May 1999 Purchasing and processing techniques affect costs. Food costs are affected by purchasing and delivery methods. Some of the best practices of food purchasing include cooperative purchasing of food products and purchasing larger quantities of food and centrally storing the food in walk-in freezers. On the other hand, some districts have been successful and have avoided building walk-in freezers by having food products shipped directly to campuses. For example, some smaller districts, such as Texarkana and Mt. Pleasant, have found that they can negotiate better food prices on their own than they can through other food cooperatives.
School districts get free commodities, such as bulk cheeses and meats, from the federal government.
These are not always items that fit easily into the district's preset menus. For example, one district received an abundance of whole frozen turkeys. Some districts have told TSPR that they use what they can, but admit that some commodities are wasted because the commodities spoil before they can be used. Adjusting menus to make better use of commodities is the simplest, most direct way to use free commodities. And, when at all possible, districts should creatively attempt to adjust menus to use everything they get from the federal government.