Food Service Process Leaves Bad Taste for Ferguson-Florissant Board

Food service bids became a point of contention for the second consecutive year at the Board of Education meeting.

The board approved a bid for Aramark to become the district’s food provider for the 2012-2013 school year.

Before the board even got to the agenda item, a representative from Chartwells spoke and asked the board to do their due diligence to investigate the bid process for food service providers.

Chief Financial Officer Mick Willis explained that a 15-person committee, comprised of teachers, faculty, principals, students, parents and food service workers, spent more than 225 hours discussing the bids for food service programs. During that time, the committee met with the providers, interviewed them, tasted and reviewed the food each one had to provide.

“We spent an inordinate amount of time, effort and tough conversation for your approval tonight,” Willis said. “I think the committee was committed to honor that process and they did.”

Some board members had concerns about the decision-making process.

Board director Robert Chabot acknowledged that last year had some missteps in the process and that the integrity of the process is extremely important. He questioned the objectivity of the process as he noticed one committee member might have had bias in the process, which set off alarms for him.

explained that it could be possible for committee members to have inherent bias brought into the process. Further, McCoy said no committee member had an unethical relationship with any of the bid prospects.

Board director Brian Scott Ebert asked for the process to be reviewed again as he was not happy with what the committee’s votes showed, with one person heavily favoring one bidder.

The board approved Aramark as the 2012-2013 food service provider with a majority vote. The contract is worth $5 million and is for one year with an option to renew for the next four years.