School Board Votes To Keep Food Service Company

The Montclair Board of Education unanimously voted to stay with its current food service provider—Chartwells—at a public meeting Monday night.

In April, the school board approved an almost $10,000 contract with a consulting firm to help put together a request for proposal for someone to take over the district's food service operation.

School Board Member Tanya Coke, who serves on the board's food service committee, said at the time that the food service this year has improved in nutritional quality—but noted that student participation in the lunch program had not gone up markedly.

Dana Sullivan, the district's business administrator, said that if students keep refusing to purchase the school lunches prepared by Chartwells, the district's new food service provider this past year, the board could be faced with annual losses of up to $100,000.

At Monday night's school board meeting, Coke said that—to some—it may have seemed like a waste of time and money to have invested staff and consultant time to do an RFP, only to wind up hiring the same company again.

However, she emphasized that as a result of the recent RFP, the district:

—Tightened nutritional standards by eliminating all hormones and animal byproducts and minimizing the use of high fructose corn syrup in all meals.

—Persuaded Chartwells to give the district a guarantee of a break-even financial operation for next year, meaning that Chartwells will absorb any losses the district incurs in the 2012-2013 school year.

Had the district not done an RFP, Chartwells would not have offered such a guarantee and "we would probably be on the hook for $75,000 to $100,000 in losses," Coke said.

School board members say they plan to work with Chartwells to boost the appeal of the food next year as well as the participation rates.

To read more about school lunches at Montclair High School, read this recent blog by student Lauren Glasse.

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