Food Service Waiver Denied

A request by the school departments’ food service provider to have a portion of their guaranteed profit waived was unanimously rejected by the Grafton School Committee.

Whitsons Culinary Group, a private company that took over the food service for the schools last year, had guaranteed the School Committee that they would turn over a $10,000 profit at the end of the first school year.

The company requested a waiver of about $5,000, citing the significant number of snow days and the loss of revenue from seniors, who end the school year earlier than their classmates.

In strongly worded statements, committee members said at the Sept. 12 meeting that neither of these factors is unusual for school districts. They should have been factored into the planning, committee members said.

Questions were also raised as to why no one from Whitsons attended the meeting.

The company guaranteed the $10,000 profit, so the issue shouldn’t even be in front of the committee, committee chairman Kathleen Halloran said.

Committee member Peter Carlson agreed. “To even come back to us and discuss it … You made the deal,’’ he said of Whitsons.

The company had been the first choice of the committee when the decision was made to privatize the food service, he said. After this request, he said, “maybe they’re not the number one choice’’ anymore.