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A closer look at pre-packaged lunches for Philly school kids
As reported last month, the Philadelphia school district, facing a $664 million budget gap, will force the closure of 26 full-service kitchens.
A closer look at pre-packaged lunches for Philly school kids
As reported last month, the Philadelphia school district, facing a $664 million budget gap, will force the closure of 26 full-service kitchens. The move will make up $2.3 million in savings, but eliminates jobs and drastically changes the food that students had received for lunch.
Come next school year 70 percent of the district's 315 service locations will be under what they call a "satellite program," where nearly all of the food distributed at lunchtime is packaged off-site and shipped into the school. This leaves hungry children, affecting mainly those in elementary and middle school, at the whim of distributors who provide plastic-sealed white paper trays filled with pre-made sandwiches, fruit cups and a smattering of processed goodies.
The meals come from a distributor named Maramont Corp, a large food shipping, freezing and processing company based in Brooklyn, NY, with an office and warehouse in South Philadelphia. Maramont Corp. is responsible for all the pre-packaged meals in the "satellite program" delivered to Philadelphia public schools, and also has contracts with other school districts and prisons in New York and New Jersey.
Maramont's history is not without troubles. In 1997, over 3,000 cases of frozen USDA commodity turkey nuggets were stored improperly in their Philly warehouse and subsequently thrown out. And in 2007 the company had to recall over 88 pounds of beef patties en route to Jersey City schools because of a listeria scare — listeria is a potentially fatal bacterium. Like other large food distributors, this isn't necessarily uncommon.
But complaints about the food quality go back to the beginning of their presence in the schools — as early as 1996 the Daily News began reporting complaints from parents and students, some even claimed sickness from the food.
This is about consistent with what I witnessed first-hand. Students hated the food. Whole meals were thrown out. Our classroom offered mayonnaise and mustard packets on sandwich days as a saving grace, but it was futile. They didn't want to eat their lunch from a big box of pre-packaged trays even though many of these students rely heavily on school lunch, and sometimes breakfast for daily meals.
'This is about consistent with what I witnessed first-hand. Students hated the food. Whole meals were thrown out. Our classroom offered mayonnaise and mustard packets on sandwich days as a saving grace, but it was futile. They didn't want to eat their lunch from a big box of pre-packaged trays even though many of these students rely heavily on school lunch, and sometimes breakfast for daily meals.'
Hungry people, people who need to eat, as opposed to someone who simply has a meal break, will eat what is put in front of them. Your description of the food offered doesn't sound like anything I would want to eat. I'm glad that I don't need that food but apparently neither do some of the people it is being GIVEN to. Otherwise they would eat it.
— buggpop
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