The scene looked like something out of a “Top Chef” challenge when Montclair Public Schools held a taste test event Tuesday. Some 70 parents, students, and community members came to sample fare at George Inness Annex from two food service companies. The district will take the feedback from the event to help select a food service provider for the upcoming school year.
Sodexo and Southwest Foodservice Excellence (SFE) presented their menus, ranging from cilantro lime rice and Caribbean beef ropa vieja to shakes, honey oat parfaits, chicken and waffles, jerk chicken quesadillas, Hawaiian rolls, sliders, and steak sandwiches. Both menus also included vegan options.
Parents and students received a scoring sheet. They were able to evaluate the companies based on the food’s appearance. This included variety, taste, texture, smell, creativity, and suitability for K-12 students.
The Local spoke to a few parents and students and everyone seemed to have a favorite. It was the jerk chicken quesadilla and mango salsa by Sodexo.
“I really liked the chicken quesadilla more than everything else I ate,” Miles Flynn, a fifth grader from Edgemont Elementary School said. Sodexo’s offerings also pleased his mother, Amy Flynn.
“I love that they did this and that I could participate in the decision of what’s going to happen in our cafeterias,” said Jean Hur, a parent of two children in elementary school. “I was actually really impressed by both companies and the variety of foods. Everything was really good, healthy and tasted great. I hope they keep doing this.”
“It makes me happy to see our parents involved and invested. We will use the results of this as part of our own scoring process,” Reddrick Robinson, food service director for Montclair Public Schools, told the Local.
Enticing Students to Eat at School
The district currently contracts Pomptonian as its food service provider.
“We’re going to be doing a big breakfast push going into the 2024-2025 school year. Students can’t learn if they have nothing in their stomachs,” Robinson said at a May 1 Montclair BOE meeting. He also said the district is focused on how food is presented to encourage students to eat.
At the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Ponds spoke of high school students choosing to get lunch from food trucks rather than the cafeteria, as a reason for a revamp.
In April, the district served a total of 29,959 lunch meals across all its schools. Some 6,100 students are currently enrolled in the district schools. This means approximately 4,348 students are not participating in the lunch program. This number also includes students that may have been absent.