School Food

[MavKikiNYC]

KIDS LOSING THEIR LUNCH IN SCHOOL CRISIS

By DAVID ANDREATTA
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October 16, 2004 -- A severe food delivery crisis as forced some city schools to borrow meals from each other and reduce portions for kids — in one case feeding youngsters a hard-boiled egg and half an ear of corn for lunch, parents and administrators charged yesterday. The problem has become so dire on the Lower East Side that the principal of PS 126 urged parents in a letter yesterday to start preparing box lunches for their children next week, saying the school may not be able to serve noon meals to its 550 students. Parent volunteers and school
workers acknowledged borrowing food from neighboring PS 1, PS 124 and PS 134 over the last several days. On at least one occasion, they said, the other schools could not spare the food.

Last Wednesday at PS 126 — a day the parents simply call "hard-boiled egg day" — lunch for students from kindergarten through fifth grade consisted of a single hard-boiled egg, a three-inch corn-on-the-cob and a pint of milk. A volunteer mother who peeled the eggs said they were left over from breakfast.

Earlier in the school year, students and parents said, children in all grades were offered hamburger for 10 days in a row — often without the bun.

"Inmates get three square meals a day," said Samantha Ruiz, mother of kindergartner Aracelis Ruiz at PS 126. "Why are our kids getting leftovers and borrowing from other schools?"

According to the letter sent home to parents, food delivery problems have been plaguing the 1,200-school system since the first day of school on Sept. 13.

"This is a citywide crisis," PS 126 principal Kerry Decker wrote. "The vendor is unable to deliver the quantity of food required to all the schools in the five boroughs."

Department of Education spokeswoman Kelly Devers said no school will run out of food and dismissed the notion that there is a citywide crisis.

"We are working out some kinks," Devers said. "Some [cafeteria] managers have been moving food from school to school to shore up any potential product shortages. But it is something that is done preventatively."

Devers acknowledged the city has been "unable to provide the variety of menu items that we would like," but said the hiring of three additional food delivery vendors in the coming weeks would correct the situation.



The spokeswoman also insisted fish and some peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches were available at PS 126 on "hard-boiled egg day."

Other schools have reported similar problems.

In The Bronx, some smaller schools have been relying on the generosity of nearby Lehman HS to serve balanced meals to students, said MS 201 cook Rose DeLeon.

"We're supposed to follow the menu but we don't have the food," DeLeon said. "Next week we have to serve beef every day because that's all we have."

This year was supposed to be a banner year for school food, with the city hiring world-renowned chef Jorge Leon Callazo to revamp boring menus with exotic and fun choices.

The city currently spends about $35 million on its contract with three vendors.

[mavsman55]

What's wrong with hard-boiled eggs?

[MavKikiNYC]

Originally posted by: mavsman55
What's wrong with hard-boiled eggs?

Nothing.

As a projectile.

[EricaLubarsky]

the city hiring world-renowned chef Jorge Leon Callazo to revamp boring menus with exotic and fun choices.

Weighing things, I would rather have kids eating sloppy joes and macaroni and cheese every day than having a fancy chef creating fancy ways of presenting boiled eggs on a plate.

[sike]

PB & J....the forgotten treasure. *sigh*