Thursday, October 3, 2024
By Bert Lehman
The Clintonville School District is not making any changes in its food service for students in the upcoming school year, but it is exploring options for the future.
Part of that exploration took place when the Clintonville School Board met July 22 and heard a presentation from Taher, a company that provides food service to school districts throughout the state of Wisconsin.
Superintendent Troy Kuhn told the board that a couple of superintendents that he hspoke with had contracted with Taher to help food service in their districts.
“Taher is one of many companies that help with contracted food,” Kuhn said.
He added that the presentation would show not only what Taher could offer the district, but what a food service company could offer the district in general.
“My plan is, depending on what you guys think, depending on what Trevor (Drake, the district’s food service director) thinks. Do we want to explore a contracted service in the future, or don’t we?” Kuhn said. “Because it’s quite a long RFP (request for proposal) process that we would have to go through.”
Jim Madden, Taher’s regional vice-president for Wisconsin, told the board that Taher is a privately owned company that has been in business for 43 years. He added that the Shawano School District has been an account of Taher for more than 20 years.
In total, Madden said Taher has 61 accounts in Wisconsin.
He said it is becoming more common for schools to bring chefs to the schools to do cooking. The chefs who are part of Taher can provide foods from many different cultures.
“We also want to promote the international piece of it as well,” Madden said. “So, we like to get the chefs into the classroom, if possible, to work with, whether it’s a culinary team or just social studies to talk about the countries and the food, or tie anything that you’re doing with education to food and the food service.”
Taher eliminated trans fat more than 20 years ago, Madden said.
In addition, Taher tries to purchase as much food as possible locally.
“We love to bring in farm fresh foods on a regular basis, and promote the farms,” Madden said.
Regarding the menu for students, Madden said all students would have a fresh fruit and vegetable bar to choose from, which would be self-service.
“By letting the kids serve themselves, believe it or not, costs went down, and kids ate more fruits and vegetables, instead of throwing them in the garbage,” Madden said.
A food court concept would be used for middle school and high school students, meaning they would have more choices than elementary school students.
Madden emphasized that even if the district contracted with Taher, it would still be the district’s lunch program.
“We come with lots of ideas, we have standards, we have items that we purchase that are exclusive that we’ve chosen because of those things that I’ve talked about, but in the end, we have to customize what we do for the school district,” Madden said.
Kuhn asked Madden how Taher would formulate the lunch menu with the district.
Madden said Taher has a corporate cycle menu that changes four times a year.
“The food service director has the ultimate decision to take that cycle menu and adapt it, based on inventory, commodities he or she has on hand, but also the likes and dislikes of the students,” Madden said.
All students, whether they receive free lunch or have to pay for lunch, have access to the same foods, Madden said.
The Clintonville Tribune-Gazette contacted Kuhn via email for additional information about the district’s food service.
When asked if the Taher presentation was planned in response to Kathleen Brei retiring as the district’s food service director, Kuhn replied, “We are always looking at ways to be more effective or to save money and still provide a quality product. I originally contacted food service providers after superintendents stated that this could be an option if I couldn’t find a quality candidate for (food service) director.”
Kuhn said the district does not plan to have other food service companies present to the school board. Instead, the district is going to let Drake, who was hired to replace Brei as the district’s food service director, conduct an assessment of the program and give recommendations for any changes he feels necessary.
The district hired Brei as a consultant for reporting and paperwork, Kuhn said.
Despite the change in food service directors, Kuhn said the district’s food service will remain the same for the 2024-25 school year as it had been last year.
