Lincoln Public Schools is looking to make the switch from carrying a variety of beverage brands, like Pepsi, to solely offering Coca-Cola products.
Chesterman Co. would become the district’s new single-source provider for Coca-Cola products under a proposed agreement before the Lincoln Board of Education. Chesterman would also make a large donation to fund a new facility at LPS under the agreement.
If the proposal is approved, Chesterman will begin providing Coke products to all vending machines and concession stands across the district at the start of the 2024-25 school year for a period of 15 years.
Chesterman, which is based in Sioux City, Iowa, owns the Coca-Cola bottling operations in Lincoln, Omaha and several other Nebraska cities.
Currently, LPS does not have a contract with any distributor, allowing the district to carry competing brands, such as Pepsi.
Beverages will cost the same amount across the district, ranging from 75 cents to $2.50 depending on the item. Prices are set to increase slightly every few years.
Included in the agreement is a $1 million donation from Chesterman, which would make the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools one step closer to building a brand new training facility at Lincoln Northwest High School.
The donation, which will be paid in $200,000 installments over a five-year period, will go toward supporting the Fielding Dreams Campaign.
The foundation has been working to raise money for several years to build championship-level sports facilities at both Northwest and Standing Bear for use by the whole community, and to upgrade existing facilities by adding turf, lights, scoreboards and grandstands for tennis, football, softball, baseball and soccer.
Chesterman’s donation will likely be used to help build a training facility near Union Bank Stadium at Northwest that will be equipped with locker rooms and more, according to Wendy Van, foundation president.
“Right now those kids at halftime have to sit in the end zones, basically, to talk to the coach, or it's quite a walk back up to Northwest High School to use the restrooms,†Van said. “There's just not enough locker facilities to support all of the activities that are going on at Northwest.â€
The new training facility would help solve that problem, she said. However, the foundation is still working to fundraise about $1 million more to build it.
“We are inches away,†Van said.
Chesterman did not request naming rights to the facility in the agreement with LPS, and Van said the foundation is still searching for a donor to fulfill that need.
In total, the campaign needs $33 million to complete the project. LPS allocated about $15.5 million of 2020 bond issue dollars to the campaign, leaving the foundation to cover the remaining $17 million.
So far, the foundation has fully funded the completion of the football stadium at Northwest and a tennis facility at Standing Bear and has raised about $6 million.
The Lincoln Board of Education will vote on the agreement at its Jan. 9 meeting.