In recent years, overseeing food systems has become a significant worldwide issue due to the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and unhealthy diets. Short food supply chains are replacing conventional global supply systems by encouraging local and direct exchanges between consumers and producers. These systems provide urban areas with access to fresh, high-quality food while fostering community interaction and trust between producers and consumers. The food service sector acts as a key intersection in these regionalized systems by promoting local foods to customers and connecting with farmers and distributors. The article explores the involvement of food service establishments in regional food systems in Slovakia, focusing on their organizational models. The presented outputs are part of a broader research aimed at exploring the potential of SFSC for the development of food service establishments. The research uses part of the primary data collected through an online questionnaire survey in Slovak food service establishments. Given the complex nature of SFSC and the largely unique nature of potentially created alternative food networks, our research design combines quantitative and qualitative methods. We used cluster analysis to identify and classify the forms of establishment involvement in SFSCs and to identify those more complex structures of regionalized food systems in Slovakia. Based on hierarchical clustering with Ward’s minimum variance approach, five clusters that represent different models of involvement of food service establishments in SFSCs within regionalized food systems in Slovakia were profiled. Results show that an intermediary (local food center) can significantly support the involvement of food service establishments in the SFSC and take over the coordination of communication and logistics between farmers and food service establishments in the territory. There are several studies on SFSC in the literature, but only a few deal with the involvement of food service establishments. The article examines the interest of Slovak food service establishments to participate in SFSCs, the existence of various organizational models of the SFSC involving establishments, and the challenges they are facing. At the same time, it opens up possibilities for a more detailed examination of the benefits and barriers perceived by food service establishments when participating in the SFSC.
Laginová et al. (Sun,) studied this question.