Lunch Program... use it or lose it.

On March 19th I wrote about our child nutrition program (commonly called hot lunch). I explained how we are reimbursed at varying rates for lunches depending on the status of the student eating the lunch. I discussed the current cost per meal and some of the steps we have taken as a school district to reduce costs. I explained that we stand to lose $30,000 this year. I indicated that "the only way we will ever break even is to increase the participation rate to between 70-80% of all students." At the end of March only 47.8% of the first through twelfth grade students are eating on any given day.

Many patrons have expressed support for the continuance of the child nutrition program. Last evening at the Board meeting, several parents expressed the possibility of surveying parents and students to find out what we might do to encourage a higher percentage of student participation. At the suggestion of a trustee, we will reconvene our wellness committee and develop survey questions that we will make available online.

You can help us design a questionnaire that will provide us with valuable information.Would questions such as the following help you to provide us valuable information? Can you think of others?

• What do you like and not like about the program?
• What does your student like and not like?
• Are the meals appetizing in appearance?
• Are the meals a good value?
• Does the food taste good?
• Is it simply too expensive?
• Do we need greater variety?
• Should we close the campus to high school students and force them to remain on campus?
• Should we invite the general public to eat in our cafeteria when the students are present?
• Should elementary students have a choice of entree also?

Perhaps there is nothing we could do to encourage you or your student to utilize our lunch program. We would like to hear from you about that also.

The trustees would prefer to continue to operate the child nutrition program but it is becoming increasingly difficult as our enrollment declines and costs increase. It may come down to using it or losing it.

Please provide a comment to this post or send comments directly to Superintendent Neumann at dneumann@sd282.org. Thank you for your help.