Approximately three months after making the move to outsource its child nutrition program, officials from the Lamar County School District are pleased with their contract with Chartwells, a foodservice management organization dedicated to providing healthy meals to students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
School district superintendent Steven Hampton said event though the new school year just began on July 24 with a staggered start for students, so far the new process has gone over well with students and staff alike.
“I will say, I was in a couple of our cafeterias this morning for breakfast and for lunch, and I asked the students (for their input),” he said. “Everything was very positive, and I just think it was a very positive atmosphere when the food was being served.
“I think it’s going as well as expected at this time.”
The move to Chartwells was approved in April by the school district’s board of trustees, after the issue of dealing with challenged in child nutrition caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, including staffing shortages and supply chain issues. The district moved the program – which was previously handled in-house – to Chartwells, which is a national organization, effective July 1.
Cafeteria employees underwent training last week, and will continue to train on new menu items under Chartwells supervision.
“Last week, they had chefs from their company come in and train our employees on different techniques and safety and all that stuff,” Hampton said. “We had a taste-testing (last) Thursday that went really well, and so we look forward to seeing more and more improvements each day and each week going forward.”
Currently, district officials are seeking to bring on additional cafeteria staff, who would be considered employees of Chartwells. Anyone interested in applying for that position can call the Lamar County School District’s central office at (601) 794-1030 to be put in touch with a marketing representative from Chartwells.
“As soon as we get fully staffed, as soon as we can get our cafeteria employees trained on the new menu, I think we’ll see (even more) improvement from this point forward,” Hampton said. “As far as I’m concerned, from what I see and what’s been reported to me, it’s been very positive.”
The new contract will last for one year, after which point it will be up for renewal. During that time, Chartwells staff will be responsible for buying, cooking and serving breakfast and lunch for students at all campuses across the Lamar County School District.
“We will retain and maintain all the equipment, so that if things don’t work out – if this is not a road that we think that is good for us as we go down it – we can go back to the way we’re doing it now,” Hampton said in a previous story. “So they won’t have any control other than the personnel and the food. All the spaces – the cafeterias and the ovens, all the things we use to cook – we will purchase that from district funds.”
part of the contract between the district and Chartwells ensures that current district nutrition employees will not see any reductions in benefits or pay.
“They’re actually going to be able to receive more pay, with pretty much the same benefits that they have now,” Hampton said. “Those are things that we’re still in the process of negotiations and looking at contracts.
“But the main requirement that we looked at in this whole situation is that if we do this, we want to make sure the employees that we have now – who transition to this company – that they would be taken care of. (This contract) will see that they would not see any reduction in benefits.”
According to the Chartwells website at www.chartwellsk12.com, that company has a partnership with 665 school districts and serves more than 2 million meals on a daily basis. The organization has provided leadership to school districts’ nutrition programs for more than 20 years and has more than 16,000 associates, and has partnered for more than $7 million in grants for schools.
Chartwells is a division of Compass Group PLC. Compass Group was recently named the No. 1 food management company by Food Management magazine.
