The Brownwood ISD school board unanimously approved a contract Tuesday night with Southwest Food Service Excellence (SFE) to provide food service to the district. BISD approved a 4.5 year contract with SFE that is renewable annually.
The district began its search for a food service provider in October after receiving the resignation of their Food Service Director Steve Locke. BISD has always managed their own nutrition department, but decided to search for an outside company to offer a better variety and increased quality of food being served in the district, according to BISD Superintendent Reece Blincoe.
“It’s about quality, it’s about increasing the amount of food people are eating, it’s about having more options,” he said in a previous board meeting about the issue.
Board members have also stated that currently, overall satisfaction with the food being served at the district is low as expressed by students through surveys and comments.
Shauna Strub and Chris Odom from SFE were present Tuesday night at the board meeting and are already getting set to work as the company will be serving food at all campuses after the Christmas break.
“We understand that it is a huge commitment and it takes an amount of trust for a school district to select a company, and so we value that and we won’t let you down,” Strub said. “Our goal is to serve your students high quality, nutritious meals each and every day.”
SFE was one of four companies who submitted bids to operate the food service at the district. Officials narrowed the choice down to two, and BISD’s Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) made the recommendation to the board to hire SFE.
“We decided that they would be the company that best fits the needs of Brownwood for our food service,” said SHAC committee member Dana Cloy. “I think everyone (on the committee) was excited that Brownwood is moving in that direction.”
Blincoe said previously that under this change, no current food service employees will lose their jobs, and free and reduced lunches will continue under the current model.
He also said that all current nutrition employees can remain employed with the district or become employees with the new company. Any future hires in food service for the district will be employed by the new company and not district employees.
Blincoe said that the change would not affect free and reduced lunch students and that the district would maintain control over those matters.
