During a special meeting June 11, the Española School Board voted to reinstate Summit Food Services as the exclusive provider for the District.
Based on Superintendent Danny Trujillo’s recommendation, Summit will provide services for one more year and will service the same schools as in the previous contract — namely Española Valley High School and three elementary schools.
According to the plan, the company would serve approximately 500,000 meals at a cost of almost $90,000 for the District.
Even with the reinstatement, some Board members voiced concerns about the Summit issue.
“These are the only two concerns that I have,” Board Vice President Ralph Medina said. “The fact that the quality of food was not that good and the participation was not that good. I would like to see more students get better food.”
A couple of the elementary schools, such as Fairview Elementary, did not want to use Summit but did not provide any sort of recommendation.
Despite the concerns, Trujillo defended Summit and believed another year was needed to clearly evaluate the job the company is doing.
“This is the second year,” Trujillo said. It would be wise of us to compare two years in a row. I liken my recommendation because of my contact with other superintendents. They said you have to give it a couple of years to see, to compare one year to the next. After two to three years, if you don’t see changes in revenue or changes in quality of service, then yes, come back to the table and make other recommendations.”
The Board previously discussed the matter on May 13 at a special work session. Summit Food Services employees attended the meeting to discuss the various options available.
There were three plans that were examined. One was to contract out all food services to Summit and have it provide meals to all of the District’s students. In this scenario, Summit would serve 800,000 meals for $126,000.
Another option is to have Summit serve foods to just the secondary school sites — the Española Middle School and the high school. This choice calls for Summit to serve more than 200,000 meals at a cost of $70,000.
Ultimately, the Board voted to table the issue at the May 13 meeting to gather more information about the quality of the food Summit provides.
Trujillo said food service is a dilemma that many other districts face, not just Española.
“Food service is an expensive part of the budget,” Trujillo said.
The reimbursements by the state are never enough to cover the cost associated with the service and fewer students are declining to purchase lunches at the school. This is a particular challenge at the high school Trujillo claimed.
“At the high school, they can either get someone to go to Blake’s or they just don’t eat,” Trujillo said.
Summit and District employees have been trying to remedy the situation by increasing the number of lunch lines. Both hope that reducing the wait times can entice more students to purchase their lunches at the School, increasing the revenue for the District.