The widespread introduction of school district wellness policies and increased regulation of food and beverage items sold there are having a distinct impact on what is sold and vended in the segment.

The biggest short term impact? A significant decline in vending sales over the past three years. It's a trend quantitively documented by data collected by NPD Group, a leading consumer research organization,

Select image to enlarge

“Between 2005 and 2006, secondary school vend purchases declined 15 percent,” says Kyle Olund, senior product manager for NPD Group's CREST OnSite data service. “Last year, they declined another two percent. While the numbers may be stabilizing, the data for 2007 shows enough variance that we are closely watching to see if the trend holds.” (Fig .1).

Olund says a likely factor “is the increased vending of snacks that have a more healthful nutritional profile. These are not always as popular as traditional products, and the challenge is for manufacturers and operators to offer such items and still maintain the taste appeal teens want.”

Other secondary school “top-preferred” school food data provided by NPD “underscores that what teens prefer increasingly is a mix of two kinds of things — traditional taste favorites like pizza, and items with a better nutritional profile,” says Olund. “Fruit tends to fit both descriptions, and is a clear winner.”

The NPD data is collected from large consumer populations who report on their most recent meals. While the surveyed population includes some adults, like teachers and administrators, who consume meals at schools,“74 percent are students in the 13-17 year age group,” Olund says.

The NPD data shown here includes a mix of school meal and a la carte purchases, with vend purchases separated out. But looking at additional survey detail, “nearly half the non-vended salty snack volume is coming from a la carte sales,” says Olund. “Teens are regularly supplementing school meals with items from a la carte and vending machines. Our data show that one third of all purchases involving a vending machine are associated with a lunch meal.”

She adds: “if you were to look at only the top a la carte items, you'd see that one of them is bagels. They are convenient, portable, and effectively address a daypart need.”

To get a sense of how differences in state and local policies and other factors might bear on these observations, FM interviewed three large school system operators and asked them to contrast the data with their own experience.

Denver: exploring reimbursable vended meals

Leo Lesh, executive director of enterprise management for Denver Public Schools, operates in a district where foodservice has had control over vending throughout the system for many years. “When we first eliminated candy bars and switched to offering more healthful vended options several years ago, before wellness policies were mandated, we did see an initial decline in sales, but over time the volume returned,” he says.

“We found one key was to have a regular program of rotating new products through the vending machines so that the variety is always changing. We know from tracking the results that this has increased consumption.”