Columbus (Ohio) district decides to handle its own food services

From The Columbus Dispatch: Five months after food-services firm Sodexo pulled out of a $13 million-a-year contract with Columbus (Ohio) City Schools, the district has decided it doesn’t need outside help providing 61,000 meals a day to students. The district’s food-services department interviewed three firms, and at least one said it could save the district millions of dollars over the next five years, but food-services director Joe Brown recommends going it alone. Despite the promised savings, Brown says contract provisions could wipe out any promised savings. The private firms’ demands included boosting student participation in meal programs, collecting more money owed by students and closing the district’s food-processing center.

December 2011...from The Columbus Dispatch: When the Columbus (Ohio) school district winter break ends in January, one group won’t be returning to school — the food-service workers employed by Sodexo, the firm that decided to pull out of its $13 million-a-year contract in mid-school year. But students who are served about 60,000 meals a day are unlikely to notice, says Joe Brown, the district’s food-service director.