Schools
School Board Approves Contract That Lowers Basic Lunch Price
Yorkville District 115 is joining national program that also will cut district costs.
The basic school lunch price will be reduced from $2.75 to $2.50 next year, thanks to a new food service contract District 115 board members approved Monday night.
School board members approved an $820,885 annual contract with Arbor Management Inc.
Arbor currently provides food for schools in Community Unit School District 115, but district leaders pursued a competitive bidding process while applying for the National School Lunch Program.
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Arbor’s was the lowest of four bids after administrators determined a $711,677 bid from Aramark did not properly follow bidding guidelines.
By participating in the National School Lunch Program, District 115 will receive a federal and state reimbursement per lunch so long as the lunches meet nutritional and other program guidelines, said district Business Manager Jacqui Parisi.
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Those reimbursements, when paired with student payments and state reimbursements surrounding the free lunch program, are designed to cover all the costs of providing school lunches, she said.
District 115 currently is covering about $180,000 in lunch program costs a year because about 17 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced lunches based on their family incomes, Parisi said.
This year the state provided 10 cents per free lunch, but the district also would have received $2.72 per free lunch and $2.32 per reduced lunch this year if it had been participating in the National School Lunch Program. Parisi said the national program also provides a reimbursement for full-price lunches.
Those state and federal reimbursements also can be applied to equipment maintenance, lunch program administration and other costs for providing lunch aside from the food itself.
Board member Ashley Shields cast the lone vote against approving the Arbor contract Monday. She said she was concerned that Arbor had been providing district lunches for so many years without improving the food.
She said later, however, that the National School Lunch Program did provide standards that Arbor and school officials must maintain.
“They’ll have new guidelines to follow,” Shields said.
