It’s said that nature abhors a vacuum. What that means, in short, is that if there is an empty space or a void, something will fill it. When it comes to school nutrition I often witness two distinct vacuums:
The Insider Vacuum: This vacuum is filled with the story created by staff who are immersed every day in the reality of the food being sourced, prepared, and served. If you’re reading this there is a good chance that you are in this vacuum. You work incredibly hard to provide the best meals possible for our children and young adults and are acutely aware of the work that you and your team does every day.
In fact, you often get frustrated when more people don’t know about the amazing things you and your team do. Sound familiar?
The Public Vacuum: This vacuum is often the most dominant vacuum related to school food. It is too often filled with outdated stereotypes, urban legends, non-specific critiques and barely-formed opinions. In short, it’s the most common narrative that we work to change.
Sadly, this vacuum can seep into the Insider Vacuum if we, as insiders, aren’t clear and consistent in telling our story again and again, even to ourselves.
Bridging The Divide: In order to shift the narrative on school food we need to be actively filling both vacuums with a clear and consistent message of the reality of what we are doing. We need to highlight where our food comes from, who grew the food, how we prepare it, and why it matters to the physical and intellectual health of our students.
We need to show how our food measures up nutritionally. It’s not enough to say, “our orange chicken is a healthier version.” We have to show the receipts. We have to pull back the curtain and show the nutritional components in comparison to what people think we serve (ie - comparable fast food or fast-casual restaurants).
We need to showcase the educational benefits that show the correlation between school meals and academic performance. We need to show parents and families that they can have more time with their kids when they don’t have to prep meals every day. We have to show the real dollars families can save by having school meals. When you show hard dollar amounts it gets attention.
And we need to showcase the care, compassion, and expertise of our staff. School nutrition heroes are generally camera-shy, but ask students how they feel about their lunch heroes and most kids light up. When we post staff spotlights for clients the engagement spikes and people love to comment about how much they love their cafeteria staff.
Marketing is a Practice, Not a Checklist: The process of changing the contents of these vacuums takes time and consistency. This isn’t a one-off statement type of thing. It’s not a single flyer taped to a cafeteria door or sent home in a backpack at the start of the year. Think about how many messages we’re confronted with daily.
Think about the information you sort of remember hearing but forgot about until you were reminded. There is a reason that marketing is an ongoing process and not a goal - not merely something that is done, checked off the list, and left in the rearview.
““The implicit assumption behind any goal is this: “Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy.” The problem with a goals-first mentality is that you’re continually putting happiness off until the next milestone.””
The good news? Both vacuums can be filled with your narrative and can even work in tandem to reach more people. It takes some intentional thinking and a commitment to shift the story to the real scoop of what you’re doing. It takes a long view that understands that this isn't a quick fix but a way of operating. You can set yourself up for success by being intentional and building momentum as you see your capacity for change.
We’re here to help you with that. It’s what we love doing - helping clients take control of their stories and filling those spaces with inspiring, compelling, and eye-opening stories of the remarkable shift in school nutrition. If you’re ready to take control of your story let us know and we can help to fill the space with your story and bridge the Insider and Public story vacuums.
Take control of your story and shift the narrative on school nutrition.