District 219 Joins Federal Lunch Program

Students at Niles West and Niles North high school, where Morton Grove students often attend, will be seeing some different options in the lunch line when they return to classes in August.

The Niles Township High School District 219 school board approved a contract with Organic Life, a new food service vendor, and opted to participate in the National School Lunch Program.

“Several factors led to this recommendation,” Paul O’Malley, assistant superintendent for business services, said at the May 31 board meeting. “We believe we will have much healthier food, and that is something we heard over and over from our students. They want something that not only looks good but tastes good.”

Also have been advocating healthier foods at schools nationwide.

Aramark had provided the food served at District 219 schools for the past nine years, but its plan that did not participate in the federal school lunch program. Students who qualified received free and reduced-price meals, but the cost was subsidized by the fees paid by other students.

The district expects to receive more than $654,000 in reimbursements for its lunch program from the federal government during the next school year, O’Malley informed the school board in a memo.

Surplus government funds must be used to offset the cost of capital improvements, personnel and other expenses in the food service program, he said. The district intends to use some of the money to hire staff who will ensure compliance with the federal program’s requirements.

O'Malley noted the number of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals--based on household income--had risen from about 5 percent in 2005 to more than 30 percent in 2010.

In February, the District 219 board asked administrators for proposals regarding participating in or still remaining outside the federal school lunch program.

Aramark and Organic Life were the only two vendors that met all the requirements for the government program and faced off in a taste test on May 2. The students, staff and board members who participated rated Organic Life’s food as tastier, and the company's bid had meals being produced at a lower cost compared to Aramark’s bid.

Organic Life also said it could meet the dietary requirements of District 219’s religiously and ethnically diverse student body. One student who followed the halal dietary laws of Islam was able to eat well at the taste test, said school board vice president Sheri Doniger.

“This is not something we go into lightly,” Doniger said. “The students were integral to working with us on this.”

One down side of the NSLP is an increase in the District 219’s per-pupil operating costs, since the federal money flows into school system's coffers before being paid out for the program, said board president Robert Silverman. Under the old model, money from meals went directly to the vendor.

School officials would prefer to see the operating expense per pupil (OEPP) drop--or at least not increase--because, as of 2009, the , and some taxpayers have questioned whether the district could provide education at a smaller price tag.

“We’ll have to look elsewhere to reduce our OEPP costs,” Silverman said.