Lunches at GKMS

As you may have heard.....we have a change in lunches at GKMS.  In hopes of making sure all of our parents and students understand our lunch process, the following bullet points can explain many of the changes:

• There is new federal legislation regarding school lunches.  This legislation deals mostly with portion size, as well as fruit and vegetables.   The change in the main entree's we are offering is more related to the change in our food provider, Aramark.  
• Aramark is our food provided, as well as the manager of food services for our district.  Some differences in lunches at GKMS with Aramark:
• There will be on hot lunch item that will change each day.
• There will be cold lunch options each day of the week.
• Ala Carte is still available, however ala carte sandwiches are now in the hot lunch each line.
• In the Ala Carte line, chips, soup and drinks will be available.
• For the month of January, Ala Carte sandwich options will be PBJ, Chicken, Cheeseburger and Pizza.  These will be available every day.
• We no longer have a salad bar, but a "side salad" will be a vegetable option many days.
• Our daily hot lunch count that we take in the morning will only be for the hot lunch item of the day.  Please encourage our students to be accurate in this count.  If they do not want the hot lunch item listed on the daily menu, they should not raise their hands during lunch count.
• Students can get charged the hot lunch price ($2.75) and still get an Ala Carte sandwich, here's how it works:
• As defined by the state of Illinois, a hot lunch must be a main entree, a fruit, a vegetable and a milk.  
• Any student at GKMS can get charged a hot lunch price for getting any entree (Hot lunch choice, cold lunch choice, PBJ, Cheeseburger, Chicken sandwich or pizza) IF they also get a fruit, a vegetable and a milk.  
• If a student goes through the line and only grabs an Ala Carte sandwich, they will be charged the price of that sandwich, which in many cases is more than a hot lunch.  
• It seems strange, but if our students get more food (all of the items that make it a lunch), parents can get charged less.

Please help us out by encouraging your student to be accurate during morning lunch counts, as well as encouraging them to get all of the necessary items to make their meal a hot lunch.  This will keep costs down for the school, as well as for our parents.  If you have questions regarding this, please call me at 815-784-5222.