Taste, Lines Keep York Students Away From Cafeteria: Officials

ELMHURST, IL – Taste and long lines are among the reasons many York High School students stay away from the cafeteria, officials said this week.

Recently, 540 students responded to a survey on the school's food service. They make up about a fifth of the student body.

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Now, about a quarter of students regularly show up to the cafeteria for lunch, which officials say is far lower than in other school systems.

Of the cafeteria regulars, nearly half say the food's taste is good, while 5 percent labeled it excellent, according to the survey. About 40 percent said the taste was fair and 8 percent rated it poor.

Of those who get a school lunch twice per week or less, nearly 40 percent said taste was the most important factor in whether they go to the cafeteria. Following were health and nutritious options at 14 percent, variety of choices at 11 percent, and speed and convenience at 10 percent.

York plans to overhaul its lunch program. It is going out to bid for a food management company's help.

The firm would guide York on improvements, but the school would keep its in-house cafeteria staff.

As part of the selection, the district wants students and staff to visit the school cafeterias that the bidding companies manage.

The firms won't get a heads-up on the exact day of the visits.

"They can't set it up so that they roll out the red carpet for us," Joe Blomquist, the district's top finance official, told the school board's finance committee Wednesday. "We want to see it in its natural environment."

Blomquist said the district would ask the companies about how they would reconfigure the cafeteria to make lines move faster.

"The time it takes to go through the line is a concern of our students," he said.

The district also wants a food management company that could better use employees' skills.

"We have many very skilled employees who have a very large background, whether it's restaurants or larger food services like ours, and who have those skills to offer what students want," said Joe Biasco, the district's food services director.

As part of the overhaul, York would withdraw from the National School Lunch Program, which reimburses schools for providing low-income students with free and reduced-price meals.

The district would then absorb the costs of low-income students' meals. But that would be offset by increased income from students attracted by the greater offerings, officials said.

According to the district, the national program's requirements constrain what schools can offer. For instance, portion sizes must remain the same from kindergarten to 12th grade, officials said.

If York leaves the national program, the district expects lunch participation to increase by 70 to 140 students. That increase, officials said, would offset the loss of $150,000 in federal money.

The district has provided a list of suburban districts, mostly wealthy, that have already left the national program. Some of them, the district said, have lunch participation rates of 45 percent to 90 percent.