A discussion about changing the meal provider at elementary and junior high schools turned into a battle of sides at the Morehouse Parish School Board committee meeting Tuesday night.
The School Board heard from Preferred Meals Systems, Inc. of Berkeley, Illinois last month regarding a meal plan designed to cut hours and workers by bringing prepackaged meals, which includes over a 100 entree choices, to area schools.
Concerned citizens wanted to know if these meals were basically television dinners and wanted to sample them to see if these meals would be okay for their students.
Each school was asked to send one parent and one student to a taste-testing, which included a variety of options including spaghetti, hot dogs and chicken sandwiches.
During the Finance Committee meeting, the subject was approached again with two item numbers.
Anissa DeBlieux, who represented the Morehouse Parish Child Nutrition Department, spoke to the board with the department’s concerns.
“This is not a cry to save our jobs, but an attempt to have you understand our views when it comes to our children’s nutrition and health, we the ones who see the little faces come through our cafeterias everyday and we the ones who watch as some come back for seconds because this may be the only hot, home-cooked meal they receive everyday,” DeBlieux said. “$800,000 is a lot of money to be saved, and we fully understand the importance of saving right now. We have all been affected by it at work and at home, but how can you put a price tag on the nutrition and well being of our children.”
She said the department would like for the board to meet with several of them and ask questions and to hold off one more year to let the community find out more about the product.
The second item was to hear a proposal from the company.
Representatives said this program reduces the cost of operations by lowering labor and benefit costs. This would be done by taking Morehouse’s average of 17 meals per man hour and doing 28 meals per man hour.
It also has a six-week cycle of meals, which has two or three hot meals a week for breakfast, zero grams trans fat, whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables.
This company would take care of the maintenance and replacement of equipment needed for these meals, provide a monthly newsletter to each student, hold contests and more.
The board was told they have to make a decision by early July to start the program by August.
After the proposal was heard, those attending spoke about their concerns.
Some asked if this was for the children at all or simply to cut down on costs, what about sodium in these prepackaged meals, has a survey been done and more.
Board member Lisa Chain told the group that they had spoken with the Nutrition/Food Service Programs director Susan Spence and found there are no other options.
An audience member said “she can’t speak for me.“ Another said “Ya’ll can kiss this good-bye.”
One citizen, D.C. Young, said, “We need to cut back on the board members. All of you can go except [Jeff Churchwell]. The food tastes like rubber.”
Chain said elections were held every four years, and board member Hamp Lenoir said Young was making this discussion personal.
After a few more words between the parties, Young was asked to leave by the officer on duty.
After the meeting, Young said, “he can not throw me out of any meeting. This is a public meeting. I will slap a lawsuit on him. I’m a concerned taxpayer.”
Robert Jackson added, “We do not want our kids to eat frozen TV dinners. We need to bring the hot meal back in the school. [There’s] no telling how long [that food had been] setting up. We want our kids to eat good, hot meals. [It’s not the] same even if you freeze vegetables. It can only last for so long. It gets freezer burn. Where are our School Board members? Why won’t they say anything. You’ve got one guy on the whole board that asks important questions. [They] value money higher than [they] value our kids safety.”
The School Board did not decide to change companies and go with Preferred Meals during this meeting, but a decision must be made by the board by the beginning of July if they decide to move forward with this company.
