School meal programs represent a very large investment of Federal and state dollars and, particularly in a time of economic austerity, it is in everyone's best interest to ensure the proper use of public funding. Regardless of whether a school meal program is self-operated or managed by an outside contractor, school cafeteria operations should be open and above suspicion. We recommend strengthening reporting requirements of all school meal programs to ensure transparency and to build public trust.

The USDA has recently made great strides in strengthening school meal program procurement standards.  However, states often lack the resources to offer District administrators and board members advice and training to meet their responsibility to exercise effective oversight. We think the USDA should be able to investigate questions or conflicts arising from food service management and procurement contracts. The Department has explained that it lacks the authority to assist Districts in their contractual relationships with third parties based on Federal Regulations. Therefore, we recommend that the statute be amended to give the USDA the authority to act in an agency role on behalf of Districts to ensure compliance with Federal procurement rules.