Exeter-West Greenwich Schools

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• Catering Services

Special Info

• District Calendar
• District Web Site
• Model Nutrition Policy
• Community Resources

The Sodexo Difference for 2009/10

There can be no tradition without innovation. 
—Earle Hitchner

If you’ll all take your seats, we’ll begin.

Welcome back, one and all, to another school year and all its challenges, promises, and rewards.  Once again we renew our commitments to expand our knowledge of the world around us, to understand the past and prepare for the future, and to enliven our minds, fortify our bodies, and enrich our spirits.

All of us at Sodexo are honored that you’ve chosen us once again to prepare and serve the meals that will nourish our children during the school day. 

What’s more, we accept the responsibility to meet the economic challenges of our time by implementing a three-part service strategy that encompasses

• Global Resources
• Statewide Efficiency
• Local Control

Think of it this way: Sodexo’s global presence brings nearly unlimited human and financial resources to the most efficient statewide purchase and distribution of products and services that always will be controlled by the local districts we ultimately serve.

Here is a small sampling of what we’ve accomplished working together for the Exeter-West Greenwich district

• Sodexo established in our district, “Crossroads,” the first such innovative marketing program in Rhode Island that added new recipes featuring fresh baked pizza and student-friendly meat choices.  This effort was so successful that all of Sodexo’s Rhode Island clients followed Exeter-West Greenwich’s lead.
• We are “going green” with all our cleaning chemicals.
• We chose our district to host multi-district Sodexo employee training in equipment handling, personal safety, and extended HACCP.
• We have supported the recent bond meetings for walking path and athletic field upgrades.
• We have donated staff and food for pasta dinners, fashion shows, and ice cream socials.
• Our district’s employees participated in a northeast culinary competition in which they demonstrated their unique talents in food preparation.
• Sodexo employees have volunteered for all-night lock-down dances and participated in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk-a-Thon held annually at Roger Williams Park.

As for the future, we have great plans that are poised to be implemented this year”

• Sodexo will institute an upscale high school menu that includes grilled Panini and personalized pizzas and calzones.
• We will install a made-to-order deli bar in the middle school.
• We will institute nutrition education in the elementary school.
• We will meet new nutrition requirements that go into effect in September, 2009.
• Sodexo will create a new catering menu to meet the needs of administration and faculty.

In short, we’ll work together to preserve and expand our tradition of excellence – one that is founded upon the relentless pursuit of innovation.

And speaking of innovation, we are very pleased indeed to welcome you to our newly re-conceived website, www.sodexori.com.

These pages represent what we like to think of as a work in and about progress.  Over the school year we’ll be offering a blend of tried-and-true functions and all new, cutting-edge applications.

Our website already serves as your primary source for essential information about menu selections, nutrition, community resources, calendar events, and a full range of municipal services and happenings.  And that’s just for starters.

This will be a truly interactive and educational website.  We expect lively contributions of ideas and content from administrators, faculty, staff, students, and parents.  Thanks to the Internet’s global reach, the people, places, histories, and values of the cities and towns served by Sodexo will become familiar to people from the farthest corners of the world.

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When it comes to eating right and exercising, there is not “I’ll start tomorrow.”  Tomorrow is a disease.  – V. L. Allineare

Let’s get the ball rolling.  As some of you may know, Rhode Island has implemented new nutrition requirements (RINR) for all public schools.  Sodexo applauds these standards, and we remain committed to meeting and even exceeding them.

Here’s what to expect: 

A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.
—George Bernard Shaw

It’s time to get to work.  So we’ll conclude this Welcome Back message by recalling what we believe is the most revealing aspect of our service to the community.

Sodexo did not come into our state.  Sodexo comes out of Rhode Island.

 This inescapable truth may be expressed simply:

• The overwhelming majority of Sodexo employees live where they work.
• Most were born where they work.
• Most own or rent homes where they work.
• And most have children enrolled in the schools where they work.

Sodexo has called Rhode Island home for close to 20 years.  When our partnership began, no one could have predicted with any degree of certainty the social, economic, and cultural changes that would impact our lives so powerfully over the next two decades.  All we could know with confidence then was that significant, systemic change would take place and that, working together, we would spare no effort or expense to guide our youth and indeed our communities safely through whatever lay in store.

Our hands are on the helm.  Our course is true.

Let the work – and the fun – continue!