A recent advance by an outside vendor to manage the Warren County R-III School District's food services program has sent shock waves through lunchrooms where food services director Lorie Crawford and her 42-member staff feed students from kindergarten through high school. During the Feb. 11 board meeting - packed with women from the lunch program - school officials confirmed that Opaa Food Management, a Missouri-based school food service vendor, approached the district about managing the district's lunch program. Opaa, which has contracts with other districts throughout the state, asserts that it can manage the program at a cost advantage for the school while bringing additional food and beverage variety to the program. At the board meeting and in subsequent discussions with staff, Superintendent John Long and board president Dale Schowe stated that for the near-term no changes to the existing program are being considered, but left the door open for a closer examination into Opaa's proposal as part of a larger bid process at a later date. Under any potential contract with an outside vendor, district officials said, current staff would stay on as employees of the district, but as workers leave, positions likely would be replaced with employees who would work for the vendor. "Consideration of proposals from outside vendors does not reflect negatively on the quality of our existing program, but for due-diligence purposes, it's something we have a duty to at least look into when there may be considerable financial implications," said Pam Frazier, the district's chief financial officer. That outsiders would be considered to oversee the nutritional care and feeding of the district's more than 3,000 students is worrisome for Crawford and the sizable staff that plans, prepares, serves and cleans up after breakfasts and lunches. Crawford said her department has overhauled the food program over the past several years to focus on healthy, low-fat meals that have won praise from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in numerous on-site audits. "We've actually been delivering for years on what first lady Michelle Obama is making her mission now - feeding our kids more nutritional and lower fat foods to address childhood obesity and improved health," said Crawford, who has worked for the district's food service program for 20 years and managed it for the last 14 years. The staff has eliminated fried foods and high calorie offerings and cut down on recipes that call for salt, sugar and other unhealthy ingredients, replacing them with foods made from whole grains, fresh fruits and lighter fare, she said. Hot dogs and bologna are turkey-based and salad dressings are low-calorie. They also have introduced kids to 1 percent white, strawberry and chocolate milk, which Crawford notes are widely popular. Each school has a staff baker who makes wheat rolls and healthy snacks from scratch, she notes. "Our theme is to offer kids more and more healthy choices," said Crawford, noting the recent addition of a sub sandwich bar and the elimination of unhealthy items like doughnuts. The district has some experience with outside food services vendors. The district contracted with the Canteen company in the late 1980s. Many of the current staff were there at the time and recall the situation as difficult and overly regimented. The financial argument for contracting with an outside vendor strikes the workers as questionable, since they argue that the service has largely operated in the black, with money in the bank for equipment upgrades and repairs as needed. For the time being, the prospect of a change in management of the school's food service program is unsettling for employees who worry that their hours may be cut or that the level of the program - in quality and choices - may be compromised. "We take a lot of pride in our food and our ability to give our children a good, nutritious meal," says employee Pamela Garrett in a letter to The Record advocating for keeping things as they are. "We all want to do what's best for our students in providing a wholesome food program, and for the people who have served good food to our students for years," Schowe said.