If your school district is planning to hire a new food service director, good luck: There’s lots of competition and well-qualified candidates are scarce.

Many food service directors are retiring just as the job is getting more complex—schools are facing tougher regulations and more food safety inspections, food prices are rising, budgets are dropping, and there’s a big push to offer healthier, but still tasty, fare.

And a career as school lunch lady doesn’t get enough respect.

“The image of school nutrition has always been a struggle,” says Katie Wilson, the school nutrition director for the Onalaska, Wis., school district. “It’s not as prestigious as other positions in food service field, and people don’t see it as a viable career.”

While the job might once have been relegated to the head cook or an administrative assistant, districts need to hire food management professionals who have a unique combination of skills, she says. An ideal candidate would be part dietician and part business manager, someone who can design a nutritious and palatable menu, negotiate contracts, and balance a budget.

It’s getting tough to find these people, and it’s even harder to persuade them to work in school districts. But Wilson, who currently serves as the president of the School Nutrition Association, is hoping to change the image from the matronly lunch lady to a savvy business professional and recruit more college students to the field. Schools must help, she says, by elevating the job to a professional administrative position.

Want more advice on running your food services division? Wilson and others from the field give their thoughts in the June issue of American School Board Journal.

Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor