IFMA’s five Foodservice Leadership Councils (FLCs) have spent 2023 developing tools to enable better collaboration across their segment’s ecosystem. The work provides perspective and tools for how to work within each segment—providing clear direction and guidance on how best to partner and provide support.

 

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The FLCs represent foodservice at Elementary & Secondary Schools, Colleges & Universities, Business & Industry, Healthcare, and Restaurants, providing visibility into the consumer at all different life stages and as part of their food journey.


Doing Business with College & University
In 2021, the C&U Foodservice Leadership Council (FLC) created a custom Operator Collaboration Model (OCM) tailored to the C&U segment. This Collaboration Handbook builds on the (OCM) framework and provides a review of the model and tactical examples of how a supplier can elevate and build their relationship with C&U operators.
Doing Business with Healthcare
This Best Practice Guide was built based on the input from IFMA's Heathcare Foodservice Leadership Council (FLC). It provides operators and suppliers with a fundamental overview of bowls program, and best practices for collaborating on innovation initiatives both with operators and suppliers, and amongst suppliers for cross-functional alignement around commong goals.
Doing Business with K-12
This guidebook is a comprehensive overview of the Elementary & Secondary Foodservice segment (E&S). It is designed to provide a working understanding of the market this segment serves, how they purchase, the government regulations and funding that are critical for suppliers to understand, and an overall process and guide for doing business with the segment.
Doing Business with Business & Industry
This playbook provides a detailed overview of how the Business & Industry Foodservice segment views and manages the critical area of sustainability. It summarizes B&I operator’s common sustainability needs and goals across the key dimensions of how this segment views sustainability. They’re sustainability goals.
Doing Business with Restaurant Chains
In early 2023 the Restaurant Foodservice Leadership Council (FLC) decided to tap into their group's collective experience and build a Margin Optimization Model to identify the top areas of cost-management and long-term margin enhancement. The goal was to develop a framework where they could focus, in collaboration with their suppliers, to improve margins and strengthen their overall business models.