Cafateria Revolt in Chi-town

[zeitgeist]

Look at that steaming heap.




Then glance through the article and ask yourself, "Wouldn't you rather have a brown bag from home"?

Fernando Dominguez cut the figure of a young revolutionary leader during a recent lunch period at his elementary school.

"Who thinks the lunch is not good enough?" the seventh-grader shouted to his lunch mates in Spanish and English.

Dozens of hands flew in the air and fellow students shouted along: "We should bring our own lunch! We should bring our own lunch! We should bring our own lunch!"

Fernando waved his hand over the crowd and asked a visiting reporter: "Do you see the situation?"

At his public school, Little Village Academy on Chicago's West Side, students are not allowed to pack lunches from home. Unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria

{snip fair use}

Link to entire article>

Full disclosure:  I carried my brown bag lunch for all but the first two years of my schooling.  I also dated a school nutritionist.     

[JohnnyReb]

Doesn't matter either way...we're probabaly paying for his lunch.

The food could be better if "everyone" paid for their lunch. I never carried a lunch to school. We had a meat 2 or 3 veggies, roll/bisquit/corn bread, desert and milk for lunch every day. ...and it was good too.

[Karin]

That's supposed to be enchiladas up there.  WTF? 

[DumbAss Tanker]

That's supposed to be enchiladas up there.  WTF? 

Thanks, I was really wondering. 

It looks like the pic was taken at the end of the meal and there was other stuff given out, and that kid in the photo traded or gave away part of his, because the picture just shows what he didn't want (The alleged entree).  Kid next to him seems to have something in a bowl, and there seem to be banana peels visible on a couple of surrounding trays.

[Karin]

This story seems to be making a lot of waves today out there.  Here's what Proud2BeDUmb had to say:

proud2BlibKansan  (1000+ posts)        Mon Apr-11-11 01:31 PM
Response to Reply #9
17. Our lunches are lots better than they used to be.
 And what the school serves is ALWAYS better than what the kids bring from home. That is almost always hot chips and pop. 

ALWAYS.  And she plagairized the "hot chips and pop" from the article. 

[zeitgeist]

This story seems to be making a lot of waves today out there.  Here's what Proud2BeDUmb had to say:

ALWAYS.  And she plagairized the "hot chips and pop" from the article. 

Ooooh, good find Karin. I will have to go check that out later.   

[chitownchica]

This kind of thing just pisses me off.  Most of the food at my junior high wasn't fit to eat, so I took my lunch.  There were no choices when I was there,  although they changed that later on.  My high school didn't allow cokes to be sold from machines on campus until after school, so we drank sugar laden hawaiian punch during break and lunch. We also had open campus for lunch, so it didn't really matter. We could eat whatever we wanted. 

With Chicago's reputation, the principal is probably getting a percentage of the totals kicked back.  If this person really cared about nutrition, she wouldn't serve what is shown in that picture, or be so rigid in rules that students don't eat at all.

A rogue PB&J would find its way into my notebook if I were a student there

[compaqxp]

Alabama parents protested a school's rule that barred students from bringing any drinks from home, as ice water was provided at lunch. East Syracuse, New York schools have outlawed cupcakes and other desserts. And schools around the country have kicked out chocolate milk and soda vending machines. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin even showed up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with dozens of cookies to express her disdain for a debate in the state about recommending teachers limit the number of times per month the sugary treats are eaten in classroom birthday celebrations.

Tucson, Arizona's Children's Success Academy allows home-packed lunches--but only if nothing in them contains white flour, refined sugar, or other "processed" foods, the Arizona Republic reported in a story last year. The school has no cafeteria, so some parents told the paper they struggled to find foods to pack that meet the restrictions. Many schools ban fast food or other take-out meals.

Soon, cafeteria offerings across the country will all be healthier, whether students like it or not. Last year's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, calls for higher nutritional standards to serve the 32 million kids who eat lunch every day at school (most of whom qualify for free or reduced price lunches through a federal government program). For the first time, the USDA will set calorie limits for school lunches, and will recommend they contain more vegetables and whole grains, and less salt, USA Today reports. French fries should be replaced by vegetables and fruit, the guidelines say.

The bill also calls for stricter food safety checks on cafeteria food.

-LINK

 

[Ralph Wiggum]

proud2BlibKansan  (1000+ posts)        Mon Apr-11-11 01:31 PM
Response to Reply #9
17. Our lunches are lots better than they used to be.

Thanks to President 0bama!  Those Bush years we got nothing but dog food.
And what the school serves is ALWAYS better than what the kids bring from home. That is almost always hot chips and pop.  

Fixed.

[Karin]

With Chicago's reputation, the principal is probably getting a percentage of the totals kicked back.

  What's the word on the street, Chica?  (if you stop back here).

Tucson, Arizona's Children's Success Academy allows home-packed lunches--but only if nothing in them contains white flour, refined sugar, or other "processed" foods

WTF do they think is contained within institutional food??  For that matter, everything is processed except for a live, mooing cow or a clucking chicken.

I'm seeing this story everywhere.  I think it may be a tipping point.  Whose kid is this again? 

[chitownchica]

  What's the word on the street, Chica?  (if you stop back here).

WTF do they think is contained within institutional food??  For that matter, everything is processed except for a live, mooing cow or a clucking chicken.

I'm seeing this story everywhere.  I think it may be a tipping point.  Whose kid is this again? 

I read the original story yesterday, but haven't checked back today. Let me see what I can find.  One of the women interviewed (principal maybe) of a more affluent northside neighborhood said it was crazy and parents in her district would never allow that.  Yesterday's comments were solidly stacked against the idea.

[chitownchica]

Here's a funny comment:

petroliapete at 11:51 AM April 12, 2011

I remember my grandfather telling me he had to eat the lunch at school too. He didn't have a choice. Some guy named Stalin made them do it. (This is true)

Sheesh!!!

The soviet union lives on in Chicagoland. Where the leaders know what is good for you whether you like it or not... and you will obey.  This is absolutely necessary because parents are not responsible enough to make their own decisions and the state must do it for you, because after all, they know what is better for you than you do!!

До свидания (dasvidania) comrads!!!

[zeitgeist]

  What's the word on the street, Chica?  (if you stop back here).

WTF do they think is contained within institutional food??  For that matter, everything is processed except for a live, mooing cow or a clucking chicken.

I'm seeing this story everywhere.  I think it may be a tipping point.  Whose kid is this again? 

Dummies got a couple threads on this and I think I caught a brief mention of it on Limbaugh today when I was going up or down stairs.


I recently read an article ( a few weeks or so back ) about one of the local school districts springing for range fed beef for their burgers.  Lord knows we have some uber liberals around here.

As I mentioned earlier I once dated a school nutritionist from a very poor district. I know for a fact she was a fine cook as well as one who could skin a buffalo nickle, tan the hide, then use its bones for soup.  She told me on more than one occasion you don't get fine dining in a school cafeteria.  I found the same thing true in a Navy mess hall, and, what the Army served in their 'chow hall'  still defies description in my mind. I guess it was one way to keep the brown shoes out in the field and happy with MRE's.

What my 'um friend' strove for was a balanced meal at a reasonable price which could survive a steam line and not end up in the trash because the kids didn't want to eat it.  She constantly complained about the 'staff' being a challenge to her operation as well as her budget always being cut which forced the use of more 'government food' which she absolutely detested.  I know for a fact most of the kids in her school got free lunch.  It was a very poor area.  

[vesta111]

I watched  cooking show about 2 years ago that sent a nutritionist into one large elementary school in West Virginia to give advise to the schools about what they were feeding the kids for breakfast and lunch.

First thing she had to do was to get around the cooks in that school that did not take kindly to her ideas.  more work for them it seems.   She was aghast to find that breakfast for the kids was choice of cereal or Pizza, lunch Pizza or a hot dog or chicken wings. and the waste from uneaten meals or full pints of milk dumped in the garbage was huge.

She checked the labels on the meat products as in fried chicken wings and suggested they use fresh raw chicken and fry it themselves, no additives.     She checked the labels on the pre made rolls and buns and suggested they bake these things themselves with no additives.

 Up roar, feelings were hurt and some of the kitchen staff threatened to quit.    As they knew they were being filmed they did no violence to her but a few confrontations were most interesting.

She had been hired by the superendant of schools so her word was law, it seems that this district had the highest percentage of over weight kids in the State.

 She insured the kids had a choice of plain milk or chocolate milk, Pizza was a once a week choice for lunch, breakfasts were scrambled eggs and pancakes , or oatmeal with a slice of fruit.    Lunches she forbid buying frozen hamburger Patty's with preservatives, the kitchen had to make the hamburgers from fresh meat.   Hot dogs were also fresh not frozen.

She was there for 6 weeks and managed to infuriate the kitchen staff and the school board that had hired her.

When she managed to get out of town without being scalped, the food waste had gone down 1/4, the kids were loosing a bit of weight, the kitchen staff finally adjusted to having to cook for the kids not just reheat frozen food.   Her biggest hit was a small salad bar where kids could make their own lunch if they did not care for what was on the menu.   For the first week the idea was a flop, then adding boiled eggs, cottage cheese and some fruit, it took off with a bang, seems kids will eat salad when they have a choice of dressings in small packets. Kids have different tastes but there is all ways some thing the kids will eat.

 

[Karin]

There is nothing wrong with using frozen food.  Do you know how much waste that cuts down on?  Do you have any idea the cost of a food item remaining fresh-not-frozen from animal slaughter to plate?   The market will bear it in a gourmet restaurant, but taxpayers footing the bill to feed all these kids for free, not so much. 

Farm to slaughter to processing plant to distribution warehouse to school kitchen coolers.  All by truck, and not in anybody's backyard, either. 

And the cafeteria ladies really had to make all that bread and buns from scratch?  Come on.  We might do that with our own loving hands for our own families, but for a bunch of rugrats who don't know or care?   Commercial bakeries exist for a reason. 

[vesta111]

There is nothing wrong with using frozen food.  Do you know how much waste that cuts down on?  Do you have any idea the cost of a food item remaining fresh-not-frozen from animal slaughter to plate?   The market will bear it in a gourmet restaurant, but taxpayers footing the bill to feed all these kids for free, not so much. 

Farm to slaughter to processing plant to distribution warehouse to school kitchen coolers.  All by truck, and not in anybody's backyard, either. 

And the cafeteria ladies really had to make all that bread and buns from scratch?  Come on.  We might do that with our own loving hands for our own families, but for a bunch of rugrats who don't know or care?   Commercial bakeries exist for a reason. 

      The point of the story WAS THIS ONE SCHOOL HAD THE LARGEST OVER WEIGHT LITTLE KIDS IN THE STATE.  The kids were eating crap , the cooks were too lazy to deavate from the old way of cooking food not just defrosting it

 :fuelfire

This woman came in out of the blue and told them to start earning their pay, actually cook for the kids. Anyone can defrost tons of food for others, these cooks were State workers and had a bit of a problem with actually cooking for others.  They had no intention to do more then they had to, why peel potatoes when blocks of frozen potatoes were delivered and the additives filled up half the sticker.

 Whats this shit about rug rats not knowing the difference in baked goods or care----What you think young kids leave their taste buds at home before they go to school?

Kids are kids say you have a kid that you have allowed to become a pickie eater,   yes the parents allow this behaviror  , what happens when the child is grown , and they for business reasons have to leave the meat, potato and green bean society to face Turnips.???

[CG6468]

It begins at home:"Eat what's on your plate or leave the table until the next meal."

[vesta111]

It begins at home:"Eat what's on your plate or leave the table until the next meal."

No it don't begin at home, it begins with kids being fed 2 meals of crap 5 days a week.

You can control what your kids are eating at home, but you cannot controll the 10 meals they get out of the home.  Kids can ditch anything they would have had to eat at home and the parents were no wiser.

For kids that do not like white whole milk, are they given a choice of chocolate milk they will drink ??

Give a kid a choice and they will eat Pizza for breakfast, take that away and give them pancakes with scrambled eggs.

Instead of greasy fried chicken wings why not give the kids a choice of soup and a grilled cheese sandwitch with a side of radishes, cucumber .

Remember the kids are only given 30 minutes for lunch--from the time the lunch bell rings to go to the bathroom, walk to the Caff. stand in line to get the food, find a place to sit and now they have to scarf up their food until the all over bell rings and they have to hot foot it to their next class so as not to be late.

Not all kids are fast eaters, those that do find all kinds of problems from gulping food, heart burn to belly pain, ore worse that feeling of being tired after a meal some of us get after we bold holiday turkey and all the fixings--we just want to go to sleep.


The huge amount of waste of food is to my mind the kids not having time enough to relax and eat it, then have a few moments to digest the food before having to run for the next class.

[Gina]

A rogue PB&J would find its way into my notebook if I were a student there

that could lead to a sticky situation

[CG6468]

No it don't begin at home, it begins with kids being fed 2 meals of crap 5 days a week.

You can control what your kids are eating at home, but you cannot controll the 10 meals they get out of the home.  Kids can ditch anything they would have had to eat at home and the parents were no wiser.

For kids that do not like white whole milk, are they given a choice of chocolate milk they will drink ??

Give a kid a choice and they will eat Pizza for breakfast, take that away and give them pancakes with scrambled eggs.

Instead of greasy fried chicken wings why not give the kids a choice of soup and a grilled cheese sandwitch with a side of radishes, cucumber .

Remember the kids are only given 30 minutes for lunch--from the time the lunch bell rings to go to the bathroom, walk to the Caff. stand in line to get the food, find a place to sit and now they have to scarf up their food until the all over bell rings and they have to hot foot it to their next class so as not to be late.

Not all kids are fast eaters, those that do find all kinds of problems from gulping food, heart burn to belly pain, ore worse that feeling of being tired after a meal some of us get after we bold holiday turkey and all the fixings--we just want to go to sleep.


The huge amount of waste of food is to my mind the kids not having time enough to relax and eat it, then have a few moments to digest the food before having to run for the next class.

So all the training and education parents supply at home means nothing to kids. And all the wasted food in the country is because kids don't have time to eat it? On what planet do you reside?

Ore worse? What the hell does that mean? Please learn to write something intelligently. Spell check? Nah....

[chitownchica]

that could lead to a sticky situation

 

[vesta111]

So all the training and education parents supply at home means nothing to kids. And all the wasted food in the country is because kids don't have time to eat it? On what planet do you reside?

Ore worse? What the hell does that mean? Please learn to write something intelligently. Spell check? Nah....

Inner city kids get training at home????    We are talking about schools where the parents do not or can not get up early to feed their kids.   Home made sandwitches are not something parents will think about making for the kids---what Planet do you live on.

We do not live in the day of kids living with both parents and the father works and Mom stays home to tend house and attend parent teachers meetings, PTA meetings or even show up for something their child is involved in, unless drunk and have no idea what is going on.

Give me a break here, where are the parents of kids that join gangs, leave school to deal drugs, their only interest is each child brings in more money from welfare and are tax deductable.  Parents training their children to anything but get potty trained is the end of their training.

Come to think about it I remember from my childhood friends that had a Mom at home and still they received no breakfast or lunch from them, money had nothing to do with it, their Mom was hungover every morning from the night before at the Country Club.

It really doesn't matter the economy or the loss of a father figure in the home, rich or poor kids need to be fed and this does not come with a certificate that they have at 8-10 been trained in nutrition, manors or deportment.

[Karin]

I still want to see you make 800+ hamburger buns from scratch, all in time for lunch. 

I don't know any kid who would eat a side of radishes.  No adults, either.  Talk about food ending up in the dumpster!

Back to the OP, Rasmussen has a poll today that says 93% disapprove of this school's ban. 

[vesta111]

I still want to see you make 800+ hamburger buns from scratch, all in time for lunch. 

I don't know any kid who would eat a side of radishes.  No adults, either.  Talk about food ending up in the dumpster!

Back to the OP, Rasmussen has a poll today that says 93% disapprove of this school's ban. 

Karen I would think you never worked a kitchen that feeds the military, the prisons  or a down town burger joint in NYC.   

Few schools would  not need to bake that much as with the variety of food not all students will order something with a bun.----The school in the documentary had 300 students,  It had 6 cooks that were not doing more then defrosting food and feed it to the kids.

Would you run a restaurant. this way????

One worker comes in 2 hours early and begins making the rolls buns and bread. Then they clean up their station and begin to do prep work for lunch. Sets up condiments and plates and plastic eating utensils, napkins etc. Sets out buckets of ice with milk or juice.

Second worker comes in later and begins to make and mix up eggs, and mix up batter for pancakes, put out boxes of cereal or even make oatmeal.  then check out the supplies for lunch and make  the hamburgers needed, slice ham or prepare for baloney sandwitches and soup.

Third  worker comes in and sets out the warming pans, for the food,  and prepare to cook the meat , chicken or even hotdogs later.  This worker will need to do the prep work for the tomatoes lettuce onions etc.

Breakfast starts at 7:30 and the 3 workers have been there since 5:30 and 6 am. , school starts 30 minutes later and lunch is at 11 Am. --------The workers now have 3 hours to cook and prepare for lunch. clean the room and kitchen, take inventory of food on hand and get lunch ready.

So when lunch is over at 11:30 they work for an hour cleaning up, pots and pans and go home by 12:30pm. They   can work very easily for less then about 8  hours a day and feed hundreds, if they work as a team.-------Don't forget these workers are usually under the teachers union as school workers.

So we so far can do the job with no problem with 3 cooks, what are the other 3 workers doing, the original cooks in the documentry  that got my pants in a twist

Karin, I took a large bowl to a cook out filled with sliced radishes , cumbers and diced tomatoes, to a teens birthday party.  The kids emptied the bowl in 20 minutes, the kids did like radishes and seldom got them at home. Their parents did not like them but the kids loved them.

[Karin]

I own and operate a popular takeout joint, Vesta.  Your schedule up there is not realistic, especially ending the workday with only one hour of cleanup.  You also forgot to account for the time, temperature, and space yeast requires to rise.  The local Alteri Brothers bakery supplies me just fine, and has the expertise to do so cost-effectively.  You know nothing of economics, especially that of the food business.