BCAT News

After years of ending the fiscal year in deficits, Burlington schools’ food service accounts were in the black in Fiscal Year ‘23, thanks to a guaranteed surplus of about $215,000 from newly contracted food service provider Whitsons Culinary Group. 

Business Manager Nichole Coscia said Whitsons has met all the obligations in its contract. But some School Committee members worried that the contractor hadn’t delivered on promised increases in lunch program participation and that the promised variety on the menu hadn’t materialized – or hadn’t stuck around. 

Committee Chair Christine Monaco said she heard complaints from families with children who don’t eat meat for religious or cultural reasons and whose only lunch option was a bagel, and mentioned her own grandchildren, who had diabetes but were required to take food they couldn’t eat only to go directly to a trash can and throw it out. 

“The menus do not even come close to what we originally had for demonstrations from Whitsons, and maybe that’s because our staff couldn’t manage it all so they modified the menus, but I don’t think we’re getting the benefit that we thought we were getting from this program,” Monaco said. “From a practical perspective, I think that the right food service director with this amount of money could probably do a good job and have us end up with more money than we’re ending up with with Whitsons.”

“We’re having trouble finding people to work in our cafeterias and the pay isn’t as great as it should be,” said School Committee Member Meghan Nawoichik. “Our lunch staff is an important part of our schools. And if we can have a more consistent staff because we’re paying them a living wage, I think that’s something we should look into instead of funneling money into a middle corporation.” 

The decision to hire a food service contractor was controversial early last year, with cafeteria workers voicing their concerns about poor communication and high expectations at a School Committee meeting, but students said they liked the new food options.