By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

The Hooksett School Board recently voted to renew the contract of the district's lunch service provider, despite ongoing concerns from a group of parents and school staff about the lunch program's success.

At the June 7 meeting, the board granted Cafe Services Inc. a second one-year contract to provide lunches at Hooksett's three public schools, at the same cost as last year.

The move was questioned by members of the Healthy Lunch Committee, a group of parents and some staff who organized in late 2004. The group was formed to express concerns that students were eating unhealthy lunches, and that the billing process for hot lunches was flawed, said committee member Maura Oullette.

Oullette said her concerns began when she found out her son, a Cawley student, was eating pizza and french fries every day, "because he could," she said.

Oullette said many parents with whom she's spoken don't fully understand the way lunch is provided at the Cawley. According to several Cafe Services menus, Cawley students are offered a daily meal that includes five components of a "healthy" meal. The standard, "reimbursable" meal costs $1.75, and includes elements of protein, carbohydrate, fruit, vegetable and dairy.

Cawley students, however, are offered "a la carte" options, and have the option of creating their own "reimbursable" meal, according to a menu. The student may "build a meal" with a minimum of any three of the "healthy" components, and no more than six.

If the student's constructed lunch falls short of, or exceeds, the "healthy" component limit, their lunch account is charged on a per-item basis.

"A la carte" items, offered daily, include vegetables and dip and hot vegetables. Also available are hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, french fries, mozzarella sticks and ice cream.

Oullette said she worries that some students don't have the capacity to make good decisions when faced with the "a la carte" menu.

"If you put that kind of food in front of them, they're just not going to make healthy decisions," said Oullette, who, along with other Healthy Lunch Committee members, has regularly addressed the school board in recent months.

She said also that many students don't understand the criteria for building the "reimbursable" meals, and are often charged as much as $5 a day for their lunch.

Board member Ron Dion said he values the concerns of the committee, but worries that any lunch menu would draw critics.

"Not everyone is going to adopt a diet that one group thinks is an ideal diet," he said. "What I support is giving kids choices."

Dion said the board initially chose Cafe Services in order to cut some costs of running the school lunch program in house, and because the food services director at the time was set to retire.

He added that a recent evaluation of Cafe Services conducted by the school district administration, showed that the group had met all of the criteria the board had set for them entering into the first contract.

Despite the district's evaluation of Cafe Services, the Healthy Lunch Committee conducted its own survey, and with the board's approval the survey was given to parents at all three schools.

The survey asked parents 10 questions related to the schools. hot lunch program, and parents. comments were welcome. Committee members presented the results to the board at the same meeting during which the board voted to renew the contract of Cafe Services.

The survey showed that parents were least satisfied with the hot lunch program at Cawley, and most satisfied at Underhill. Of the 110 Cawley parents that responded to the survey, 84 said their child purchases a hot lunch five days a week. Eighty six of those who responded said they noticed an increase in their child's school lunch bill over the previous year, and only 46 responded that they were satisfied overall with the hot lunch program.

A comprehensive list of parents - comments, as compiled by the committee, showed six comments praising the program at Cawley, and 92 negative comments.

Dion said some changes to the lunch service - particularly regarding billing - may be in order.

As it is, each student has an account into which parents place money for hot lunch. If the account gets to be $6 in the negative, parents are notified by mail. Once $10 behind, students no longer receive hot lunch credit.

Oullette said this causes problems because many students are already past the $10 limit by the time the notice reaches parents, leaving some students without a hot lunch.

Dion said this problem could be easily alleviated with the purchase of software that keeps updated tabs on students. accounts, and also provides parents an itemized list of what their children are eating and at what cost. The software, Dion said, goes so far as to show the exact composition of individual food items.

School Board Chairman Joanne McHugh said the board has not formally considered the software, adding that the administration would likely have to initiate the discussion.

Oullette said the Healthy Lunch Committee has recently been discussing organizing a health fair for next school year. She said the fair would be a fun way to educate students about the value of making healthy choices about what they eat.

Dion said he welcomes the idea of a health fair. "It's good to have people get involved who are interested in the education of the kids," he said.