Schools
School Lunch Sales Dropped, Rebounding
A change in the approach to school lunch jarred students, but they and the company are both adjusting.
School lunch sales dropped in September and have slowly been climbing back toward figures comparable to fall 2008 sales, Chartwells director of dining services Janet Kertesz said at Monday night's Board of Education meeting.
Chartwells, the school system's food provider which was hired by the Board of Education last summer (and proceeded to have a protracted disagreement over a contract for the system's food service workers), gave an update on the schools' adjustment to their presence.
Starting this fall, school lunches switched from a nutrient-based to a food-based menu, Kertesz told the board.
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Superintent Deborah Low asked her to explain the distinction, pointing out that all menus appear to be food-based.
Food-based menu planning is a more traditional approach where each meal is built from specific food groups, Chartwells dietitian Aliza Stern explained, while nutrient-based meals average nutritional components of school meals out over a week-long span.
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The menus at the start of the school year were made without local input, Kertesz said, but the company has since solicited help from students and cafeteria staff.
Statistics provided for her presentation show that September 2009 lunch purchases at the schools were 10,857 below the number bought in September 2008, while last month the discrepancy dropped to 2,702.
"We're at least trending in the right way and bringing those meal counts back," Kertesz said.
