Chartwells settles whistleblower lawsuit re DCPS food

[Anonymous]

According to the Post article Chartwells had been ripping DC off to the tune of $10 million/year for six years. A $19 million settlement sounds like about a third of what was owed.

[Anonymous]

5 year old DC always wants to buy lunch on Fridays because their vegetable is grape juice. Not kidding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I use it as a threat too. They CRY when I threaten. Heartbreaking for the kids that don't have a choice.

That's the part that saddens me most. There's a lot of kids in this city who depend on free DCPS breakfast and lunch as their primary sources of nutrition. They deserve better.

[Anonymous]

Maybe I have some low standards but Chartwells food seems fine to me for the most part. This morning, the kids had cheerios, an apple, and milk. They have veggies every single day for lunch. I'm quite sure that grape juice was not the only fruit or veggie they serve on Fridays. I used to volunteer at a DCPS about 10 years ago. The food was inedible. The Chartwells food they serve now is so much better than what they used to serve. The food itself is not the troubling part but if they are fleecing the tax payers, then I have a problem with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I have some low standards but Chartwells food seems fine to me for the most part. This morning, the kids had cheerios, an apple, and milk. They have veggies every single day for lunch. I'm quite sure that grape juice was not the only fruit or veggie they serve on Fridays. I used to volunteer at a DCPS about 10 years ago. The food was inedible. The Chartwells food they serve now is so much better than what they used to serve. The food itself is not the troubling part but if they are fleecing the tax payers, then I have a problem with it.

I agree that it is better than PPs say, but Chartwells is allowed to substitute juice for fruit a few days a week. They do the minimum to comply with the Healthy Foods Act (which allows that substitution a few meals a week). My kid seems to like the food a lot.

[Anonymous]

I met Jeff Mills once when i had an issue with Chartwells staff (yelling at little kids) - I wrote a scathing letter and Mills immediately called me and set up a meeting. The meting evolved into a larger discussion of food service and I left that meeting super impressed with him and his dedication to getting DCPS students the good food they (and we taxpayers) deserve.

I was disappointed when he was fired. I'm generally a big supporter of DCPS - sure, there's problems but it takes a while to turn around a big bureaucracy, and it's now mostly headed in the right direction is my viewpoint - but their handling of this Chartwells contract and firing of Mills is the one thing I cannot defend.

[Anonymous]

Bump

[Anonymous]

Looks like Cheh is drawing some attention to this issue too:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/cheh-calls-for-audit-of-dc-public-schools-food-service-contracts/2015/06/09/61c3e52c-0ed8-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html

[Anonymous]

DCPS fires all folks that complain or file workplace harassment complaints - 100% of the time!