Since the Gillingham Charter School announced the end to its lunch contract with a local caterer Nov. 15, it has resorted to buying lunches from other area businesses until a new contract is signed.
Lori Quinn, vice president of Gillingham's board of trustees and director of public relations and marketing, said Tuesday that the school has been getting lunches for students from Roma, Pottsville Zone and Subway, all of Pottsville.
The school canceled its contracted food services with Tassone's Catering, 318 Washington St., Port Carbon, after a Nov. 6 inspection by the state Department of Agriculture revealed violations of regulations governing the handling of food in Pennsylvania. The business has since corrected the violations and remained open throughout the process.
Gillingham is now seeking bids from local caterers and food service management companies for prepackaged meals.
Quinn said Tuesday that the pre-bid meeting will be at 10 a.m. Dec. 18 at 912 Howard Ave., Pottsville.
All bids must be submitted no later than 5 p.m. Jan. 7, 2013, and bids will be opened at 8 a.m. Jan. 8.
Each day, the lunches arrive between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and are then sorted into coolers to keep them at the adequate temperature for each class.
Lunch from Subway on Tuesday was a sandwich, fruit and milk, which are usually included in each day's lunch. The meals are broken down by class in time for lunches.
The coolers are then taken to the classrooms for the younger students, while the older students come to pick up the cooler for the classroom, which is where students eat since there is no cafeteria.
All lunches are still being served as usual, from paid lunches to free and reduced lunches, but the school is no longer receiving federal money for the free and reduced lunches and is absorbing the costs for those lunches.
The lunches from Tassone's were covered by the National School Lunch Program administered by the state.
The school hopes to eventually receive reimbursement from the NSLP for these costs.
"GCS pays somewhere between $275 to $300 per day, depending on how many students ordered lunch," Quinn said. "The cost is comparable to Tassone's."
According to the school's website, students who purchase lunch pay $2.85 while reduced lunches cost 40 cents per student.