Strategy mapping for reopening school canteen in new normal era by safety and halal standard

Abstract The school canteen must provide nutritious, safe, and halal food. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not easy to manage the canteen operations. This study aims to map the barrier, driving factors, and priorities strategy to prepare for reopening the senior high school’s canteen with safe and halal standards in the new normal era. This study was analytically observational with a cross-sectional approach in nature. SWOT and Fuzzy-ANP (F-ANP) methods identified and determined the priority strategies. The SWOT analysis results show that internal factors are moderate, but external factors strongly influence the school canteen’s position, hence growth and development strategies are required. Based on weighted priority by F-ANP six strategies are recommended. The six strategies to reopen safe and halal of Senior High School canteen are as follows: establish school canteen management commitment with food handlers and other stakeholders with distinct communication; develop safe and halal school canteens, the authority should consider affordable menu prices; serving a variety of safe and halal menus according to the purchasing power, mainly students; conduct education or training according to the needs of school academia and canteen management for food safety and halal; develop new menus or re-formulate existing menus considering school academia and supporting food safety, halal, and nutrition; and finally, conduct training on processing and serving safe and halal menus for school canteen managers and food handlers. These alternative strategies are expected to better prepare for reopening the school canteen with safe and halal standards in the new normal era.