Chicago City Wire

At their March 14 board meeting, members of the Chicago Ridge Board of Education picked a vendor contract for the upcoming 2023-24 school year. 

At a previous meeting they had discussed their potential food service vendors, ending up with deciding between Quest Foods and Taher Inc., both of whom offered a price for delivery of the district’s meal system. 

After discussion, the district decided to go with Quest, mostly because the meals and foods are prepared offsite, delivered to the schools hot, and the schools keep them warm, or cold, and then serve them to the students that day.

“But overall, I'm very encouraged that there is a possibility to offer better food,” Katheryn Picciolini, business manager of Chicago Ridge Schools, said. "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 it was kind of like, let's get food on the plates of our kids. And then one thing I think we want to be a little optimistic about right now is our participation we talked about is very low. It's in the 30%. It's as high as 39% for lunch, but that's rather low. 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 it costs.”

The board uploaded a livestream of its public meeting to the district’s YouTube channel.

Picciolini explained that this was the best option because converting the district's kitchens to be fully operational – which they are not currently – would be too much of a project to take on right now. 

Board members discussed they had visited a school in Joliet to watch the prep work for the system that they would be using, bringing along some of their food service workers to learn the system. Board members said they felt confident in the efficiency of the system and the popularity of the food with students, saying that even kindergarten children were happily eating their full serving.

The proposal for a contract with the vendor was an emergency one-year contract, so the district would go out for competitive bid in 2025. 

Board members said they were encouraged by the system and by how much food  the kids ate, including taking from the salad bar and fruit section.

The board will decide about menu options for them at a later date, which can be tailored to whatever the district desires.

In other business, the board discussed approving to pay $383,279 for building additions and renovation work at Ridge Lawn School.

The board will meet again at 6:30 p.m. on April 11 at Finley Jr. High at 6135 West 108th St.