From canned food to fresh: Coeur d'Alene schools transform lunch

School has been in session for a month, and with the new school year came a big change to the Coeur d'Alene School District's meal program.

Trustees of the school board voted July 8 to outsource the district's nutrition services to Southwest Foodservice Excellence, a chef-led company based in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“Nutrition services has struggled in several key areas over the last few years,” Deputy Superintendent of Operations Seth Deniston said during his presentation to the board.

Staffing and turnover had been a concern for the department, which saw the retirement of longtime director Ed Ducar at the end of the 2022-23 school year.

Budgeting had also been an issue as food costs have significantly increased over the past several years while reimbursements have decreased. Aside from the COVID-19 years, the department had been running large deficits that grew every year. The deficit in the 2022-23 school year was $764,000, then $940,833 in the 2023-24 school year.

According to projected expenditure data from Deniston's report, it cost the Coeur d'Alene School District $3,796,653 with a loss of $939,459 to run its food services program. By contracting with SFE, the district will spend $3,082,507 and see a projected profit of $130,910.

The switch to SFE did not increase current meal prices for students.

“Lunch was free for our students during COVID, and that really created some different demands on that department, and then lunch debt — all of those things have led to deficits," Deniston said.

Food quality has been a No. 1 issue for many students as well. The district had moved toward money-saving processed and pre-packaged foods, which cost less but also meant lower quality. Student participation had also decreased.

“The number of students eating school lunches in our buildings have gone down over time, which makes sense with declining enrollment," Deniston said.

He told the board it was not sustainable to continue the way things were going.

"When it comes to the data, we just don’t have the expertise to run this department the way it needs to be run right now," he said.

The former maintenance and operations director put out a request for proposal in June that was answered by SFP and Chartwells Schools Dining Services, another out-of-state food service company. SFP was awarded a one-year contract with four one-year renewals.

Val Martin, kitchen manager at Venture Academy, has worked in Coeur d'Alene's nutrition services for 25 years. Although a few people left when the district changed over to SFE, Martin said she has been optimistic about the transition.

"We went back to serving fresh food," she said. "We are making our own pizzas, which we used to. We used to make our own bread. We made our own pizzas, our own ranch dressings."

Labor and food prices made things tough for kitchen staff.

"We went to doing more processed foods, especially in the last couple years," she said. "Nobody was feeling good about what we were doing, but it was what we had to work with.

"We had gone to canned fruit," she said. "Who in the world eats canned fruit?"

She said since SFE has come in, she has seen an increase in fresh fruits, vegetables and meats.

"We’re cooking roasts and big old things of pork," Martin said.

Student reception has been positive as well, Martin said.

"The students love it. My kids were like, 'Oh my gosh this tastes like real meat,'" she said. "It sounds funny but we weren't using those kinds of products. Now we're using real quality fresh fruits and produce."

She is optimistic about the staffing as well. Those who left the district left open positions for part-time employees to work full time and learn new skills.

"I think it's opened up doors for a lot of our part-timers who’ve been able to move up," she said.

That being said, several positions are still open and workers are needed.

"The main concern is getting more help," Martin said. "We're hiring for everything, part-time, full-time."

She said she is of the mindset that just as education changes, food changes, too.

"We’re in the business to feed the children — if the kids are here to eat, we can provide these fresh veggies and tacos," Martin said. "You got to have those choices so the kids aren’t getting in their cars and going to Taco Bell. Now we’re providing what the kids want."

Savannah Box, SFE general manager, was packing up her things in Colorado on Friday to make a new home in North Idaho where she will oversee the food services of the school district. She got her start as a mom who was not satisfied with the nutrition programs in West Texas, where they lived at the time.

“We’re not a big scary management company coming in," Box said. "We’re here to partner with the existing employees, train up the employees for a better food program for our students and just bring more options to the table — more variety and more scratch-made food."