Food service workers in Princeton’s public schools have a new contract with the food management service hired by Princeton Public Schools to run its cafeterias. The cost of school lunches in Princeton’s public schools will be increased as a result.
For the 2015-16 school year, lunch prices will be charged at the New Jersey State maximum for high school and middle school. Lunch at Princeton High School will now cost $4.25 (up from $4:15); at John Witherspoon Middle School lunch will cost $4 (up from $3.95). Princeton’s elementary school lunch prices will remain lower than the maximum permitted by the state of $3.75; they will be $3.15 (up from $3).
After a year of negotiations, Nutri-Serve Food Management, Inc. and the SEIU Local 32BJ, the union representing Princeton’s public schools food service workers, have finalized a contract.
The union’s dispute with Nutri-Serve began shortly after the company took over management of school food services last year. In June 2014, Princeton’s Board of Education (BOE) unanimously approved a $61,245 contract with Nutri-Serve for the 2014-15 school year. Nutri-Serve was contracted for one year with the option for four additional one-year renewals.
The company, which was founded almost 30 years ago, replaced Chartwells School Dining Services, which had served Princeton’s schools for 15 years; it offered jobs to the existing staff. But food service workers went on a one-day strike last November, claiming that the new company had taken away health insurance and sick day benefits. Twenty food service workers, many of whom had been in Princeton schools for years, subsequently met with Nutri-Serve representatives.
While contract negotiations between the teachers’s union and the Board of Education took center stage at Board meetings during the last school year, those between the district’s food service workers and Nutri-Serve seemed to garner little public attention.
Although the BOE repeatedly pointed out that it was not a party to the negotiations between Nutri-Serve and its employees, a number of food service workers appealed to Superintendent Steve Cochrane and members of the Board to intercede on their behalf at the Board’s regular monthly meetings.
Nutri-Serve describes the contract as “both beneficial and fair to the school food service workers.” According to a press release, “Nutri-Serve takes pride in our ability to offer its employee’s fair wages, safe and friendly work environments, and a management team that cares about its employees. We couldn’t be happier that an agreement has been made.”
A representative of the union could not be reached for comment.
The company thanked the Princeton Public Schools Board of Education for its support in agreeing to raise the student lunch prices. “By doing so, this enabled the company to help offset the cost of additional compensation/benefits for Food Service employees who work in Princeton School District.”
In March BOE Secretary Stephanie Kennedy said that she would recommend that the Board’s contract with Nutri-Serve be renewed.
For more about Nutri-Serve, visit: www.nsfm.com.