Metro’s board is continuing its austerity campaign, having a second round of cold sandwiches during executive sessions after a report in The Washington Examiner on hot lunches featuring salmon and steak.
During their Thursday meeting, the board members lunched on sandwiches and salad from Cosi as they discussed personnel, labor and contractual matters behind closed doors. They had 24 small Harris Teeter cookies, one $1.39 bag of chips and $5.39 worth of sodas, said Metro spokesman Dan Stessel.
The total was $182.44, which comes to $12.16 per person with 15 people eating.
The lunch was more expensive than the Oct. 13 meal of Corner Bakery sandwiches and salad that cost just over $9 per person.
But it’s less than the average $20.43 per serving that Metro spent on catered meals over 19 months. The Examiner reported on Oct. 2 that the board had spent more than $13,000 on lunches during its meetings with menus featuring red snapper, prime rib and salmon.
In 2006, after a Washington Post article about the board’s hot lunches, the transit agency promised to get cold sandwiches from D.C. Central Kitchen, a nonprofit caterer that gives job training to homeless people. But the board switched back to hot meals from a traditional caterer months later.
