BOE approves Sysco food services

CENTREVILLE — Retaining food service employees is on the menu as the Queen Anne’s County Public Schools Board of Education approved Sysco Eastern Maryland, LLC for food delivery services during its workshop meeting May 15.

Facing a turbulent budget cycle the school board approved shifting its food service program to join a partnership with Maryland’s Shore Educational Food Service Consortium (MSEC) contract with Sysco for the delivery of food and related products.

“There is no intention to cut any hourly staff, the number of people that are in the kitchens right now are needed to run those kitchens,” Julie Hickey, coordinator of food services said.

With a variety of reasons the district made the food service decision, cost was one of them. The Sodexo contract was set to expire on June 30 and QACPS is now joining 22 other school systems that run in-house food-service programs in their districts.

As of July 2024, QACPS food services will be self-operational and no longer operated by Sodexo as a food service management company. In order to be self operational, a vendor contract is needed to provide the necessary food and items which is currently being procured through the district’s food service management company, according to Hickey.

The district looks to save money in aspects such as management, by going self operational, she said, and will be joining forces with MSEC to join in a contract with Sysco.

Caroline County put forth a bid for food and food related items and Sysco was the only bid received, Hickey said.

The MSEC contract contains a clause for Queen Anne’s to partner and utilize the services. The contract was recently renewed for the third year to begin July 2024 with two more years of renewal options, she said.

The total estimated cost for FY25 is $800,000 and will utilize the food service balance account, according to Hickey.

Food service department staff have been notified of the district’s conversion to self-operational and have been given the opportunity to ask questions.

“No hourly positions are being cut and they are all encouraged to reapply when the positions become available, “ Hickey said.

Board member Richard Smith noted, “I was back in the day when we had it in-house, then we went out, now we’re back in.”

While the operational budget may not look different within the first year, Hickey emphasized, “What we’re doing is keeping that money in the county, and being able to prioritize and utilize local vendors which it cannot do right now,” she said. By October, the district hopes to have a partnership with a local vendor in time for Homegrown School Week.

In addition to the cost savings, Board President Helen Bennet was particularly excited about the prospect of partnering with local farms, particularly for the benefit of FFA, and looked forward to updates as it moved forward.

The board’s approval of the contract was necessary as the district needs to begin ordering food for summer programs and the start of next school year, Hickey said.

It was also noted, as the district shifts away from its current food service management company Sodexo, so too does its milk distributor service contract and the BOE approved piggybacking off of the MSEC milk contract with Cloverland Dairy.

Cloverland is QACPS’s current milk provider through the Sodexo, so the approval just brings a different contract, Hickey said.

Pricing on half pints of regular milk are estimated to be better with the piggybacking contract, Hickey said.

Wicomico County Public Schools put the public bid out for milk delivery and the contract contains a piggyback clause for QACPS to jump on, she said.

The total price is expected to be $190,000 for the Fiscal Year 2025 and funding will come from the food service funding account, according to Hickey.

An established milk vendor is required as part of compliance with the national school lunch and breakfast programs and federal guidelines, she said.

The contract is in effect until June 2026 unless terminated early by Wicomico, which is unlikely, Hickey noted, as Clover Farm is one of the only dairies in the area that has K-12 compliant milk products and has been that way for some time.

The board will next meet June 5.