District 204 Seeks Improvements to School Lunch Offerings

Parents, if your children come home from school complaining of soggy French toast sticks or hockey-puck hard Salisbury steak, know that officials at are aware and hoping that changes will make the food more palatable.

The district is in the second year of a five-year contract with Chartwells, its food service provider, and reviews are mixed.

A recent survey of families with children participating in the lunch program suggested that roughly 40 percent found the food either unacceptable or poor, according to District 204. About 40 percent said the food was adequate.

“The Chartwells' ratings are unacceptable,” said Curt Bradshaw, District 204 School Board president.

Bradshaw gave Chartwells employees an ultimatum at the board’s business meeting earlier this week: improve or the district may seek new bids.

Board members, including Dawn DeSart, Susan Rasmus and Lori Price, spoke to the problem of consistency with the food. The three recently took a tour of school cafeterias.

The members said that at some schools food was much better, such as homemade chicken noodle soup at one school and pizza that tasted like restaurant quality. Whereas at another school the pizza was being served past its prime and looked unappetizing.

In other cases the board members said that there were issues with soggy French toast, chicken nuggets that were hard or food that was cold.

Kids eat with their eyes, and if the food doesn’t look appetizing or is hard, cold or soggy, there is an issue with the timing, as well, said Christine Vickers, a school board member.

“Unfortunately for me as an advocate for kids, this is the meal of the day that really matters,” Vickers said. “So, if my kid comes home feeling dizzy or weak because he or she didn’t eat and the money is on the card, I want the kid to eat lunch. That is why they are on the lunch program.”

Karla Zozulia, director of support services, said there have been problems with consistency and that the district has several satellite preparation sites where food is made before it is transported. She said the district is considering using only one preparation site to increase consistency.

“The challenge is there and there is a lot of improvement that needs to be made,” Zozulia said.

A new manager for Chartwells, Greg Manning, started working with the district in January after the district determined the prior manager was not meeting district needs when the first quarter did not meet expectations. Manning said a number of areas of improvement were identified.

Some of the changes nutritionally, marketing and with Chartwells employees will include:

• Improved menu writing in an effort to stay ahead of new mandates.
• More effective use of recipes and purchasing programs.
• Improved menu analysis for adherence to the new meal standards.
• Enhance the “gluten free” menu selection.
• No “deep fat frying;'' replace frying equipment in the three high schools with ovens.
• Review a la carte menu and pricing for nutrition.
• Menu changes to increase variety of popular items.

• YACs –youth advisory council.

• Menu pilots.

1.             (action stations).
2.             (cold sandwiches).
3.             Metea Valley (entrée salads, action stations).
4.             (vegetarian entrees).
5.             Still Middle School (pre-made sandwiches for a middle school perspective).

• “Lucky” trays.
• Impose stronger standards for consistency in meal preparation for all satellite schools (i.e. elementary and IPHS).
• Input from associates on menu selections, uniforms, etc., utilizing a suggestion box.

Source: Indian Prairie School District 204