In response to overwhelming interest from parents and students, hot lunch will be coming to Park Ridge-Niles District 64’s five elementary schools beginning this fall, officials said.
The District 64 Board of Education unanimously voted Monday night to approve a three-year contract with Lombard-based Quest Food Management Services for hot lunch service four days a week at all of the district’s seven schools, including Emerson and Lincoln middle schools, as well as a bid to remodel all of the district’s elementary school kitchens to ensure they meet both state and city health department standards.
The board approvals elicited a round of applause from the couple dozen parents and students present at Monday’s meeting.
The cost of the remodeling work totals nearly $139,000 and includes demolition of the current kitchens, replacement of kitchen floors, ceiling tiles, the installation of new LED lighting, food grade vinyl tiles, hand washing sinks, painting, cabinets and electrical service for appliances, according to district documents.
Chief School Business Official Luann Kolstad used three different metrics, including price, past performance and references, and business plans, to compare proposals submitted from three food service management companies, including Addison based Arbor Management — which currently provides food service to the district’s two middle schools — and ultimately recommended Quest.
Kolstad said start-up expenses, which include refrigerators, hot boxes, a box truck to deliver lunches and point of sale systems, are estimated to cost the district more than $128,000. Both the start-up costs and remodeling expenses will be fully recouped by the district within three to four years, she said. The district estimates a minimum profit of $70,000 in the first year the hot lunch service is up and running, according to Kolstad. Profits from the first three years will be earmarked to cover the initial costs, she said.
More Top Picks Best Pocket Watches Under 500
Kolstad said Quest estimated district profits at $61,000 during the first year growing to $100,000 by the third year of the program. The company “used very, very conservative participation amounts” — 33 percent at the elementary level and 42 percent at the middle school level for the first year of the program — she said.
Per the contract, Quest will receive 5 percent of total program revenue as a management fee and an additional 2 percent of revenue as an administrative fee, according to district documents.
Kolstad said parents will receive hot lunch menus ahead of time so that they can discuss which days their students will purchase lunch.
Board President Anthony Borrelli said the approval of the new hot lunch service marked more than a year’s worth of work by district administrators. He said he received more than 100 emails from district parents expressing their desire for a hot lunch at the elementary level.
Only one email expressed reservations about the new lunch program because the spaces where the kitchens will be rebuilt are used for other functions, he said.
“That’s not going to be any significant issue we’ll have to deal with,” Borrelli said. He added that the lunch service should be a “benefit to the families of this district and shouldn’t necessarily be a profit center” for the district.
Up until 2007, students at the district elementary schools would go home for an hour for lunch and then return to the school in the afternoon, said Bernadette Tramm, public information coordinator for the district. Between the 2007-08 school year up until the 2012-13 year, the district charged parents with students who did not return home for lunch a fee to supervise the children, she said. During the 2012-13 school year, Tram said, the district eliminated the mid-day break from its schedules and students were required to bring lunches from home to school. For the last several years, parent-teacher organizations have provided a hot lunch to students at elementary schools between one and three times per week, according to district documents.
Under the new contract, PTOs will still provide lunch service for students one day per week, according to district officials.
Six district students spoke out in support of the hot lunch service program at the meeting.
“Some people don’t think very highly of hot lunch, but I do,” said Luciano Binz, a fourth-grade student at Roosevelt Elementary School. “If I did not like it, believe me, I would not be here giving this speech.”
Scott Bennett, a member of George Washington Elementary School’s PTO, said Quest appeared to be a “top-notch vendor.” He said when he showed his daughter the company’s menu options, “you wouldn’t believe the smile on her face.”
Board member Tom Sotos said the hot lunch service at both the elementary and middle school levels will “make our district a little more appealing for some people when they’re considering moving here.”
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.