Round Lake CUSD 116 food-service director cites participation dip, unveils cooler-monitoring plan and new breakfast items
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Summary
At the Jan. 12 board meeting Kent, the district’s food-service director (first-name only in the record), said average daily meal participation fell about 5%, roughly matching a 4% enrollment drop. He outlined menu changes, a Sonic Q cooler-monitoring rollout and asked the board for attendance data to better interpret participation trends.
Kent, the district food-service representative, told the Round Lake CUSD 116 Board of Education on Jan. 12 that average meals served per day have declined roughly 5%, a change he said corresponds with an approximate 4% decrease in enrollment. He said participation varies by school and by menu items, and that some schools are doing better while others lag.
Kent said the district is shifting breakfast menus away from grain-heavy items toward more protein options and expanding hot breakfast offerings to four days a week (up from one to two days previously). He listed new breakfast items now being offered at various schools, including three-cheese egg bites, breakfast burritos, sausage breakfast bites, chicken-pancake wraps, breakfast bagels, zucchini bread and rotating smoothies. He said cereal bars have been phased out as a main entree at many sites and remain only as a secondary option where a hot choice is also offered.
On food safety and equipment reliability, Kent described a planned Sonic Q monitoring system that places sensors on coolers and ties readings to a central hub that sends alerts when temperatures stray from safe ranges. He said the system is intended to detect problems earlier and prevent losses similar to equipment failures experienced last summer at Round Lake Middle School and McGee.
During board Q&A members pressed for school-level attendance data to help interpret participation numbers. Kent acknowledged that past counts at some schools were inflated because the district had been "overserving and, not following proper procedures," and he agreed to provide follow-up data. Board members thanked Kent for menu changes and for student-engagement programs such as the Panther Work and pasta challenge.
Next steps: administration will provide attendance-comparison data to the board and continue to pilot new menu items and temperature-monitoring equipment before broader rollouts.