The North Greene School District has moved to approve contracted food service for the district.
The North Greene School Board approved a contract bid from Organic Life, LLC to provide breakfast, lunch, and a fresh fruit program to the district for a total just short of $700,000, according to the Greene Prairie Press. The school board had decided to table the idea at the June meeting seeking more information.
The contracted food service is estimated to cost the district $100,000 more than last year’s food program that is run by the district itself. Superintendent Mark Scott told the Greene Prairie Press that the reason the district wants to move to an outside food service is to provide more food options to students. He says if the district had stuck to their in-house program, they wouldn’t have been able to provide as many options moving forward.
With the contracted food service, the district reduced its workforce by laying off the district’s cooks. Scott says the existing cooks will be the first in line to be hired by Organic Life if they choose to take a job with the company, but the cooks will no longer be an employee of the district.