Newfound takes food service back into district

BRISTOL — Prompted by the acquisition of its food service group by another company, the Newfound Area School Board is bringing the operation of its culinary program back into the district. The board also signed a formal document asking the Grafton County Superior Court to approve a set of special meetings to let district voters decide whether to purchase the former TD Bank building.

Whitsons Culinary Group, the 15th largest food service management company in the United States, and the fourth largest K-12 food service operator, has purchased Abbey Group, which has headquarters in Sheldon, Vermont, and serves schools in New England and Upstate New York. Newfound was in the fourth year of a five-year annual contract with Abbey Group.

Until 2017, Newfound operated its own food service program. At that time, Business Administrator Michael Limanni persuaded the school board to switch to an independent vendor, arguing that, with its larger supply chain, it would be able to procure food at lower prices than the district could negotiate. After federal reimbursements, it had cost the district $95,000 that year, he said.

Both Abbey Group Food Services and Fresh Picks Café sought the contract, but Limanni persuaded the board to choose Fresh Picks, based on recommendations by the Pemi-Baker Regional School District and Fresh Picks’ offer to provide $60,000 in capital improvements for the food services program over a five-year period.

Abbey Group later purchased Fresh Picks.

In arguing to take back the program, Superintendent Paul Hoiriis told the school board on Aug. 11, “I found out by having an email forwarded to me — so not even directly — that our current food service group, Abbey Group, was purchased by Whitsons.”

Hoiriis said that, even before learning of the purchase, administrators in the central office had been discussing the benefits of returning to self-operation. Due to a non-compete agreement in the Whitsons contracts — but not yet in Abbey Group — if they did not act now, they would be unable to hire their current food service staff.

Referring to Food Services Director Jason Seavey, Hoiriis said, “In my, I guess now I’m on year 18 in the district, I think Jason’s leadership, and what he’s built at our buildings, at all of our sites, I think he’s built a lot of experience. He’s built a lot of loyalty out of all of our contracted services we engage with. I feel like our employees at all of our sites have pride in our schools.”

One of the reasons to make the change, Hoiriis said, is the district already has the task of serving as the food service administrator. “Only an employee of the school district can,” he said. “Our business administrator at the time felt that that was a lot of work and recommended, 'Hey, maybe it’s smarter to contract this out.' But I don’t think realizing that the FSA duties still fall onto the school district.

“Another benefit we will talk about is financial transparency — not that this version of the Abbey Group is doing anything financially dishonest. It’s more like we have more control over our costs ... determining where we can find savings and, to be honest, more of an investment in controlling our student debt.”

Hoiriis and Seavey noted most school districts handle their own food program, and said the combined buying power should provide cost savings over a company that is profit-driven.

Newfound staff would also like to make more purchases locally. Abbey Group purchases food directly from Vermont farms, but Seavey gave the example of maple syrup. “We spend over $6,000 a year in syrup alone, and I love the idea of doing real syrup versus imitation, but I’d rather it be at our discretion on where it’s purchased, and how much we spend on it.”

He also talked about “protein bowls and things that are kind of hip somewhere; they might not be well-received here, and so our clientele, our demographic, might not want to see those things on the menu, but they have to be run because they’re expected presentations that the FSC [food service coordinator] wants to see.

"You can track participation on those items that students are not participating in that you’re able to say, 'Well, that’s a menu item we’re not going to run.'”

“We’re really trying to build a loyal employee base as well as try to realize some cost savings,” Hoiriis said. “This is nothing against Abbey Group, but they’re a for-profit model. Their job is to make money. They’re not a nonprofit, where it is not our job to make a profit, but ... to meet budgets, and that’s where our focus will be.”

The school board unanimously agreed to end the contract with Abbey Group and bring food service home.

Having asked at its last meeting for the superintendent to pursue a purchase-and-sales agreement with TD Bank for its property at 10-20 N. Main St., which includes the building the district currently rents for office space, Hoiriis said he expects to have such an agreement for the board to review at a future meeting. Meanwhile, he and attorney Barbara Loughman have worked out a timeline for the special district meetings. The key dates are a deliberative session on Saturday, Oct. 25, and a ballot vote on Saturday, Nov. 22.

Hoiriis said he hoped to push the vote until the next regular school district meeting in 2026, to avoid the additional cost of special meetings, but TD Bank did not want to wait that long.

The bank has agreed to sell the two buildings to the school district for their assessed value of $665,400, despite having recently invested $1.76 million in improvements.

To hold a special meeting, the school board had to petition the court. Once permission is granted, members will compile the information needed to present their case to residents of the four towns comprising the Newfound Area School District: New Hampton, Bristol, Alexandria and Danbury.