WARNING: Do not read if you have recently eaten or are just about to eat. This will put you off food for a rather long time.
According to this, health inspectors checking school cafeterias in New Jersey have found things like dead rodents and insects crawling around Michelle Obama-approved school lunches. Other troubling findings include tuna and egg salad sandwiches not kept at proper temperatures. Flies were breeding in cafeteria linens, spoiled lettuce sat in the refrigerator, and the food preparation area was dirty and dusty and just…. ew.
The sourcelink also mentions that school cafeterias are moving toward preparing meals from scratch with fresh fruits and vegetables, rather than using processed foods (which is something that Michelle Obama’s school lunch rules made a huge deal out of). But the other problem is that the people handling the ingredients aren’t taking sanitary precautions – like washing their hands or even the ingredients being prepared. One inspector reported seeing a cafeteria worker start chopping celery without washing the celery first. Another was using a cell phone without taking off their gloves that they’d been using to handle food.
Parents are, understandably, upset –
“In my mind it’s unacceptable,” parent Dolores Averona tells the Intelligencer, referring to rodent droppings being found. “We’re sending our children to a school, yes to be educated, but to partake in lunch under the impression they’re being fed a meal that is going to be just as good as something I’d serve at home.”
“School cafeterias also aren’t hiring the most qualified people for these cafeterias,” says parent Tara Bodnar, whose daughter’s school had four violations. She was referring to advertisements for part-time kitchen workers in a school newsletter.
Sheesh – no wonder students opt to leave school grounds during lunch and go get fast food. If I knew my school lunch was being made under such filthy conditions, I’d go elsewhere too.