According to respondents to the Mackinac Center's 2008 survey, 29.1 percent (160 districts) reported contracting for food services to some degree. This is a decrease of 2.1 percent from last year.
Graphic 3: Districts Contracting Food Service
There were six districts new to food service contracting this year and nine districts that took the service back in-house.
Districts that contract out for food service may continue to employ district workers and opt to have only an outside manager for the program. Except for Webberville, all of the districts that brought services back in-house had management-only contracts.
However, despite the decrease in the number of districts contracting out, food service remains the most frequently outsourced service.