Making hot lunch cool: marketing strategies for school foodservices.

It is our job to excite kids about nutrition," says Clare Miller, MS, RD, chair of the School Nutrition Services dietetic practice group. As the director of food and nutrition services for the Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana, Miller's mission is feeding students in 36 schools. She espouses a philosophy that a knowledge of the foods children need cannot be separated from an understanding of the foods and services they want. According to Miller, it is crucial to think of students as customers. Dietetics professionals should investigate student lunchtime likes and dislikes so that food and nutrition services can be effectively marketed to these consumers. "It goes back to research," Miller insists. "You have to understand …