigate to other parts of the Food Service Guidelines Implementation Toolkit.

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Content Source:
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP)
  1. The Randolph-Sheppard Act [34 CFR Part 395-Vending Facility Program for the Blind on Federal and Other Property] is a federal law that provides individuals who are blind a priority to operate vending facilities (such as cafeterias, snack bars, and vending machines) on government property.