Montgomery officials announce limited hot-lunch rollout at high school as Chartwells details supply, staffing problems

Montgomery Township School District officials and representatives from Chartwells, the district's food-service contractor, told the Board of Education at its Sept. 2021 meeting that the district will begin limited hot-lunch service at the high school as soon as this week, but that ongoing supply‑chain and staffing problems will constrain options and timing for other schools.

Superintendent McLaughlin, introducing student and parent concerns about school meals, said the district had received “numerous emails and complaints” about lunch quality and that she had arranged for Jim Gillespie, Chartwells’ regional manager, to brief the board and the public.

Chartwells' Jim Gillespie and on-site manager Patty Percheski described the factors behind the early‑term problems and the immediate plan. Gillespie said Chartwells served roughly the same number of meals in the first 12 days of the school year as the district served in the same period in 2019 — about 33,000 — but with about half the staff: “We’re serving the same amount of food with half the manpower.”

Why it matters

Nearly all students in the district are receiving free meals under the federal Seamless Summer Option (SSO), which pays a federal reimbursement to the district for each reimbursable meal. That program and pandemic-era precautions have changed how food can be prepared and served, affected the district’s ability to replicate pre-pandemic hot entrées and…