The management of general secondary education (ZZSO) seeks financial autonomy by identifying sources of additional income, including by providing catering services based on functioning food units, which necessitates improving the level of catering services that will meet competitive conditions. This need increases the relevance of compliance with the principles of marketing in the process of organizing ZSSO this type of activity to meet the needs of consumers, increase their loyalty and, consequently, increase the level of income from the organization of food. The need to determine the range of possibilities for the application of marketing approaches and the potential of the marketing mechanism, which can be done using the methods of economic and mathematical modeling, in particular cognitive and scenario modeling, is gaining relevance. Research of the potential of the marketing mechanism of children’s nutrition organization in general secondary education institutions. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were performed: formed cognitive maps and cognitive model of the system of potential development of the marketing mechanism of children’s nutrition in ZSSO, based on the implementation of scenario modeling of system behavior identified factors influencing the development of marketing mechanism. The method (methodology). Methodological and theoretical foundations of the study are economic theory, scientific developments of scientists in the organization of children’s nutrition in the system of general secondary education. The research used general scientific methods (abstract-logical, empirical, comparative analysis, averages, generalizations, etc.) and methods of cognitive and scenario modeling. The article presents the results of the analysis of the system of potential development of the marketing mechanism on the basis of cognitive and scenario modeling, which allowed to determine the levers and performance factors of the system. According to the results of the study, it is concluded that a good basis for building the potential of the marketing mechanism to improve the nutrition of school children is to focus on maximizing customer satisfaction and increasing their loyalty while creating the necessary conditions to increase production efficiency and sales in school canteens. supported by activities to promote the principles of nutrition among students ZSSO and society as a whole. To this end, it is advisable to increase the level of automation of production and service processes in canteens ZSSO, information and communication support, stimulate the welfare of key actors of the marketing mechanism by coordinating the interaction of stakeholders in ensuring proper nutrition of children in educational institutions.