Most students in Richmond elementary schools started receiving hot meals on Monday, just hours before the Richmond School Board met and voted unanimously to rescind the $12.9 million food contract awarded during the summer to Illinois-based Preferred Meals to provide breakfast and lunch.

While the board’s decision appeared to be a response to parental anger over the poor quality of the meals their children have been served, the decision was forced largely after the board was notified that the contract issued by Richmond Public Schools was so badly botched that the school system could lose millions of dollars in federal reimbursement for the meals it provides.

The School Board first learned about the contract issue a few days before the meeting through a memo from Superintendent Jason Kamras that was obtained by the Free Press.

In it, he disclosed the contract “did not articulate the correct sodium levels and did not include standard legal classes” that the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires in order for school districts to be reimbursed through the National School Lunch Program.

“As a result, our application for reimbursement has not yet been approved,” Mr. Kamras stated in the memo.

He urged the board to rescind the contract and allow the administration to “reissue the request for proposals,” which it did. That would not bar Preferred Meals, a major institutional meals provider that has contracts with other school districts, from competing for the new contract.

As Mr. Kamras noted, the company was the only “qualified” company to respond to the original solicitation.

At this point, the administration indicated that Preferred Meals has been paid about $100,000 for the meals it has served.

As RPS gears up to begin delivering hot meals at all middle schools and high schools on Monday, Oct. 25, Mr. Kamras issued a mea culpa to the board, noting “there were several missteps in both the Procurement Department and the School Nutrition Services Department.”

He promised “corrective action” after undertaking a “more thorough assessment.”

Mr. Kamras did not mention the role the school system’s legal counsel, Jonnell P. Lilly of the Harrell and Chambliss law firm, might have played. Standard practice in most government operations is for procurement documents and contracts to receive a legal review before being issued.

It is not clear how the contract with Preferred Meals could have failed to include the language USDA requires or the standards for sodium that are in the federal regulations governing student meals.

Mr. Kamras also did not mention that the Virginia Department of Education, which, among other things, monitors school districts to ensure they are meeting USDA standards to qualify for reimbursement, repeatedly had warned RPS to take action regarding the meals it was serving.

In a story first reported by NBC12, VDOE sent repeated emails, including one notifying RPS that cereals with sugar content in excess of USDA standards were being served for breakfast.

The VDOE emails show that RPS was notified that the lunches did not include enough vegetables and that impermissible juice was being used to replace actual vegetables.

While all nine School Board members supported the new direction, including the RFP re-issuance, the vote came three weeks after five board members shot down an effort by board member Mariah White, 2nd District, to rescind the Preferred Meals contract and start over.

The opponents included Liz B. Doerr, 1st District, who had championed creation of an advisory panel to ensure that students were getting proper nutrition in their school meals.

As the Free Press reported in its Sept. 30-Oct. 2 edition, Mr. Kamras also allowed the RPS personnel office to put the hiring of part-time employees to fill vacant cafeteria slots on the back burner.

Since schools reopened on Sept. 8, parents have been loudly critical of RPS for failing to provide appropriate school meals. School Board members have heard plenty about the poor nutritional quality and the huge amount of food that students just threw away.

Mr. Kamras told the board that the new solicitation would require the winning bidder to meet USDA standards for school meals.

Ms. White is hopeful that change is coming, but she is remorseful that it has taken so long.

“My heart goes out to our children because this is a basic need for them to be fed, to be fed to help with learning,” she said at Monday’s meeting. “And it was not met, and it’s still not met.”