GREENE: North Greene entertains one company for food service

By Editor | March 29, 2023 |

By Carmen Ensinger
Greene Prairie Press
After events over the last six months, it was no surprise that the North Greene School Board chose not to renew their contract with Organic Life as the district’s food service provider next year.
The district signed a one-year contract last year with Organic Life with the option to renew that contract for an additional year at the end of June. The board chose not to renew that contract and instead seek bids from another company with Organic Life also having the opportunity to submit another bid as well.
One of the requirements by the State is to have a pre-bid meeting, which is what the district had last Friday morning. At this meeting, any candidate seeking the district’s business has the opportunity to visit the district and ask any questions before they submit a final bid to provide food service to the district.
It was no surprise that Organic Life did not seek to retain the district’s business. There was only one company at the pre-bid meeting – Arbor Management, Inc. of Itasca. They have been in the business of providing food service management to K-12 schools since January of 1986.
Representing Arbor Management at North Greene was Vice-President of Sales Jeff Krause.
Superintendent Mark Scott explained to Krause what the district was looking for in a food service management company.
“Last year was our first year with a food service management company,” Scott said. “All of our staff were in the bargaining unit but through negotiations they got bargained out so when we went with a food service management company, all of the cooks and everyone else was employed by Organic Life so when we bid it back out, that is how we bid it out again so whoever gets the contract, the labor is on their side.”
Krause said they currently serve around 60 school districts in both Illinois and Wisconsin and in the majority of them, they do provide the labor. Therefore, that will not be an issue.
Scott also said that while they want them to provide the employees, they would also like them to use current staff. One issue the district had with Organic Life was the firing of staff and a large turnover of staff.
“It is always a non-issue for us to just hire everyone back because they are the ones who know the job and they are a part of the community,” Krause said. “We don’t have a pool of people waiting to get moved into the district. So we want to involve the current employees and we want them to be a part of the process. It’s a pretty seamless process.”
Krause said of the 60 plus school districts they serve, the majority of them are currently in the Chicago metro suburban area.
“We got out of the suburban area going west all the way to Dixon and into the central part of Illinois where we have Urbana, Canton Union, Midland and ElPaso,” Krause said. “Starting just this year, we took over Alton after they had been with the same company for 25 years.”
Krause said their goal is to expand in this area.
“As far as our focus right now, we want to continue to grow this area in the central and Southern Illinois market,” he said. “This has been our main focus. In addition to K-12 school districts, we also do colleges. We have Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby, but we also do private schools as well. But our main focus has always been K-12 public school districts.”
Krause said they realize no two school districts are the same.
“Every school district is like a snowflake – no two are the same,” he said. “What works in Dixon isn’t necessarily going to work in Skokie and what works down here may not work in Wisconsin. SO it just depends on your district, your community – and we are sensitive to that so we want to make sure that we tailor the menu around that. What we are looking for is to provide what is best for the students.”
Board member Casey Kallal was in attendance and had a very important question – is the food service director someone from their company or is someone locally hired.
“When you hire your food service director, do you put out applications here and have people apply for that position,” Kallal asked. “Or do you have people already in place to come into the school.”
Krause said he wanted to be as honest and transparent as possible.
“When it comes to a director, we want to make sure we hire a person that we feel strongly about, but also that the district feels strongly about,” he said. “So, as I said before, we don’t have a room full of people ready to hire. We could actually provide this opportunity to a few of our qualified directors that we have now on staff and inquire if they would be interested, but I don’t always count on that. I always want to make sure that I tell every district that we do have potential candidates but I can’t guarantee they will accept it. We will go ahead and hire someone for your particular district that will fit your district, but we want to make sure you are okay so we will have you interview them.”
Kallal also brought up the large amount of turnover in their kitchen staff in the past six months.
“We have had some wonderful employees, but the fast turnover has been a little concerning,” Kallal said. “For one thing, because we don’t know who is going in and out of our buildings all day long. How do you handle that?”
Krause said that, first of all, before each employee starts with the district, they should have had a background check. That background check should come through the district and if its not, then something is wrong.
“When it comes to staff turnover, I think the one thing I would want to know is why the turnover is happening,” Krause said. “We do a background check for any staff member before they walk in the door – that is part of the contract and that is how we operate. We have to pay for the checks to be done, but we don’t get the results – the district gets the results because it is illegal for us to get them. As long as they pass the background check then we are able to bring them on board and they can start working. You can’t just bring someone in off the street without a background check.”
Kallal said there were many things they liked about Organic Life’s food service, such as the fresh fruit and vegetable options and a salad bar at the elementary school.
“They also put a salad bar up for the staff, which is wonderful and I think it should continue,” Kallal said. “Then, the kids have choices, too, which are great. Do you do choices and options? There was a lot of good. This was a learning process for us.”
Krause said they provide a variety of options.
“You will see in our proposal that we have both fresh fruit and vegetable bars as well as salad bars,” he said. “We also have faculty menus, which are different from the student menus.”