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Mount Vernon trustees push for new food‑service bidding after student complaints about lunches
Summary
Trustees and parents raised widespread concerns about Aramark-run school meals; district officials reworked the food-service RFP, said they submitted contract changes to the state with approval, and set a May 12 RFP publication and a June 3 goal to award a new vendor.
Board members and parents used the May 6 meeting to raise ongoing complaints about school lunches served under the district’s contract with Aramark and to press the district to speed up a re-solicitation of food-service vendors.
"The lunch is super nasty, and we, the student, call it trash food," a letter from a Grimes School student read aloud by Trustee Mitchell as evidence of pervasive dissatisfaction. Another student letter read: "School breakfast is good... I dislike their yogurts. They taste bland." The trustee said she collected 63 letters from students across grades and buildings describing inconsistent breakfasts and lunches.
Those public comments followed committee discussion and a staff update. A district staff member who led the food-service procurement review said the district rewrote 37 pages of the Aramark contract and submitted the material changes to the state. "We submitted that to the state last Friday," the staff member told the board, and the state emailed back Monday with "full approval of all the material changes to the contract," the speaker said.
The district outlined a timeline for replacing or re‑contracting food services: publish the RFP on May 12, conduct vendor tours and Q&A on May 16, open bids on May 28, and aim to award a new vendor at the June 3 board meeting. The staff member said the RFP revisions cover portion sizes, meal quality, oversight, operations and financial protections for the district.
Discussion versus decision: trustees did not immediately terminate the Aramark contract at the May 6 meeting but directed staff to publish the revised RFP and to solicit bids. The board’s objective was to secure a vendor with stricter quality and oversight standards and to present an award for vote at the June 3 meeting.
Trustees also asked that food-service workers and family representatives be included in meetings with vendors and recommended creating a standing wellness committee to oversee food quality going forward. "We should really build a true, food service committee, a wellness committee," a trustee said, proposing that vendor representatives, staff and trustees sit together to monitor meals.
Ending: The district’s procurement timeline made clear next steps: RFP publication on May 12, vendor tours May 16, bid opening May 28 and a target vendor award at the June 3 board meeting. Parents and trustees said they will continue to press for on-site inspections and for inclusion of frontline food-service staff in meetings with bidders.
