Kaneland elementary students could get hot-lunch program

Should the Kaneland school district start a hot-lunch program for its elementary schools?

The school board will discuss the matter when it meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Kaneland Harter Middle School.

Currently, hot lunch is offered only at Kaneland High School and Harter Middle School, 1601 Esker Drive, Sugar Grove. The district's business assistant superintendent and its food service director have come up with preliminary costs and logistical requirements to expand the program, at the request of the Citizens Advisory Committee.

The board will decide whether to keep investigating the proposal, or drop it.

Officials say lunches could be prepared at the former Kaneland Middle School on Meredith Road in Maple Park, which now houses the Fox Valley Career Center. The meals would be delivered to John Shields School in Sugar Grove and Blackberry Creek School in Elburn first, then to McDole School in Montgomery and John Stewart in Elburn. The employees delivering the meals would stay at McDole and John Stewart through the lunch periods, clean up, return to Shields and Blackberry Creek for cleanup, then return equipment to headquarters.

They estimate startup costs of $110,000 for equipment including transportation, and an annual operational cost of $150,000. The district would charge $2.25 per meal.

A survey of elementary-school households in August and September indicated that 75 percent of respondents would participate in the program, at a cost of $2.15 per day. About 35 percent of the households took the survey, according to a memo on the subject.