High School Cafeteria Faces Competition From Unregulated Store On Same Site

The onsite cafeteria at Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington, VT, is getting competition from the Southwest Vermont Career Development Center store, which is located in the same complex but is not governed by National School Lunch rules against competitive foods.

The onsite cafeteria at Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington, VT, is getting competition from the Southwest Vermont Career Development Center store, which is located in the same complex but is not governed by National School Lunch rules against competitive foods, reports the Bennington Banner. The technical school shares a building with the high school but it is its own district and supervisory union. The store is similar to the interior of a variety store but while it stopped selling soda a few years ago, it continues to sell items like candy bars, cinnamon buns, cookies, candies, chocolates and chips. The extensive story notes that at least two other high schools in the state same similar issues.

Discuss this Article 2

Anonymous (not verified)
on Oct 1, 2012

I would love to track the sales numbers of the regulated vs. unregulated operatons during the same period and compare those to the unregulated past years.

Anonymous (not verified)
on Oct 29, 2012

I have been faced with a similar problem at all three of my High Schools. I was able to survive in the past, but this year I have really felt the impact of the outside competition. I have one school that made $300,000.00 from sales this past year. I know that the money is put in the school's General Fund account that can be used for the students. I am trying to be very creative with my menus to try to get my customers back to eating. I had one High School that fed 77% of the students for lunch last September. This September that school's participation rate for lunch dropped to 57%. My Federal Reimbursement dropped $80,000.00 from last year to this year for the month of September. I am hoping that things will get better for the month of November.

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