Board to vote on school lunch bid

Food service company will present at meeting

By Amie Johansen

amie@charlescitypress.com

Tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the middle school cafeteria, School Board members will hear from Jayme Sundby, a representatives from Taher, Inc.  Taher is a food service management company and was the only company to submit a bid before the May 6 deadline.

At the May 9 School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Dan Cox shared the initial promises Taher made in their bid.

“They guarantee us a positive net surplus of $21,725,” Cox. “If we don’t like it, at the end of next year we can go back.”

The current food service budget does not allow for a surplus.

“The year is not yet over, but we more than likely will have a declining balance,” Business Manager Terri O’Brien said after the last School Board meeting.

Besides a declining balance, participation in the school lunch program has also shown signs of decrease. In the 2011-12 school year there was a 77 percent participation in lunches. In 2012-13 participation dropped to 71 percent and rose slightly to 73 percent during the 2013-14 school year.

School Board member Lorraine Winterink, also a member of the Food Service Task Force, spoke Taher’s willingness to invest in the district to improve their overall food service quality.

“They have $15,000 they were going to invest immediately with the schools to bring it up to where it needs to be,” she said.

Despite all of the favorable reports, School Board Vice President Jason Walker and School Board member Jim Frisbie had questions.

Walker asked how a surplus might be achieved as well as questioned how lunch participation might change under Taher’s direction.

Frisbie wondered how food service staff employment would change.

“Our RFP we put out, said our employees would remain our employees, (a company) would just control our food service,” Cox said. “One exception to that, the food service director would become a Taher employee.”

After hearing from Sundby, School Board members will be asked to take action on contracting services with Taher. According to the released agenda for tonight’s meeting, Cox recommends members “approve the Food Service Management Company services contract with Taher, Inc. for a fixed rate of $1.87 per meal as proposed.”