Nov. 27--More students are eating the school lunches at the northwest suburban school district that revamped its food service program after rejecting a federal subsidy this year.
Superintendent David Schuler said Township High School District 214 has seen a 20 percent increase in the average daily participation rate for its new food program. This means that about 400 more meals were served and sold in October compared with the same month last year.
The second-largest high school system in the state chose to opt out of the National School Lunch Program in May. The district cited the Smart Snacks in School guidelines that went into effect July 1 as the last straw, as it marked the first time that food outside of the proper school lunch and breakfast meals would be dictated by federal nutritional standards.
The district said it risked losing millions because most of its food service revenues come from a la carte sales of such things as pizza, fries and Subway sandwiches and vending machine sales. Those foods would have likely been banned or substantially altered to comply with the strict federal restrictions on calorie, fat and salt levels, and other nutritional limits.
The intention was to make up for the nearly $1 million government subsidy by drawing more business with a revamped food program offering more variety and better food.
In October 2013, the school's in-house food service dished out 1,324 free meals, 188 reduced-priced meals and 526 paid meals districtwide on an average daily basis, said Jennifer Delgado, district spokeswoman.
Last month, 1,634 free meals, 61 reduced-priced meals, and 761 paid meals were served.
The superintendent said the district is "near balanced" given the changes, citing the first quarter revenues at $1,087,527 and expenditures at $956,320.
Just as importantly, he said, is the fact that students are eating more healthy meals than before. Unbound by federal regulations, the district said it has encouraged more school lunches by implementing extras in the cafeteria such as food kiosks for sampling and recipe contests.
"We are seeing more excitement," Schuler said.
Although the numbers do show that meals have gone up by 23 percent for free eaters and nearly 45 percent for paid eaters, the number of reduced-priced meals has gone down by nearly 68 percent in the year over year comparison.
When the district opted out of the federal program and its subsidy, the cost of a reduced-priced meal increased by as much as five times over. The district's food service budget was also scaled back by about a half million dollars.
But officials said free meals went up and reduced-priced meals went down in large part due to a shift in student status.
Last year, 2,800 students qualified for free lunch and about 500 students qualified for reduced-priced lunch. The most current numbers show 3,214 students are eligible for free lunch and 234 qualify for reduced-priced lunch.
The district of 12,000 students said the overall low-income figures "held stable" at 29 percent, although there was a nearly 15 percent increase in the number of students receiving free benefits and a 53 percent decrease in reduced-priced benefits.
Officials said it continues to use the federal income guidelines of the National School Lunch Program to determine eligibility.
saho@tribpub.com
