I graduated in 2005 and I packed my lunch every day of HS. Not only that, I used paper bags each time. Haha. The cafeteria actually served cookies at lunch too. My friends dared me to see how many I could eat once. I demolished 17 of them. Pretty decent sized cookies too. Haha. The great thing was, was that we bought all of them at once. We had a tray loaded down with about 20 cookies and that was it. I have a feeling that those days are gone. I can’t imagine what they would say if someone went to pay for his lunch and all it was was chocolate cookies.
A company that serves meals to 2½ million schoolchildren daily in more than 500 districts nationwide, with multimillion-dollar contracts in both Washington and Chicago, has a history of marginal quality and food-safety scares amid concerns over the nutritional content of its school menus, according to school and company records.
Chartwells-Thompson School Dining Services, a subsidiary of the Charlotte, N.C.-based Compass Group, owner of Burger King, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, is one of North America's largest school cafeteria operators — its contracts with the Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2009 totaling more than $289 million and a D.C. operation that could net the firm as much as $140 million from 2008 to 2013.
Besides sharing the same food service provider, the D.C. and Chicago districts both suffer from high rates of poverty and child obesity in what are known as "food deserts," areas with poor access to healthy, affordable food. The District has the highest rate of adolescent obesity in the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Chicago ranks fourth-highest.
Even as Congress weighs recommendations from the not-for-profit, nongovernmental Institute of Medicine (IOM) for improving national school lunch standards, the D.C. school district does not list the nutritional content of school meals on its Web site — contrary to the more transparent policies in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Seattle.
Just last year, in the face of Chicago's child-obesity problem, Chartwells defended serving desserts to schoolchildren even as other districts abandoned the practice. Likewise, the company served cheese nachos on a daily basis as a means of getting children to partake in school lunch options.
In 2007, Chicago school officials similarly defended Chartwells' cereal-for-lunch offering, which included sugary brands such as Trix and Cocoa Puffs. Two years later, cereal maker General Mills announced it was reducing the sugar content in its products, including Trix and Cocoa Puffs, in the face of growing scrutiny from consumers, regulators and health groups over the nutritional value of their foods.
A Chicago schools spokesman said the city's school meals "meet or exceed" federal standards.
At Claremont Academy Elementary School on the South Side, officials allow packed lunches but confiscate any snacks loaded with sugar or salt. (They often are returned after school.) Principal Rebecca Stinson said that though students may not like it, she has yet to hear a parent complain.
This whole community reeks of authoritarianism. It's clearly predominately Hispanic; does "culture" have something to do with it?
The grade of the food used in school lunches isn’t that great.
For example diseased chickens with open puss filled sores are allowed to be used for chicken nuggets used in schools. The cooking process kills the bacteria so its safe.
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Cafeteria workers in Chicago government schools are ‘represented’ by either SEIU or a ‘public service employees’ union of some ilk, right?
Baaaaaaaa. Baaaaaaaaa. Baaaaaaaa.
Come on, little programmed sheep -- bleat for us some more.
The quality of school lunches is barely above animal feed. They use the cheapest, most disgusting ingredients possible. I would not allow my kids to eat that crap, my kids bring thier lunch, if such a policy comes here, we move, period.
I’d take my child out of that school!
Mystery meat! Yum!
So if you are Catholic and they don’t serve fish on Fridays during lent sue on a 1st Amendment religious free exercise grounds. If you are a non-Lent observer and they only serve fish on Fridays during lent, sue on 1st Amendment religious establishment grounds.
bump
How are you going to enforce communist dictatorship if you let the little people take care of themselves. First, you have to ensure their 100% dependency.
This is too much. Where’s the ACLU?
Stupid (bleep) Principal. The kids aren’t gonna eat eat your subsidized crap food, then they’ll go and gorge themselves on all that “bad” stuff you don’t like cause they’re (bleep) starving when you finally let them leave.
You want them to lose weight? Let them play outside for an hour or 2 a day instead of keeping them in class to be brainwashed and given busy work you stupid twit.