Expired milk, frozen sandwiches and undercooked burgers for school lunches anger parents

[left-of-center2012]

Parents in Woodbridge, N.J., say their children are being served frozen sandwiches, uncooked hamburgers and expired milk for lunch in school. Dozens of parents say Chartwells School Dining Services— the school district’s food service provider — has provided lunches the first week-plus of the school years that are sometimes moldy, soggy, frozen or flat-out inadequate.

“The first day of school my older son got home and said ‘mom I’m starving, I didn’t eat,’” Kristi Salzano, who has one son in Woodbridge Middle School and one in Ross Street School, said. “I said, ‘what happened?’ He said my turkey sandwich was frozen. And then I go on (Facebook) and come to find the barrage of moms complaining that there were days when their kids didn’t get food or the food they got was inedible.” One day this week, the meal offering at an elementary school in the township was goldfish crackers and a muffin, she said.

Chartwell has come under fire in the past. In 2014, students at a Connecticut high school boycotted Chartwells’ food after photos showed
lunches that contained mold, human hair, undercooked meats, insects and or tiny portion sizes.

Chartwells sent the district a letter which was shared with parents. “We recognize that over the past few days there were a few instances where we didn’t meet the expectations of all of our students and families. We want you to know that we’ve had a chance to work with the administration to make additional adjustments to our meal service and menus, which will be in place before the end of next week.”

Woodbridge Superintendent Dr. Joseph Massimino, meanwhile, said the district is in contact with Chartwells and expects better for its more than 13,700 students in 25 schools across the sprawling township.

https://www.pennlive.com/nation-world/2021/09/expired-milk-frozen-sandwiches-undercooked-burgers-anger-parents-in-this-school-district.html

[marmar]

1. Meanwhile, in France.....

[burrowowl]

4. The best school meals ever!

[jimfields33]

14. We took our lunches to school all 12 years

We had no lunchroom. Ate at our desks. Worked beautifully. This was late 80’s.

[LanternWaste]

24. Many students are unable to

and a critical responsibility of a government, local or national is to provide for the least among us. But good for you! You got yours!

[jimfields33]

32. Brava!!!!

[dsc]

28. I wonder if the poor students in your school felt that way

or the teachers who wound up not having duty free lunches. Teachers with extreme planning periods could wind up waiting 6 hours or so between bathroom stops.

[jimfields33]

33. Nope. Not at all.

[spooky3]

29. Article on French lunches makes a good point - that

One key reason to provide really good food for kids is to train them to like this food rather than tater tots.

https://karenlebillon.com/french-school-lunch-menus/

[LiberatedUSA]

34. Damn!

That is some 5-star cafeteria food!

[LiberalFighter]

42. I see meat, green beans on the plate. What is the other item?

[Treefrog]

44. Wow!

I used to brown bag my lunch even back in the day.

[MineralMan]

2. I remember the school cafeteria at my high school in the early 1960s.

There were people in the kitchen actually making the food we ate from scratch. It wasn't gourmet cuisine, but it was good, all the same.

I guess that's no longer economical or something?

[Budi]

3. Same here. They made what most of us ate at home. Same recipe, from scratch.

We were truly a fortunate generation in many ways that have long since been sold to advertising & marketing & profit.

Sucks.

[MineralMan]

11. Yes. It was very similar to my own mother's cooking.

The cafeteria was equipped with full-scale industrial kitchen equipment and had a staff of about 12 cooks and assistants.

They baked biscuits on some days, made huge quantities of spaghetti and meat sauce and hundreds of hamburgers on burger day. There were salads, bread, an entrée and side dishes at every lunch serving. Again, it wasn't world-class in quality and some kids complained about it, but it was good all the same.

I gobbled it all up as a growing teenager. You could even go through the line twice and get seconds if you wanted. I wanted.

[Budi]

15. When did it change? 80's? Just curious.

[haele]

20. 1970's. School districts were under fire, so they cut the cafeteria d

And went to ready-made vendor food with the occasional quick to throw together pre-prepped "TV dinner" portions or soup pot for kids that wanted hot lunches.
Everything had to be able to be set out by a minimum wage part-time, contract worker, or school volunteer.
Salad bars were pretty much the only food that was actually prepped, but later when bagged salad fixings became available for "industrial cafeterias" - like prisons - even that went to pre-packaged.

Haele

[Budi]

21. Institutionalization. For profiteers.

🤨

[MineralMan]

23. Yes, I think it started about then, and accelerated in the 90s.

I remember a child of a friend of mine telling me about her school lunches. At that time, schools were contracting with places like Taco Bell. The food was delivered on a truck, and then served pretty much as is to the kids.

It sounds like it has degenerated to food made by the lowest bidder on an industrial scale.

Here's something else I remember from my high school cafeteria: Our teachers were required to eat lunch there, too. They went through the same line we did right along with the students, but had their own area for eating it. That was part of the quality control system. My mom worked as a cashier in the cafeteria during the lunch hour, and she ate the stuff, too.

Most of the cafeteria ladies (all were women) actually had students attending the same school as well. It was a small town. The high school had about 600 total students, and at least 400 of those ate cafeteria lunch every day. It was quite an operation, actually.

[dixiechiken1]

6. Yup, school cafeteria pizza from my youth...

Is *still* some of the best pizza I've ever had! 😋

[LiberatedUSA]

35. Stromboli for me.

The small elementary school I went to fixed most of their food and the Stromboli was so good, that I’ve never had any that has lived up to what I remember.

[Totally Tunsie]

43. In high school, we used to comment that the pizza

looked like roadkill, but DAMN it was good! I still remember it, but have never been able to duplicate it.

[GPV]

10. Covid changed a lot of things. I know many schools were already doing this, but ours started doing

more pre-made single serve stuff in wrappers, including PBJs. And the amount of plastic containers we threw out last year, my god!

[MineralMan]

13. Oh, the outsourcing of school cafeteria food started long before COVID.

That isn't the explanation.

[GPV]

16. No, the explanation is someone isn't doing their job. How hard is it to maintain

minimum standards?

[aocommunalpunch]

19. No, it's just a race to the bottom.

Almost like corruption stops the watchers and regulators from being more stringent. Those that get the contracts get away with whatever they can, face little to no consequences, and the cycle repeats.

[LisaM]

27. Yes. Same here.

Mashed potatoes with real butter on them, the best apple crisp I've ever had, pretty good food. Cooked by school employees, many of whom were related to the kids in the school.

[obamanut2012]

31. Same in my HS in the 80s

They made the food every day -- it was only okay, but it was food, and they had great Italian-style subs every other day to buy, and the homemade pizza was Wednesday and was good, and they had homemade fish and chips every Friday during Lent.

[mainer]

36. Meatloaf! Roast turkey!

I attended California public schools in the 60s, and I miss those school lunches. I've tried all my adult life to re-create that meatloaf.

[MineralMan]

38. At my school, the meatloaf had rolled oats, like regular

Quaker oats, mixed in with the meat and other ingredients, instead of bread crumbs. I think that was part of the secret.

I've made that style of meatloaf a few times myself, and it seems similar. I also remember seeing big bottles of Worcestershire sauce back there when I delivered cans of fresh milk to the cafeteria from the local dairy. I use that in my meatloaf recipe, too.

[mainer]

40. I may try the oats, thanks.

I vaguely recall bits of chopped celery, too. It was really moist, and the gravy and mashed potatoes were divine.

[MineralMan]

41. Add them to the meat mixture uncooked, if you try them.

They'll cook as the meatloaf does, with the meat juices as the liquid. I also add some diced carrots, celery, and onion to my meat loaf recipe. Also one raw egg, to be mixed in with the meat as a binder. Some garlic salt and Italian seasoning mix, as well. The Worchestershire sauce (about a tablespoon) is also mixed in. Comes out great, every time. If you want to doll it up a little bit, you can add some raw pork sausage or ground lamb to the meat mix.

My mom used to make a trough in the half-filled meat loaf pan and put peeled hard boiled eggs in there, and then fill in the pan with the meat mixture. Then, when you sliced the meatloaf, there the egg would be. Surprise!

The gravy was probably made with concentrated Beef Base. Here's a brand you can find at Target and other Supermarkets:

[ProfessorGAC]

37. Same Here, Early 70s

The cafeteria food was always quite good.
And, they had a donut machine, so there were fresh cake donuts with a dusting a cinnamon/sugar.
Freshman & sophomores weren't allowed in there in the mornings, so everyone waited for their junior year where we could get those donuts made 10 minutes before.

[Wingus Dingus]

5. Contracted out to lowest bidder--substandard Slop in their Joes.

[pennylane100]

7. I remember at my convent school we were served lunch by a very old, very french nun.

On days when dessert was a sweet bun, she ran around with a tray of them, addressing each student individually saying "half or whole". that school was really cheap.

[onethatcares]

8. ahh, the sweet smell of privatization

how ya gonna turn a profit it you actually have to furnish a decent product? As the story goes, government is not the solution, government is the problem.



This is the same story everywhere, schools, prisons, the military. The wealthy have their fingers in many pies (get it?)

[multigraincracker]

9. Don't get mad

Get a lawyer and file a class action suit. I'd love to be on that jury.

[Turbineguy]

12. I remember when our kids were in school

people from the catering suppliers came to tell us how much happier our kids would be to have vending machines to help separate us from our money.

[Budi]

17. There's a Starbucks in my granddaughter's HS. She's 9th grade & thrilled.

Oh well.

[left-of-center2012]

26. Some would oppose that

$$$$$$$

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

39. Oh yeah, kids on caffeine.

Remember, it's the teachers fault that the kids can't focus. What a fool thing to do.

[lpbk2713]

18. That's borderline criminal.

If they are serving food that is unfit for human consumption.

[3catwoman3]

22. We brown-bagged it (or lunch-boxed it) all thru...

…elementary school - mid 1950s t0 early 1960s. My mom wanted to keep morning hassle to a minimum, so every Sunday evening, we would make a week’s worth of sandwiches and freeze them. Pop them in the bag/lunchbox before heading out the door. Her theory was that being frozen would keep the sandwiches fresh as they gradually thawed out by lunch time, and we wouldn’t be eating spoiled food.

Egg salad sandwiches DO NOT freeze well, and thawed out as a disgusting, soggy mess. To this day, I cannot eat an egg salad sandwich.

[gulliver]

25. I smell Republican influence. This is why voting counts.

Of course Republicans will shortchange public school meals. They'll suppress votes. They'll give carte blanche to polluters. This is why every single Republican has to be voted out of every single office in every single election.

I remember in the 1970s. We had good lunches, and you could get an extra milk (chocolate or plain!) for a nickel. We had Republicans then too, but they weren't so completely godforsaken, God forsaking, and generally haywire. How can anyone in their right mind not realize that the next generation (kids) are the next generation of humans? Cheaping out on them is the epitome of stupid and rotten.

[keithbvadu2]

30. What School Lunch Looks Like Around The World