The East Bridgewater School Committee has voted in favor of privatizing the school lunch program and awarded Aramark the district wide contract.

Members of Local 888, the cafeteria union, watched Aramark's presentation with interest.

  Aramark will be hiring Local 888 SEIU, the 16 members of the district’s current cafeteria staff.

The workers will no longer be employees of the town, but will be employees of Aramark. Aramark promised to maintain the wages and benefits for the hourly employees and allow the staff to keep their current job titles.

“Aramark will also acknowledge the current collective bargaining agreement,” said Jennifer Smeriglio, Human Resources Director of the Northeast Region. “Aramark will honor their SEIU relationships.”

The company serves two million school meals a day and has 125 clients in the Northeast. Aramark also has a state wide contract in Rhode Island.

The company has guaranteed a positive return for the program of $1,000. They will also be investing $62,000 in program for a new pizza oven, grill and salad bar at the high school.

Aramark’s goal is to make lunch a positive nutritional and social experience, said Regional Manager Beth Emery. They feel they can achieve this goal by joining the caring and efficient staff with the right program.

“I think you need those pieces together to make a successful seamless transition,” said Emery. “I don’t think we’re that far apart.”

“All of us give 110 percent everyday,” said SEIU worker Tammy Cronin. “We all bring in money to make sure everybody is fed.”

 “You promise the world,” she said to the Aramark representatives. “We just want to make sure it’s going to stay the same.”

Employees were assured that the transition would be seamless.

“We want a company to come in and do the things we can not do,” said School Committee Chairwoman Elizabeth Hayes. “Things we will never be able to do.”

Aramark’s goal is to raise the participation rate to 70 percent. Participation at each school  is different.

“I think what you’re serving in your cafeteria sends a message,” said Emery. “You need to have fresh fruit and a vegetable the kids will eat.”

Aramark will partner with the school and educators on introducing food. There will be no price change for lunches; they will still cost $2 and the entrée will come with two sides and milk.

The Central School will see an increase of eight new items per day. The middle school will have a choice of two dozen new items. The high school will have an additional three dozen items a day.

At the high school meals may be cooked to order such as: stir fry, tossed pasta and pancakes

“By high school a lot of habits are already formed,” said Emery.

“The speed of service is the key to a successful nutrition program,” she said. “Lunch is the only time of day a student has to relax and socialize. You need to get them in and out of line as fast as you can.”

With a new point of sale system the kids will be entering in a personal identification number when they get up to the register. This will also speed up lines, said Emery. Employees said that students who received free or reduce lunches are often embarrassed, but they know who they are and they get them fed.

With the POS system no one will be able to tell who is receiving free lunch and all students will have to enter their number.

The employees will have a list of all the children and their numbers in the case a student forgets his or her number.

“If this type of thing doesn’t work out, I would assume we would go back to what we had before,” said School Committee member George McCabe.

The committee vote was split Thomas Hamilton, Beth Hayes, George McCabe and Nancy Smith voted yes. Bob Condon and Mike Power voted no.

In other business:

• Stephen DeSousa, grade 8 science teacher, and Heather Kenneally, middle school special education teacher have been contracted for the 2008-2009 school year.

• The superintendent accepted with regret the resignation of a high school English teacher, Lauren Schultz, and Central School Nurse Karen Lynch.

• The committee approved the minutes of April 17, May 8 and 22 and June 5 and 19. The minutes of the School Committee’s budget meetings have also been approved as well as the minutes of the FY09 Budget Public Hearing.

• The East Bridgewater Education Association Collective Bargaining Agreement was approved.

• The Gordon W. Mitchell Middle School start time was changed to 8:20 a.m.