Dear members of the ASF community –

 

It has come to my attention today that questions are circulating regarding the food services at ASF. Let me offer some clarification to this issue.

 

ASF typically signs multi-year contracts with our service providers. This ensures important stability for both the school and our valued partners. When these contracts come to an end, or when there is a material change in the status of a vendor, ASF policies and practices required that we conduct a new bidding process before issuing a new contract.

 

This was the case with our food services. Our current contract will conclude on December 31^st of this year. Therefore, we ran a bidding process last month for a new contract to begin on January 1^st of the coming year. Five companies were invited to participate in the process and four ultimately chose to do so. A sample group from the ASF community, including six students, six parents, and eight faculty members from across the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools, as well as a representative from the Parent Association, three coaches and two administrators, formed our jury pool.

 

The participating companies provided samples from their actual menu which were prepared on site and the jury pool completed surveys of nine questions regarding (a) company experience and service, (b) nutritional content, food quality and taste, (c) prices, (d) delivery time strategies, (e) staff image, and (f) additional question regarding each supplier. The results were tabulated and shared with each of the participating companies.

 

We are grateful to all who assisted in our bidding process and we look forward to welcoming a new provider in January. We will make a more formal announcement soon.

 

Sincerely yours,

Mark Iver Sylte, Executive Director