By Patrick Adrian
[email protected]
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — Although less than 5% of the total Springfield school community completed the district’s food service survey initiated last month, Superintendent Zach McLaughlin said the feedback received still gave the district information “to chew on.”
Despite the district’s big push to encourage parents, students and educators to complete the online survey about the district’s cafeteria services, only 113 people completed the survey. Of those individuals who filled one out, more than 58% were either teachers or school staff, 27% were parents and 8% were students. The district sent emails with links to the survey to families and staff, as well as robocalls.
Director of Fiscal Services Richard Pembroke expressed disappointment in the lack of responses.
“I was hoping we would receive much more than this,” Pembroke said at the Springfield School Board Meeting Monday. “We kept the survey open much longer than we had planned.”
The district opened the survey on Nov. 21 to inform the district about the school community’s priorities and values when making breakfast and lunch choices during the school week. The district plans to use the feedback to develop a new Request for Proposal (RFP) for cafeteria services. The current contract is set to expire in July 2020.
Board members and administrators remarked about the length of the survey, which comprised of 37 questions and whose forms ranged from multiple choice and short answer questions to asking the survey-taker to rank items according to value.
“It was a really long survey,” board member Laura Palmer said. “I started and only got half-way through it.”
McLaughlin also noted that several questions pertained more to specific populations in the community than others, which resulted in many questions that yielded a large percentage of neutral opinions.
However, the responses indicated a strong consensus in support of including more fresh, locally grown food into the menu and creating a universal free lunch program.
More specifically, 58% of those surveyed “strongly agreed” that the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) is important to the elementary school and more than 72% of survey-takers “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that the “community would support a free lunch program for all students.” Eight-seven percent of responders felt that locally grown foods should be part of the district’s program.
Board Vice-Chairman Troy Palmer noted that the individual comments were mostly negative. Many survey comments said the menu items are processed or high in sugar.
“I think we need a giant retooling of the food service program,” he said.
Many survey-takers also said the cafeteria is understaffed, leading to slow-moving lines that limit the time for students to eat, according to Palmer.
Pembroke said that is a common problem in many school cafeterias. If the school board wants to improve that, they will need to decide whether they want to spend to increase staff.
Board Chair Mike Griffin expressed concern about making decisions based on a limited number of responses, without knowing whether those opinions reflect the total community or not.
“I’m certainly not opposed to creating a budget that brings [these requests] to the people,” Griffin said. “But I’d hate to find out after setting a new contract that the community won’t support that in a dollar amount.”
Pembroke said that there isn’t sufficient time to continue gathering information. The Health and Wellness Committee plans to begin its study and discussion of the survey findings today. Pembroke wants to have the committee’s recommendations ready for a discussion with the school board by its first or second meeting in January 2020.
Pembroke also told the board that he has a proposed increase of $35,000 in the cafeteria budget, should the board want to consider additional spending.
In drawing more students to the cafeteria program, Pembroke noted that revenues from increased participation help to reduce and even neutralize the program’s operating cost.
“There can be a successful non-deficit generating program that produces high quality food,” he told the board. “But it doesn’t happen overnight. We need to prove to our students — our customers — that we can provide a quality meal. And that takes time.”
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