Publication Date: Friday, April 29, 2005
Sodexho sunk by low nutrition and profits
Sodexho sunk by low nutrition and profits
(April 29, 2005) School district poised to bring in new food vendor
by Alexandria Rocha
After 14 years of feeding the local school district's students, it looks like Sodexho USA's will no longer run Palo Alto cafeterias.
The Maryland-based company's proposal to extend its long run with the Palo Alto Unified School District has been overshadowed by another large corporation's bid.
Members of the district's Board of Education took a liking earlier this week to a one-year contract starting July 1 with Chartwells, a company that largely operates in the Northeast and Northwest but also serves at least one private school district in Southern California. The board will make its final decision May 10.
The debate over how the district should revamp its food program has spanned more than two years. A clear sign that something was wrong came in 2002, when Sodexho tried and failed to attract more students to the hot lunch program by selling a few organic food items.
A group of parents and community members, called the Healthy School Lunch Committee, then began a crusade to change the way district cafeterias operated. They wanted less pre-packaged food, items low in trans-fats, and fruits and vegetables rich in color and variety.
As members of the healthy lunch committee started making their presence known -- they attended nearly every board meeting where food was an agenda item for the past year and a half -- board members and district officials also realized that lack of nutrition wasn't the only thing wrong with Sodexho's program.
"As a board, this issue came to us as a nutrition issue," Board member Camille Townsend said at a meeting earlier this week where the Chartwells proposal was discussed. "As we got into the nutrition issue, we found out how much we were paying."
They learned the program had been in the red for nearly four school years. Under Sodexho, the district's food services went from breaking even in the 2000-2001 school year to being nearly $37,000 in debt the next.
Superintendent Mary Frances Callan said that was the same year the district's staff received a substantial pay raise, but the price of meals didn't budge.
Last year the program's loss peaked at $213, 660, mostly because of low participation rates, said the district's Business Manager Gerry Matranga. Only 13 percent of the district's 10,500 students took part in the hot lunch program this year.
Under the proposed contract with Chartwells -- which promises to feed more students or take a cut in fees -- the program will return to the black by 2008.
The biggest challenges the district and Chartwells face in increasing student participation include open campuses at both high schools, inadequate food-preparation facilities and a low number of students eligible for free and reduced-priced lunches, which garner a larger reimbursement from state and federal programs.
Students from both Gunn and Palo Alto high schools have said they would pay more for a higher-quality lunch. Mark Campbell of Chartwells, who spoke at the board meeting earlier this week, said the company is prepared to meet those needs. He also said the company helped districts with similar low participation rates increase their figures by more than 50 percent.
In terms of facilities, Matranga said there won't be any major upgrades, but with the new company's help additional equipment will be brought in, including barbecues, milk case dispensers, special refrigerators, and different types of storage areas.
Although wary of another large corporation coming in at first, Penny Gertridge of the healthy lunch committee said she was excited for the future of the district's lunch program.
"I'll have to find something else to take on," she told board members earlier this week.
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