SCS may ship frozen foods from Jackson warehouse

Shelby County Schools is in negotiations to rent a warehouse facility in Jackson to temporarily store frozen food for school lunches, which would be shipped twice daily to Memphis for at least six months.

Beth Phalen, the district’s new chief of business operations, told the board’s facilities committee Tuesday that no sites in Memphis have enough space and the technical ability to drop the temperature to minus-10 degrees. Facilities as far away as Batesville, Arkansas, were a possibility before her team located the Jackson facility, she said.

While the deal isn’t done, the cost is expected to be $310,500 for six months and includes space rental and shipping costs. There would be an option for an additional six months if needed.

Board member Billy Orgel, facilities committee chairman, said the price is more than $200,000 cheaper than any facility found in Memphis.

The rental would be temporary while the district demolishes the existing Central Nutrition Center facility on Jackson Avenue. The building was evacuated just before the start of the school year after an architect inspecting the roof found major structural issues. The freezer section of the building is unaffected and can be preserved as the rest of the building is demolished.

But since storing food in a construction zone isn’t an option, the district began researching other spaces to use in the meantime.

Some board members expressed concern that if a truck is coming from as far as 90 miles away, bad traffic could mean students wouldn’t get their lunch.

Phalen said schools should have at least three to four days’ worth of food on hand, so traffic delays shouldn’t be an issue.

But both Shante Avant and Stephanie Love said they’ve received complaints that lunches aren’t always that wellstocked. In August the district moved dry good storage to a facility on Gray’s Creek Road in Arlington and food preparation to the recently closed Northside High School.

Board members also said they’d prefer to use a Tennessee facility over one in another state, even if it had to be in Jackson.

“Keep Tennessee tax dollars in Tennessee,” board member Mike Kernell said.

The district has yet to decide how to move forward with a permanent solution for the nutrition center, which had repair costs estimated as high as $50 million. Orgel said the district is seeking bids for demolition of the facility while exploring the options for building new or renovating an existing facility.

Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer.pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet.