South Cook News

The Chicago Ridge School District 127.5 board discussed some of its planned vendors for the upcoming school year during its March 14 meeting.

The board had previously discussed possible food service vendors, settling on either Quest Foods and Taher Inc., with both offering bids for delivery of the district’s meal system. After discussion, the board awarded the contract to Quest for its meal service, mostly because the meals and foods are prepared offsite, delivered to the schools hot, and the schools can keep them warm (or cold) before serving them.

"Overall, I'm very encouraged that there is a possibility to offer better food," Business Manager Katheryn Piccolini told the board. "And truth be told, it will cost the district about $110,000 more because that is based on our new per meal price that is higher than our current open kitchens. But I think we all knew that going in in you know, it was kind of like, let's get food on the plates of our kids."

Piccolini added that meal participation in the district is very low, hovering around 30%. "It's as high as 39 for lunch, but that's rather low," she said. "So, there is potential to increase those meals. So every meal that we serve will offset that $110,000 additional, because what we're reimbursed from the state for both the lunch and breakfast" is more than the costs to the vendor.

Piccolini explained that choosing a vendor was the best plan, because converting the school kitchens to fully operational kitchens, which they are not, would be too big of a project to take on. School officials and members of the food service staff visited a school in Joliet to watch prep work for the system the district will be using and were pleased the efficiency of the system and the popularity of the food with students, saying that "even Kindergarten children" were happily eating their full serving, she added.

The contract proposal was an emergency, one-year contract, meaning the district will put its meal service out for competitive bid again in 2025. Members of the board commented on how surprised they were with the system and how much food the kids ate, which is partially due to the quality of food and options available to students. After awarding the contract to Quest, the board decided to discuss possible menus at a future meeting.