Kitchens Without Cooks A future of frozen food for Chicago’s schoolchildren?
Contact Don Lydon, UNITE HERE Local 1 • 55 W. Van Buren St., Chicago, IL 60605 •
[email protected], 312-663-4373 www.unitehere1.org, www.realfoodrealjobs.org
Kitchens Without Cooks A future of frozen food for Chicago’s schoolchildren? While the debate on school nutrition continues to grab the national headlines through Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative, controversy surrounds the lunch program in the First Lady’s hometown. Amidst stories of Chicago Public Schools officials taking improper gifts from food service vendors and kids not eating the schools’ food, CPS is making decisions that will have a tremendous impact on the future of food for Chicago’s kids. That future doesn’t look fresh—in a $1 billion initiative to “modernize” Chicago’s schools, CPS has decided that reheated frozen food will be fed to the city’s elementary schoolchildren. Currently over one third of our elementary schools are feeding our kids these reheated frozen meals every day, and that number is growing. Whereas most schools have skilled and experienced cooks working in fully-equipped kitchens, these elementary schools have “warming kitchens” where frozen pre-plated packaged meals, manufactured outside the school, are simply reheated. CPS even mandates that the food delivered to the school “shall not require the opening of cans at the serving site.” The result is a kitchen without any cooks.
Frozen vs. Fresh In a January 2012 report the lunchroom workers of Chicago’s schools explained these two food models. The report also detailed a survey of 436 of the experienced lunchroom workers of Chicago public schools. In that survey 73% said the cooked food model was better. Mirabelle Martinez has served frozen food at Haughan Elementary in the city’s Albany Park neighborhood for the last 10 years. “The kids are telling me every day that they don’t like the food. We need a change,” she says. On the other side of the city, in the Englewood community, lunchroom worker Patricia Williams tells a similar story of serving frozen meals to her students at Holmes Elementary. “A lot of these kids rely on this food and it hurts to see them not eat it. We need to “A lot of these kids rely on this food and it hurts to see them not eat it. We need to go go back to cooking food from scratch.” Parents and kids seem to agree.
back to cooking food from scratch.”
Melissa Arroyo attends Cleveland Elementary in Albany Park, which also serves the frozen pre-plated food. “We should have fresh and cooked food in my school,” she said. Her mother, like many parents we’ve talked to across the city, was unaware that the food her daughter eats everyday was not cooked in her school. A concerned parent, Jerry Ward, whose daughter attends Wendell Smith on the South side, was adamant that he doesn’t want frozen food served to his child. “I want the hard working ladies inside of Wendell Smith to prepare fresh, hot, cooked meals. I don’t want them bringing in any frozen meals for my kid.”
Unfortunately parents like Jerry may be disappointed that CPS has quietly chosen a different path. The future plans for food service in Chicago’s elementary schools can be found hidden in section IV (A) of its 2008 bid solicitation for preplated frozen meals where it states, “The District operates warming kitchens in approximately 178 locations. All new K-8 schools, additions, and renovation projects are planned to be built with warming kitchens.” At schools across Chicago these changes are taking effect.
“Kids used to eat the food” Students at Sawyer Elementary, in the Southwest side’s Gage Park community, used to enjoy food prepared by experienced CPS cooks every day, but the school hass switched to the frozen food model. Now these same workers are simply reheating delivered frozen food over which they have little input or control and serving it to the kids. Their skills are going to waste and the workers report other changes. Leo Carter Jr., a 13 year veteran of CPS food service, has experience working in both the old cooking and new frozen food kitchen of Sawyer Elementary. “The kids used to eat the food in Sawyer when we cooked,” he says. “Now that we use the frozen food I see a lot of it going in the garbage. Cooking may be more work for me but I’d do it for the kids.” In addition to schools like Sawyer which have transitioned to the frozen food model, CPS has shown a clear preference for frozen food in newly built elementary schools.
Food of the Future? A new rebuilt Skinner West elementary school opened in the West Loop neighborhood in fall 2009. In the old Skinner West school, students used to be served cooked food. However, despite spending over $40 million on the new school, CPS decided that the kids should be fed frozen food that a worker likened to “TV dinners.” Jason Haynes worked at Skinner before the new school was built and is critical of changes to the food service at the school. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. We should have stayed with the cooked food in our schools.” Gloria Newsome works at the new Skinner “ It hurts me to think that in the years Elementary. “I’ve worked for the Board of Education for ahead we’ll be serving this frozen food the last 26 years serving food to the kids in CPS schools to all elementary kids in Chicago.” and I’ll be retiring soon. It hurts me to think that in the years ahead we’ll be serving this frozen food to all elementary kids in Chicago. We need to cook from scratch like the old days.”
Skinner is one of 11 new elementary schools built since 2006 under the Modern Schools Across Chicago initiative. The Modern Schools Across Chicago (MSAC), a $1 billion program, was launched in August 2006 to construct 19 new school building projects. The building program includes 12 elementary schools, of which 11 are now complete and open. Out of the 11 completed schools, nine are now using the frozen food model. This means that 81% of these new elementary schools built under MSAC serve frozen food compared to 36% of existing elementary schools.
Modern Schools Across Chicago – $117m under Budget Elementary Schools Serving Frozen Food School
Neighborhood
Opened
TIF Funds (estimated)
Total Cost (estimated)
Langston Hughes Elementary
Roseland
Fall 2009
-
$45.93
Mark T. Skinner West Elementary
West Loop
Fall 2009
$40.12
$40.14
Dr. Jorge Prieto Academy
Belmont-Cragin
Fall 2009
$38.62
$38.85
Federico Garcia Lorca Elementary
Avondale
Fall 2010
$35.00
$43.57
Mariano Azuela Elementary
West Lawn
Fall 2010
-
$35.49
Calmeca Academy
Brighton Park
Fall 2010
-
$42.51
West Ridge Elementary
West Ridge
Fall 2010
$31.04
$42.04
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Academy South Shore
Fall 2011
-
$35.75
Ogden International School
Fall 2011
-
$60.57
Gold Coast
The Roseland community on the city’s South side broadly welcomed the opening of Langston Hughes elementary, another MSAC school. “When I heard CPS decided to build a new modern school at Langston Hughes I was so excited. I thought we would have a beautiful new cooking kitchen. Unfortunately we are stuck just reheating frozen food for the kids,” says Adrienne Chambers, a 14-year veteran of CPS who has worked at Langston Hughes since it opened in 2009. Another Langston Hughes lunchroom worker, Tiffany Guynes, has a son attending the school. “The first day I walked into the cafeteria two questions came to my mind. Where is the stove? And where are the cooks? We don’t have either at Langston Hughes.” Many days Tiffany packs a lunch for her son instead of letting
him eat the frozen food she serves the other kids. “I wouldn’t eat a lot of this food. If it’s not good enough for me, it’s not good enough for my son,” she says. Araceli Salgado, a parent with three children attending Federico Lorca Elementary in the Avondale neighborhood, is “After spending over $43 million on also concerned about the food served to her children. “After our new school it should have been spending over $43 million on our new school it should have built with a cooking kitchen.” been built with a cooking kitchen,” she said. “Why did CPS or the school not consult with parents about the best options for feeding the kids in our school?” As of June 14th, 2011 the MSAC was $117,401,782 or 10.9% under budget.
The Preferred Frozen Food Vendor If students aren’t benefiting from the frozen meals, who is? Preferred Meal Systems is the company that manufactures the pre-plated frozen food for CPS and was recently named in the press as involved in an ethics scandal with a senior CPS official. Its $24 million food contract for CPS was renewed last June and is due to expire June 13th 2012. Preferred Meal Systems has been criticized around the country for its delivery of meals to public schools. In Boston, the school department decided to drop Preferred Meals in July 2011 after public debate. The Boston Globe reported that “Preferred Meal Systems had been criticized by students, parents, and members of the Boston City Council for making its food in a Pennsylvania factory and trucking it hundreds of miles” to Boston’s schools. Meanwhile, in August 2009, Washington, D.C public school officials began transitioning all 76 elementary schools which used Preferred Meals, away from pre-packaged meals and in its place implemented a “fresh cook” policy. Anthony Tata, D.C public school CEO, said “The students wanted better tasting food, and we believe fresh cooked meals taste better”. In San Francisco, an August 15th 2011 blunder by Preferred Meals left the students at 76 elementary schools without hot food on the first day of the school year. Loaded delivery trucks left the Preferred Meals distribution center two hours late and when the frozen food was finally delivered it was too late as it still needed to be reheated by cafeteria staff.
In Chicago, Let’s Cook! The 3,200 frontline workers who prepare over 77,000 school breakfasts and 280,000 school lunches each day for the children of Chicago in over 600 schools offer a different vision: Feed Chicago’s kids the food they deserve. These workers want to use their talents to cook fresh food for the children of Chicago. They stand ready to work with CPS in implementing the changes which need to be made to repair a system in crisis. Accordingly they recommend again that CPS do the following.
1. Actively solicit and incorporate our input as it improves school food. We have a unique perspective and a lot of experience. 2. Make a commitment to cooking, which means CPS needs to agree to: • Avoid replacing cooked food with frozen food • Build full-size cooking kitchens in all new schools 3. Help us reach our full potential as caretakers for Chicago’s children. We want comprehensive training on cooking, serving and eating healthy food. 4. Encourage us to keep students and parents informed if we feel there is a problem with food quality or safety in our cafeterias, and ensure that we are protected by our collective bargaining agreement if we do so. Over 1000 parents have already signed a petition in support of these recommendations. For the future of food for Chicago’s kids, Let’s Cook!
