NPS Mission - National Park Service

National Park Service FY 2013 Budget Justifications
to help the Service identify and implement progressive yet practical healthy food programs in parks. The
genesis of this Strategy is successful efforts which have occurred in a number of parks. One example is
Muir Woods in California where the concession contract and prospectus lead to the winning proposal and
resulted in a model of healthy foods that has received national recognition. On the East Coast, examples
can be found at the Statue of Liberty, where the concessioner educates visitors by displaying nutritional
information on its menus for each of their offerings, and Fort McHenry at which, due to the large number
of school children that come to the park, the contract specifies that menu offerings meet nutritional
guidelines first established in the State of California.
In FY 2013, the NPS will continue to work with, to develop, and roll-out its Healthy Food Implementation
Strategy, collaborating with concessioners and other partners on appropriate standards and guidelines
and using the contracting process to help roll out the Strategy, drive further innovation, and ensure visitor
satisfaction in healthy and sustainable food practices.
FY 2013 Program Performance
The Commercial Services Program’s priority is contribute to the overall positive visitor experience by
ensuring sound operation and visitor satisfaction with the quality of commercial services. In particular, the
program would:
• Continue to proactively manage concession contracting, improve operational efficiency, add
necessary performance requirements to concession contracts, and ensure an appropriate rate of
return to the Federal Government from these contracts.
• Continue to review and revise Commercial Services Program policies and procedures to ensure
they are current, efficient, and provide effective operational procedures for program management.
• Continue to review and update concession standards, and evaluation and rate administration
processes to increase efficiency and reflect current industry practices.
• Continue to review visitor satisfaction in order to monitor the delivery of quality commercial
services and identify areas of improvement.
• Continue to phase-out concessions special account funds and re-designate these as franchise
fees.
• Continue concessions management training courses for park superintendents and concession
specialists.
• Continue implementation of the Human Capital Strategy for Commercial Services, including use
of newly developed position descriptions.
• Continue to track and monitor Leasehold Surrender Interest.
• Continue to promote environmentally sound commercial services through the competitive
prospectus process, conduct and track environmental audits, and implement environmental
management programs as contract requirements.
• Continue to offer recreational opportunities and other services (including healthy foods) that
contribute to the health and wellbeing of visitors in support of Federal Government initiatives
including America’s Great Outdoors and Let’s Move!
• Continue to work toward Servicewide implementation of the Commercial Services System (CSS)
to maintain commercial services operational and contract data.
The Commercial Services Program would continue to reduce the number of concession contracts
operating under continuation or extension by thirty percent over the prior year, and issue an estimated
nine of the remaining 29 backlog contracts. The rate of return from concession contracts to the Federal
Government would increase another 0.1 percent over the prior year.
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