School food contract set

LYNN – School lunches will look familiar for Lynn Public School students this fall as Preferred Meal Systems will return for another year as the public school’s food service provider.Preferred Meal Systems has provided food service to the city’s public school children for the better part of a decade, and the new contract could keep the company in the city for another three years.The company’s latest contract with the city expired July 1 of this year, meaning the School Department was required to publicly post the contract and accept bids through the month of July.According to Lynn Purchasing Director Charles White, Preferred Meal Systems’ $4 million bid was the only offer made to the city by the Aug. 1 deadline.”It is a very specialized business, there aren’t many other services around. We had some interest shown by another company here in town, but I don’t think they were able to get everything together in time,” said White. “Preferred Meals has an in too because all of their equipment is there and they have been doing it in the city for so long.”White confirmed that the contract is for one year at $4 million with a city option for the next two years, meaning if all goes well the city can renew the contract for 2009-10 and 2010-11 without putting the contract out to bid again.The food service contract is the only open bid in the Lynn Public Schools this summer.The other local food service business in the running was Sidekim Foods, located on Sanderson Avenue in Lynn. The upstart company, run by Lynn native and former head of Boston’s Meals on Wheels service Peter Mikedis, is attempting to establish itself as a healthy, local and all-natural food service alternative.Sidekim entered into an agreement with the KIPP Academy Lynn charter school earlier this year to provide lunch for that school, and Mikedis said in April he hoped to enter a bid for the public school food service this summer. He acknowledged at the time that his chances for winning the bid this year were slim, but said he realistically hoped to become the city’s new food service provider when the contract comes up again, most likely in three years.Calls placed to Mikedis Tuesday afternoon were not immediately returned. Superintendent Nicholas Kostan and School Business Administrator Kevin McHugh were unavailable for comment Tuesday.