Menu
Sikeston R-6 cancels contract with food service provider
SIKESTON — Following a month of ongoing concerns by students, staff, administrators and parents that school meals were not up to standard, the Sikeston R-6 School District canceled on Thursday the contract with its current food service provider.
At the recommendation of Sikeston R-6 Superintendent Dr. Tony Robinson during a special work session of the Sikeston R-6 Board of Education Thursday in the high school cafeteria, the Board unanimously voted to cancel its contract with food service provider, Southwest Foodservice Excellence LLC, or SFE. The contract will end within 60 days.
SFE provided food services for the district beginning in the 2019-2020 school year and had just entered its second year of service when school began on Aug. 25.
On Aug. 27 the district was provided with a couple photos of meals served by SFE. One of the pictures showed a plate with two pieces of wheat bread with a scoop of plain tuna and a bit of lettuce with a mayonnaise packet with a side in enclosed container. The other showed an orange with four breaded nuggets.
Within the week, the district met with and worked with SFE to make a plan of action moving forward. The plan included SFE bringing in a chef to work on food quality and to meet with students to get their input on what meals they would like to have.
However, the district continued to hear from parents and students regarding issues with food quality concerns. The district again addressed the food service provider to ensure they are serving students the best meals possible. Complaints continued, which resulted in Robinson’s recommendation Thursday to cancel the contract with SFE.
Prior to the Board’s vote on Thursday, Fred Ellis, director of regional operations for SFE, addressed the school board members and superintendent. Ellis noted he was part of the transition from the previous food service management company to SFE taking over the food service partnership with R-6.
He also told the Board the SFE got through a successful first year with the district even with the impact of COVID-19.
“As part of this second year and part of this kickoff, we’ve had some struggles,” Ellis said. “I don’t think it’s any secret that we’ve had some struggles. We’ve had a lot of change within our service models, within our delivery, within the food we’re serving to our students and we felt that.”
Ellis said SFE felt that information not only on the social media platform through the community, but he also knows the district administration has received phone calls about the food service program, and the Board and food service employees have also received that information.
“I also want to say that those employees are not outside of this community; those are employees that work here in this community, that have students here in this community,” Ellis told the Board. “Those are employees that are passionate about this community so I know from speaking with them directly that they are taking this very seriously and they are taking this to heart. And some of things they are hearing — the complaints and criticism — they are taking those things very seriously.
He continued: “It’s not from a lack of hard work or passion or dedication to fulfill these employees and what they are trying to do. It’s just a different way of doing things for them.”
Ellis went on to say that he, the food service employees and SFE as a company care about the students. “What I’m here to ask you for tonight is to give us the opportunity to course-correct this ship and course-correct this program to ensure we can get this back to what the expectation is of what we proposed last year and what we proposed for this contract,” Ellis said.
He then explained the three basic components SFE would focus if the district stayed in their contact with them: meal enhancement with scratch-cooking and fresh food; on-site culinary expert; and expanded food offerings.
“It’s about getting back to what we do best – which is offering a variety foods, choices for the students and fresh products they are expecting and not as much quick-service products they have been getting,” Ellis said.
As SFE went through this change of service model and delivery, it wasn’t able to do some of those things.
Ellis said they added a chef and planned to add another; they also wanted to have a culinary expert on site.
As part of safety related to COVID-19, such as social distancing, SFE rolled back its menu from offering 10-15 items per day to two items per day, Ellis said.
“We knew we had to make sure to expedite service and not have students in the cafeteria for long periods of time so we really wanted to meet some of those needs from a safety standpoint but also still provide for those students,” Ellis said. “After speaking to administrators, we are going back to expanding our offerings.”
That said, SFE did make some mistakes, Ellis said.
“We own this. There are things such as outdated milk that got to our students, and I wholeheartedly apologize for this,” Ellis said. “That is not the way we do business and that is not the things we do as a company. That is not the expectation the district has or that I have or that the employees have. Those things did happen and we take full responsibility for those things.”
Ellis asked the Board to consider giving SFE the ability to right the program and chance to implement the three components he mentioned. Then, he said, in 30 or 60 days, he could come back to the Board and have a discussion about the contract again.
The SFE vice president also addressed the Board, which did not have any questions for the SFE officials.
Then the superintendent commented on the situation.
“Mr. Ellis and I talked (Wednesday), and I submitted a letter saying I was going to recommend the cancellation of the food service contract with SFE due to the service we’ve received over the last few weeks,” Robinson said. “We had met previously in order to address the concerns... however, those issues continue so I thought it was my responsibility to put in a recommendation so our students and our families have the best service.”
Board member Chad Bles said he agreed with Robinson’s recommendation. He said this week he stopped by the Junior High School cafeteria for lunch, where the students were served five chicken nuggets, green beans and pears. He also noted Lee Hunter Elementary students had received spoiled/coagulated milk.
Board member Matt Tanner then asked Robinson if his recommendation remained the same, and the superintendent said it was. The district planned to inform parents on Friday of the Board’s decision and the process to replace SFE as the district’s food service provider.
The Board also heard from community members and medical professionals regarding COVID-19 procedures during its special work session Thursday. Look for a more detailed story regarding this topic in Wednesday’s Standard Democrat.