DC Office of Contracting and Procurement
The District serves about 150,000 meals per day to residents in settings ranging from schools to senior centers to detention centers. In 2024, we looked across all the District-run meal programs to see how they worked. Based on what we learned, we made recommendations to District leadership on how to strengthen our meal program operations.
A District-run meal program assembles lunch trays to serve to residents. | Photo Credit: Karissa Minnich
Why is this issue important in DC?
About 10 percent of households in the District do not have consistent access to enough food to live a healthy life.1 Many vulnerable residents rely on meal programs offered by the city to meet their nutritional needs. The District wants to ensure the meal programs we provide run smoothly and reach residents effectively.
What did we do?
We identified all the meal programs run by seven District agencies. For each program, we looked at administrative data, including how many residents are served daily; which residents are eligible for the program; and how much federal and local funding the program receives. We visited each program and spoke with frontline staff to see how it worked day-to-day. Our goal was to understand how each program operated, challenges they faced, and what they had in common. We then presented a set of findings and recommendations to city leadership.
What have we learned?
We identified several potential changes that can benefit all District-run meal programs. For example, we found ways for agencies to connect with one another and share lessons learned about common issues ranging from which software to use for inventory to what type of kitchen equipment works best. This is helpful because, despite serving different populations (e.g., seniors or school children), our agencies often face similar challenges. Another way we may be able to strengthen our meal programs is for the agencies to buy services or products as a group. This would allow the District to use its buying power to get more competitive pricing and better service from outside vendors.
What comes next?
We shared what we learned with decisionmakers in the executive branch and Council. We have already started making some concrete changes to strengthen meal program operations. For example, we helped connect District agencies that hire food service workers with local training programs that prepare youth and adult learners for careers in the food industry. These connections may help District agencies fill vacancies with qualified workers. The recommendations we developed will also help guide the work of the District Office of Food Policy and the Food Policy Council.
What happened behind the scenes?
We took field trips to see how each of the District-run meal programs meet the needs of those they serve. We drove along the delivery route for meals brought to homebound seniors, watched food service workers prepare lunch at St. Elizabeth’s hospital, and joined school lunch at a DCPS cafeteria. No program is the same. For example, to meet funding requirements, school meals follow strict nutrition standards set by the federal government. At the jail, cooks are required to prepare meals without knives to ensure safety within the facility. At DC shelters, trays of ready-to-eat food are delivered daily because the facilities do not have kitchen equipment to cook onsite.