A Study on Special Events at School Foodservice Operations in the Busan Area

Lee, Kyung A

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of implementing special events within school foodservice operations. A total of 359 questionnaires were distributed to dietitians employed at school foodservice operations in Busan from July 1 to 31, 2006 (response rate: 93%). The results indicated that approximately half of the respondents (47.7%) did not implement special events. The types of special events that foodservice operations had most frequently implemented were 'traditional festival day events' (19.0%), 'subdivisions of the season events' (18.3), 'seasonal events' (17.1%), 'school events' (13.0%), 'single day events' (10.2%). According to the dietitians' characteristics, older dietitians implemented 'healthy food events' more frequently than younger dietitians. 'Traditional festival day events' (p<0.05) and 'subdivisions of the season events' (p<0.01) were more frequently implemented in independently managed foodservices than in contract operations. On the other hand, 'international food events', 'gift events', and 'healthy food events' were more frequently implemented in contract foodservices than in independent operations (p<0.001). Dietitians from elementary and middle schools implemented 'winter solstice', 'midsummer', 'children's day', and 'school foodservice day' events more frequently, whereas dietitians from high schools implemented 'midsummer', 'Valentine's day', and 'teacher's day' events more frequently. Most dietitians (94%) had never received education or training for special event marketing previously. Therefore, these results suggest there may be a need to develop educational programs on special event marketing for dietitians.