High costs derail elementary school hot lunch program

Expanding hot lunch at all elementary schools is no longer on the menu in Naperville Unit District 203, at least for the next few years.

Because of unexpectedly high costs, the school board voted Monday to reject bids to create a mobile kitchen at Lincoln Junior High School that would have provided hot lunch to its elementary schools. But the district hasn't given up on the program.

"The news isn't great at this point in time, but it's really the finances," Superintendent Alan Leis said. "I think we've tried very diligently to find a way to do this, and we haven't found it yet."

The district has been piloting the elementary hot lunch program in four schools -- Kingsley, River Woods, Beebe and Naper. Their food is prepared in existing kitchens at Lincoln and Naperville North.

But to serve the 10 remaining schools, the district would need more kitchen space and has looked at several options for implementing the program.

This latest plan, creating a temporary kitchen in a modular building outside Lincoln Junior High School, would have cost about $1.2 million. Over the four-year period it would likely be needed, the program would lose $429,342.

But district officials have said repeatedly the program needs to be self-sustaining in order to expand it.

Residents who live near Lincoln also have expressed concern about the additional noise and traffic the kitchen facility would create.

Other options the district looked at include renting a warehouse to create a kitchen, contracting for catered lunches and renting or purchasing alternative space. All of these options proved too costly.

However, Leis said he still feels strongly that it is important to provide nutritious hot lunches and hopes to include a large kitchen facility in renovation or rebuilding plans for Naperville Central High School that could sustain the elementary lunch program.

The school board plans to adopt a plan for Central in November, which likely would require a referendum in February to move forward. But completing work on the school could take several years.

In the meantime, board member Debbie Shipley suggested continuing to look for local institutions that may be able to share their kitchen space.

The four schools in the pilot program will continue to receive hot lunches at this time.

However, if the district doesn't get approval in a February referendum to do major renovations or a rebuild of Central, Leis said the district may have to stop the pilot program to maintain equity in the schools.

The program has been considered a success at the four schools currently piloting it. At the end of the 2006 school year, 56 percent of students in those schools were participating and 91 percent of those surveyed support continuing the program.