The CHMS Food Committee announced on Mar. 11 that new lunch options will soon be added to the cafeteria menu following a successful student taste-test event.
The update comes after students from each grade at Clarendon Hills Middle School sampled potential new menu items and provided feedback to Sandy Bazeluk, the school’s food service director from Quest Food Service. The committee said the response was very positive, with students showing strong support for the tested foods. As a result, Quest and Hinsdale Community Consolidated School District 181 plan to add all of the tested items to the regular cafeteria offerings in the coming weeks.
Hinsdale Community Consolidated School District 181 includes schools in DuPage and Cook counties such as Clarendon Hills Middle School, Elm Elementary School, Hinsdale Middle School, Madison Elementary School, Monroe Elementary School, Oak Elementary School, Prospect Elementary School, The Lane Elementary School, and Walker School according to Illinois Report Card. The district enrolled 3,743 students during the 2019-2020 school year and serves grades pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade according to Illinois Report Card.
The district has a diverse student body: it is made up of 69.8 percent White students, 1.1 percent Black students, 6.8 percent Hispanic students, and 15.4 percent Asian students according to Illinois Report Card. There are 282 teachers in the district earning an average salary of $94,227 before pension contributions; ninety percent are women and ten percent are men. No teachers had more than ten absences in a school year according to Illinois Report Card.
In terms of spending and attendance data, Hinsdale Community Consolidated School District 181 spent $31,308 per student in 2020 for a total expenditure of $117 million according to Illinois Report Card. The district reported four chronically truant students during that year—a rate of just 0.1 percent—compared with a statewide average of 9.6 percent according to Illinois Report Card.
District officials say they look forward to introducing these new menu choices soon.
