Kokomo Schools hires contractor for food services

Chartwell’s will provide student meals starting with 2022-23 school year

Superintendent Dr. Mike Sargent’s recommendation for Chartwells to become the corporation’s Food Services Management Company beginning with the 2022-2023 school year was approved by the Kokomo School Corporation Board of School Trustees at its regular monthly (June 6) meeting.

In his recommendation, Dr. Sargent noted that he trusted the process, and the administrators who oversaw the process.

“I believe this recommendation encompasses what is in the best interest of our students and our current Food Services employees,” Dr. Sargent explained. “The committee did its homework and checked the company’s references before bringing me this recommendation.”

Director of Operations Mike Wade, who oversees the Food Services Department at Kokomo Schools, and Director of Business Michelle Cronk coordinated the process, which began in February.

Mr. Wade noted that when the process began, the committee had two goals at the forefront.

“Our primary focus was our students … providing our students with quality meals with multiple healthy choices was our No. 1 goal,” Mr. Wade explained. “But please understand that our Food Services staff did a phenomenal job providing quality meals despite the challenges created by the pandemic the past few school years. And because of their dedication and hard work, our very important secondary goal was to make sure that our current Food Services workers were taken care of. We are confident that our current employees will be treated fairly by Chartwells.”

Ms. Cronk shared the “why’s” behind the process, as well as the process itself.

“As a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kokomo Schools faced severe staffing shortages and supply chain disruptions, which affected the ability of our Food Services Department officials to continue providing similar quality services that we had prior to the pandemic,” Ms. Cronk explained. “As Mr. Wade noted, our staff did an amazing job with the resources available, but we felt it was time to look into the Food Services Management Company option.”

The Food Services Management Company Request for Proposals is strictly outlined and enforced by the Office of School and Community Nutrition at the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE). That Request for Proposals (RFP) packet provided by IDOE includes financial worksheets, a division of responsibilities table, a general scoring rubric, and the actual RFP document. Once completed, corporation officials are required to publish twice a Notice of RFP in the local newspaper and on the corporation website, which occurred in mid-March.

According to Ms. Cronk, a pre-bid meeting with interested parties was conducted March 30th, during which corporation officials outlined Kokomo School Corporation and answered questions for officials from the 8 represented companies and approximately 20 individuals who attended either in-person, or virtually. IDOE representatives also were available to answer questions. Between that pre-bid meeting and the opening of proposals April 11th, vendors could submit additional questions to corporation officials. Three companies submitted proposals April 11th.

The corporation committee members independently scored each company’s proposal on the final IDOE rubric. Committee members then conducted surprise site visits. In its recommendation to Dr. Sargent, the committee noted that during these surprise site visits, “Chartwells, by far exhibited the best in-person services, and its on-site director was extremely knowledgeable.”

As part of the contract approved by the School Board, Chartwells will establish a timeline in which the company will hire current corporation staff and completely take over the management of the day-to-day operations of food services, including meal planning, food and supply purchasing, employee management, meal preparation and serving, and cleaning by the start of the 2022-2023 school year. Kokomo School Corporation officials will be responsible for providing a Food Services Director (as required by the USDA), who will oversee and audit the operations of the Food Services Management Company (Chartwells).