Shift to in-house food service management coming in July
Eugene School District 4J is going local, bringing our school food service program in-house after more than 20 years of contracting with a large food services management company.
The Eugene School Board voted in March not to renew the district’s longtime contract with Sodexo, a global food services provider for schools, government agencies, retirement facilities, and sporting and entertainment venues.
The decision to shift to self-operating nutrition programs was made to better serve students with local control of food sourcing and menu options aligned to local priorities. The change is not primarily intended to reduce costs; the goal is to break even after initial startup costs. Any potential savings would be invested in our own local programs.
Building this program will take time and changes will be incremental, but our goals for the future include improving menu options and ingredients with healthier and more locally grown and harvested foods, reducing the use of highly processed foods and ingredients, expanding the amount of fresh ingredients and scratch cooking where possible, and providing nutritional literacy programs in coordination with instructional teams.
The district will transition to a self-operated student meal services program beginning this summer. Stay tuned for updates as the shift to in-house nutrition services management progresses.
