Operations committee highlights farm‑to‑school produce supplier and rise in meals served

The operations committee told the Lee County Board of Education that the child nutrition program’s 2025–26 procurement includes renewals for milk, chemicals, kitchen equipment and refrigeration and new bids for grocery and supply, produce, juice, sports drinks and soda.

The committee noted one of the new produce suppliers provides farm‑to‑school products using local farmers. Alan said the committee views that as a positive step toward local sourcing.

Committee members provided year‑end meal counts for the recently completed school year. “Breakfast increased 3% to about 430,000 provided for the year,” Alan said, and “Lunch increased 7 percent to 963,000 and change meals.” The committee asked Miss Cagle, who runs the child nutrition program, to pursue a protein‑focused breakfast option and to bring back some in‑house made options at the high school level; the committee asked that she raise any roadblocks requiring board assistance with the operations committee.

The child nutrition bids and vendor renewals were placed on the meeting’s consent agenda and approved by the full board as part of that package.