New BHUSD Food Program Is a Success

The Beverly Hills Unified School District’s improved lunch program is so successful that additional cashiers are being hired to accommodate student demand.

Since the school year began Sept. 6, the lunch program has been handled by Chartwells, a division of the Compass Group, the largest food service company in North America. Chartwells designed new menus that have proven to be popular with students. Participation in the lunch program increased by 40 percent during the first week of school.

Chartwells was hired by the Board of Education in July after an of the lunch program revealed numerous problems, including a lack of appropriate cash management supervision, no procedural guidelines for staff, overproduction of food and a very low participation rate at all five city schools. These problems had made the BHUSD lunch program lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years.

The district now faces the opposite problem: there are long lines of students waiting to buy their lunch. BHUSD Chartwells liaison LaTanya Kirk recently told the school board, “I am glad to report the kids love the food.”

“I am hearing that high school students do not have enough time to wait in line, get their lunch and eat during their lunch period,” member Jake Manaster said at last week’s board meeting.

The growing lines prompted the board to approve the hiring of six additional food service cashiers, each working 3.5 hours a day. Upon the recommendation of Chartwells, the district also agreed to fund a new 30-hour-per-week food services accounting and clerical assistant.

The BHUSD had already sought to speed up cafeteria lines by shifting to an entirely cashless lunch program on Sept. 19. Parents can view lunch menus, nutritional information and make payments into their child’s online lunchbox account by clicking here.

families were able to sample Chartwells meals at the school’s Sept. 22 PTA meeting. This writer and parent found the meal, which includes a trip to a fruit and salad bar, to be surprisingly tasty. Horace Mann teachers said they are eating in the cafeteria for the first time in years.

Meal prices range from $4.50 for elementary students to $5.75 for high school students.

Parents and community members can sample the new food by attending next week’s opening of the Beverly Café, as the Beverly Hills High School cafeteria is being called. The Oct. 12 opening will be from 4-6 p.m. Email Tom Soika by Oct. 5 to R.S.V.P.

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