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Project Team

Dr. Jennifer Gaddis

Dr. Beth Katz

Dr. Reece Lyerly

Alexia Kulwiec, JD

Associate Prof. UW-Madison

Executive Director

Food Insight Group

Sr. Director of Research & Eval

Chef Ann Foundation

Associate Prof.

UW-Madison

Dr. Laura Dresser

Clinical Associate Prof.

Uw-Madison

Sara Trongone

PhD Candidate

Uw-Madison

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Project timeline and major activities

2024

Listening sessions and literature review

USFW project team develops priority research areas and RFP for competitive subgrants

Competitive subgrants awarded

RFP due February 14 with notification of awards in April and June project start date

2025

Subgrant project activity continues

Subgrantees conduct research, submit reports, present to FNS with end date of Nov. 30

2026

Summary report and project closeout

USFW project team prepares final report, data sharing, and other required deliverables

2027

where we are now with the 18-month subgrant projects

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Workforce stats

Roughly 339,000 public school food workers (SFWs)

# has declined over the past decade, although not uniformly across states

Public SFWs are:

older than the overall workforce (median age of 52 compared to 28 for other food service workers)
almost entirely female (93%)
more likely to be Black or Latino
more likely to work part time than other public school staff and workers generally

Median hourly wage for SFWs is just $12.78

Wages have declined slightly (in real terms) since 2008-12.
SFWs earn less than other food service workers ($13.08), and well below other classified workers ($16.98) and institutional cafeteria workers ($16.01).

Scratch cooking varies widely, partly due to staffing

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Part-time staff are the backbone (4 out of 5)

Seasonal employment significantly reduces annual earnings.

Hourly workers at ~80% of schools work 9 months or less/year

Full-time work at $12.74 per hour pays $26,500 (with a 12-month contract)

Full time jobs have a wage premium, but schools are not offering strong seniority or incentive pay

Gender-based pay inequity

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“The big issue is around a historical wage gap between the traditional women who were doing food service and then the traditional men doing custodial.

I think we could address this loss that we're dealing with if you could be paid as a food service worker the same or more than a custodian because you're in charge of food safety. All the things that we know we're in charge of… yet, I think it's based in historic wage disparity based on gender.

School nutrition director, large district in the West

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Listening Sessions (Summer 2024)

Focus group structure

~ 60 participants

Purposeful sample; invitation only

5 listening session groups

Divided into Zoom breakouts with 2-5 participants for more specific questions and robust discussion

Group 1: Frontline workers & labor unions

Group 4: School food program operators

Group 2: Management companies, professional development/culinary trainers

Group 5: Policymakers, state agencies, & procurement specialists

Group 3: Systems-focused organizations

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Listening Session Learnings

Drivers of low job satisfaction

poor compensation/lack of respect
lack of autonomy and lack of training
workplace conditions like time, understaffing, and heat stress

Drivers of high job satisfaction

fair compensation
hours aligned w/unpaid caregiving responsibilities
strong school-community relationships
connection to the “mission” of feeding children healthy (local) food

Fresh prep and values-aligned procurement

create higher quality jobs
increase average daily participation
support resilient local/regional food systems

“Our minimum wage for fast food workers in the state of New York is set by the state, and it is substantially higher than what most school districts are paying… we're not offering as many hours, because we're only open Monday through Friday, no weekends, no nights, no holidays, and most of the time, we're only offering a four or five-hour shift.” - School nutrition director, small district in the Northeast

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“I could get more higher quality applicants if the legislature would change some things, because our state pay is set at the legislative level, which is just crazy to me.

Our lowest paid individuals are our school cooks. Yet they are some of the most front-facing individuals. They touch every single person in the school.

People judge a school based off the Facebook posts of the food that's served. It's like, “Hey, if we're that out in center, we take the first flack on Facebook, but we also get the benefit of good press when it works out well. It's like if we're that out in center, you guys should recognize us accordingly.”’

School nutrition director, small district in the Mid Atlantic

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“I just think that needs to be acknowledged that [low wage] is the standard for food and agriculture systems. Even pegging us to what the market for restaurants is paying is still probably going to be underbidding it in some ways.” - school nutrition director, large school district in the Mid Atlantic

https://foodchainworkers.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Food-Worker-Data-Update-2025-FCWA-3.pdf

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Primary research questions

What is the current state of the school food workforce and the structure of their jobs?
How, if at all, are recruitment, retention, and job satisfaction impacted by school/school food authority characteristics and employment structure?
What are the most promising strategies for creating a stable and respected school food workforce that is equipped to provide nutritious meals to students while supporting resilient local and regional food systems?

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Subgrant RFP Development

Key parameters dictated by USDA FNS cooperative agreement
Identified priority research areas based on input from the listening sessions and literature review
Allowed to put our own spin on it, which we did by requiring all projects to be “worker-centered” and providing appendices with exemplary research

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Worker Centered Research

GJC, “Principles for a Worker-Centered Workforce Development System,” March 2024

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Worker centered research….

Advances worker voice, power, organizing, and/or unionization;
Values the needs, experiences, and perspectives of frontline workers;
Emphasizes workers’ existing assets, skills, and capacities for growth;
Looks for opportunities and potential (positive framing/asset-based approach) rather than only what is lacking or problematic;

Understands that the structure of jobs and policies that surround jobs are an important site of intervention;
May involve workers directly in the research process through consultation across the life of a research project or deeper engagement through participatory action research;
Actively recognizes and engages with structural discrimination (e.g., race, sex, disability) within the labor market; and/or
Informs the development of labor market policies, training, career pathways, and support services that enhance job quality.

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Eliciting Perspectives of the U.S. School Food Workforce Using a Worker-Centered, Mixed Methods Approach

PI: Hannah Lane, Duke University; Co-Is: Kirsten Almberg, Yuka Asada, and Tessa Bonney, UIC; Donovan Lessard, SNA
Scope: National
RQs: Primarily 1 and 3; also contributes to 2
Methods: Explanatory sequential mixed methods study. The quantitative phase consists of a nationally representative survey distributed to ~1300 school-level SFW via targeted sampling; subsequent qualitative phase will consist of ~15 focus groups with a subsample of survey participants (n = 75).
Expected results: Descriptive statistics of national sample, comprehensive understanding of experiences and perspectives of the school-level SFW, as well as a replicable set of worker-centered findings that can inform lasting improvements to school food staffing models.

The quantitative sampling frame for this survey is carefully designed to encompass all USDA regions and to target 20% managers and 80% hourly staff (n = 1332), while the qualitative sampling frame includes 75 individuals in 15 focus groups (~5 people/group; 5 manager groups and 10 staff groups assigned based on similarity in their quantitative results (e.g., high precarity, low burnout; low precarity, low burnout).

We were particularly impressed with the survey variables and source instruments included in the proposal, which include a number of validated instruments focused on employment and working conditions, workplace psychosocial stressors, work-related burnout, and job satisfaction in addition to demographic and occupational information questions.

This national project primarily addresses research priority areas 1 and 3, but also touches on topics included in priority area 2. Using a worker-centered explanatory mixed methods design, the project team proposes an 18-month study whereby quantitative data are first collected via a national survey in partnership with the School Nutrition Association (Aim 1), followed by qualitative data collected via focus groups with a subsample of survey takers (Aim 2). Aim 1a. Describe characteristics of a representative sample of U.S. school-level food workers (managers and staff), including: demographics, occupational information (e.g., roles, titles, benefits), perceived worker conditions (employment precarity, psychosocial hazards), burnout, and perceived capacity for best practices (e.g., scratch cooking vs heat-and-serve); Aim 1b. Evaluate associations between worker conditions (predictors) and burnout and perceived capacity (outcomes), controlling for demographic and occupational confounders. Aim 2. Explore worker-driven strategies (e.g., compensation, professional development) to improve working conditions and job satisfaction, reduce burnout, and build capacity, program quality, and job satisfaction with school-level staff.

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The U.S. school food workforce—particularly those in school-level roles—are under-paid, have few professional development opportunities, are susceptible to burnout, and may have limited job security. In order to develop actionable strategies toward a stable, thriving workforce, more robust examination of the characteristics and experiences of the school food workforce is needed. This explanatory sequential mixed methods study will include a nationally representative survey of 1,330 school-level food workers (managers and staff) followed by focus groups with 75 of those workers. The survey will seek to characterize this workforce in terms of demographics and occupational information (e.g. roles, titles, benefits). The survey will also examine associations between workers’ perceptions of their working conditions, burnout, and perceived capacity for scratch cooking and other best practices. The focus groups will explore worker-driven strategies, such as compensation and professional development, to improve working conditions and job satisfaction, reduce burnout, and build capacity for best practices among school-level food workers. The study team will collaborate with the School Nutrition Association to recruit a representative sample, and study methods will draw upon worker-centered principles and input from a Community Advisory Board. They expect to gain a comprehensive understanding of experiences and perspectives of the school-level SFW and generate a replicable set of worker-centered findings that can inform lasting improvements to school food staffing models.

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UIC Center for Healthy Work collaboration on labor-centered survey measures

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Exploring Structural Factors Associated With Turnover Among the School Food Service Workforce

Slide 8

PI: Bonnie Solomon, Co-PI: YiYu Chen, Child Trends; Co-Is: Brandon Stratford, Child Trends and Donovan Lessard, SNA
Scope: National
RQs: Primarily 2
Methods: Collaborate with SNA to integrate new questions into the annual Trends director survey (n = 1400). Collaborate with the Duke team on SFW survey development, contributing workforce-related items aligned with research questions, and conduct independent analyses (including regression modeling) integrating secondary data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Expected results: Explanatory data on how individual, school-level, and structural factors may contribute to turnover; strategies to improve retention, resulting in recommendations for state and district policymakers that can support more stable and effective school meal programs.

This national project primarily addresses research priority area 2. The project team has four aims: (1) examine the extent of turnover among the school foodservice workforce, focusing on frontline (school-level) employees; (2) examine structural factors associated with turnover, including both organizational (school and district) and broader system level (policy and economic context) factors; (3) explore promising strategies that school food authorities (SFAs) are using to reduce turnover; and (4) explore workforce members’ perceptions of the causes of turnover. By collecting and analyzing a mix of quantitative and qualitative data across multiple levels of the school foodservice system, they aim to produce findings that can help illuminate how a variety of structural factors may contribute to turnover and inform strategies to improve retention

The project team proposed using a mixed methods approach, analyzing data from three analytic samples: (1) a director survey sample (n=1400), (2) a frontline employee survey sample (n=1300), and 3) a focus group sample. In addition to this primary data collection, they plan to merge director and frontline employee survey data with public statistics such as those from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to examine contextual factors for turnover. By combining these data sources, they place individual and school-level drivers of turnover in the broader context of local labor market conditions.

The conceptual framework examines the drivers of turnover focusing on three levels:

Individual level

employee-job fit, life stage, family obligations, and individual barriers to employment (e.g., health)

Organizational (school and district) level

compensation and benefits (e.g., remuneration, benefits, rewards)
opportunities for career progression (e.g., clear career pathways, professional development, advancement opportunities
job characteristics (e.g., work hours, schedule stability, workload demands)
organizational culture and management (e.g., leadership style, supervisor support, participative decision-making)

System level

larger policy and economic environment, including the unemployment rate or employment ratio
degree of school foodservice privatization (e.g., outsourced vs. self-operated)
public subsidies utilized by the school foodservice program

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School foodservice workers are crucial to the operation of national school meal programs. Data indicate high employee turnover in this workforce, particularly among part-time and non-management staff. However, research on turnover drivers beyond position type is limited. This study aims to fill this gap by: 1) examining turnover rates among frontline school foodservice employees; and 2) analyzing structural factors associated with turnover, including organizational, district, school, policy, and economic influences. The study will develop surveys for frontline workers and school nutrition directors, including open-ended questions to gather insights on turnover reduction strategies and worker perceptions. In collaboration with the School Nutrition Association, these surveys will be administered to approximately 1,300 school-level workers (in collaboration with Duke University; PI Hannah Lane) and 1,400 district-level directors. Multivariate regression analyses will be conducted to determine how hypothesized factors predict turnover, both across districts and within specific district characteristics (e.g., poverty, Community Eligibility Program participation, and urbanicity). The study will seek feedback from a community advisory group throughout the research process to inform the designs and findings. Based on its findings and feedback, the study will develop recommendations for state and district policymakers to support stable and effective school meal programs, benefiting both employees and students.

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Labor Market Well-being of School Food Workers and the Return on Investment in this Workforce

Slide 9

PI: Eunice Han, Co-PI: Sarah Small, University of Utah; CO-I: Papungkorn Kitcharoenkarnkul, Nebraska Dept. of Economic Development
Scope: National
RQs: Primarily 1 and 3
Methods: Compile and integrate data from multiple national surveys (CPS, F-33, SEDA, CRDC) to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the school food workforce.
Expected results: (1) Descriptive, intersectional statistics on the labor market well-being of school food workers compared with other school support staff and food service workers in non-instructional institutions. (2) Identification of key factors that improve job quality and overall labor market experiences. (3) Assessment of the relationship between spending on worker compensation and student outcomes, indicating the returns on investment in the school food workforce.

This national project primarily addresses research priority areas 1 and 3. The project team aims to examine the current state of the food service workforce in K-12 schools and generate a comprehensive assessment on their labor market experiences and well-being during the most recent decade. They propose using nationally representative data combined with school district finance information as well as students’ educational outcomes to conduct nationwide, state-, county-, and individual-level analyses on school food workforce. This dataset will allow them to not only describe current workplace well-being for school food service workers, but also compare time trends of their employment outcomes and working conditions (such as wages, non-wage benefits, work hours) by various demographics, sectors, union status, and locality. The project team also proposes linking the labor market conditions of school food workforce to students’ academic performance to examine the relationship between investment in school food personnel and worker productivity

What is of most interest to the USFW Project Team is the proposed integration of three existing survey data sets (i.e., the School District Finance Survey, Stanford Education Data Archive, Civil Right Data Collection) to answer questions related to the labor market experiences of school food workers (especially in relation to other school support staff and food service workers in non-educational settings), labor expenditures as a percentage of school food budgets, and returns to spending on the school food workforce, particularly with respect to student outcomes

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This project will examine the current state of the K-12 school food workforce, offering a comprehensive assessment on their labor market well-being and the returns to investment in this workforce over the most recent decade. The study team will utilize nationally representative data combined with school district finance information as well as students’ educational outcomes to conduct nationwide, state-, district-, and individual-level analyses on the school food workforce. This dataset will allow the study team to not only understand the current state of workplace well-being for school food service workers but also compare time trends of their employment outcomes and working conditions by various demographics, sectors, and locality. By linking the school district finance information regarding school food workforce to students’ academic performance, they will examine the relationship between investment in school food personnel and worker productivity. The main goals of this project are threefold: (i) provide descriptive, intersectional statistics on the labor market well-being of school food workers and compare them to other school support staff and food service workers in non-instructional institutions; (ii) identify determinants for working conditions and job quality and offer key factors promoting overall labor market experiences of the school food workforce; and (iii) assess the relationship between expenditure on worker compensation and various student outcomes to estimate the returns on investment in the school food workforce. This project not only provides snapshots for national workforce dynamics and regional variations for school food workforce, but also highlights the factors influencing occupational well-being as well as their roles in promoting education quality.

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Fair Employment and Economic Dignity (FEED): A Study of School Food Labor Practices in LA and NYC

PI: Nevin Cohen, CUNY; CO-Is: Katherine Fraser and Craig Willingham, CUNY
Scope: Multi-sited (two urban districts in different states)
RQs: Primarily 3; also contributes to 1 and 2
Methods: Sequential mixed methods design with data collected via survey (n = 375) and semi-structured interviews (n = 40-50). Quantitative component will investigate the relationships between labor conditions, program quality, and economic outcomes through multiple analytical phases (descriptive analysis of workforce characteristics followed by multivariate regression examining correlations between key labor variables and program quality metrics). The analysis will be strengthened through difference-in-differences comparisons between schools with varying wages and benefits and working conditions, enabling isolation of specific work variable effects.
Expected results: Fill critical gaps in understanding how employment structures affect worker satisfaction and the success of child nutrition programs, while identifying strategies for building stable, skilled food service teams able to provide healthy, scratch-cooked meals across diverse school districts.

This multi-sited study primarily addresses area 3, but also contributes important data and analysis related to areas A and B, through an examination of school food service labor practices in America's two largest school districts - Los Angeles Unified School District and New York City Department of Education - which together employ 10,900 unionized food service workers serving 2.23 million students. Using a worker-centered, mixed-methods approach, the study will survey 375 workers (in English, Spanish, and Chinese) and conduct 40-50 in-depth interviews. Engaging workers and union officials throughout all phases of the research process, the project team has three primary aims: (1) analyze how union-negotiated employment practices in large urban districts affect worker retention, job satisfaction, and school meal program quality; (2) identify models for workforce development and career advancement applicable across districts; and (3) examine how different approaches to school food work and programs like scratch cooking and farm to school influence worker satisfaction and program sustainability.

districts employ a full range of positions from cafeteria workers and cooks to kitchen managers and administrators, serving diverse student populations across varied socioeconomic strata. With their mix of central, school-based, and satellite kitchens, varying levels of scratch cooking and farm-to-school activities, and substantial procurement budgets, these districts will allow the researchers to examine how organizational factors influence workforce outcomes. Expected outcomes include: analysis of workforce patterns and their relationships to program quality; evidence-based recommendations for professional development and career advancement; strategies for improving job quality through labor-management partnerships; and insights applicable to unionized and non-unionized settings

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This study examines school food service labor practices in America's two largest school districts - Los Angeles Unified School District and New York City Department of Education - which together employ more than 10,000 food service workers serving over 2 million students. Despite their critical role in student nutrition, school food service workers face persistent challenges affecting program quality and workforce stability, including wage disparities and precarious schedules. The research has three primary aims: 1) analyze how certain employment practices in large urban districts affect worker retention, job satisfaction, and school meal program quality; 2) identify models for workforce development and career advancement applicable across districts; and 3) examine how different approaches to school food work and programs like scratch cooking and farm to school influence worker satisfaction and program sustainability. Using a worker-centered, mixed-methods approach, the study will survey 375 workers and conduct 40-50 in-depth interviews, engaging workers and their unions, when applicable,in the research. The study team will document worker-driven innovations and examine the effects of certain contract provisions. Robust analysis of workforce patterns and their relationships to program quality in these two large districts will generate evidence-based recommendations for professional development and career advancement, strategies for improving job quality through labor-management partnerships, and insights applicable to unionized and non-unionized settings.

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