You Call This Breakfast?
May 7th, 2010 · 6 Comments · Posted in kids, school food
Enough starch for you?
This morning’s breakfast at my daughter’s elementary school here in the District of Columbia looked like the siege of Leningrad: bread and potatoes.
Does it get any starchier than this?
Some of the kids had their usual strawberry milk and orange juice with this, so in addition to the starch there was plenty of sugar. This choice of breakfast seemed so odd that I checked the online menu that’s posted by Chartwells-Thompson, the food service provider for D.C. schools. The menu advertised scrambled eggs and toast, plus an option of cereal and Giant Goldfish Grahams.
My guess is that there weren’t any scrambled eggs in the school freezer this morning. Maybe they were never delivered. Otherwise, they’re cooked in a factory in Minnesota with about 11 other food industry ingreints. The ladies in the school kitchen simply dump them in a steamer and reheat them. The kids are not particularly fond of the scrambled eggs, but that would have been your protein this morning.
I can’t call Whitney Bateson, the nutritionist for Chartwells-Thompson, because she won’t answer my questions for publication. She will only talk to parents individually. And questions I submitted to the D.C. Public Schools’ new food service director, Jeffrey Mills, way back on March 12 still have not received a response.
It’s not at all easy figuring out why our kids are being fed at school the way they are. But we keep trying.
Wow! Now that’s just shocking.
Chartwells here in Hoboken will also not answer questions for publication nor make any comments. Instead they issued a district wide statement a cpl months- a total washout statement that said nothing.
DCPS announced in May 2nd’s Washington Post that they are looking to contract out services for two pilot projects in a handful of DCPS schools next year.
The contractors will provide 1) “from-scratch” fresh cooked meals made on-site from primarily from whole, unprocessed foods; and 2) “portable” pre-plated meals prepared off-site and delivered to the schools. In both cases, there are requirements that the contractors use primarily healthy, local foods.
Find the full RFP’s here:
http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/About+DCPS/Doing+Business+with+DCPS/Procurement/Solicitations
I’ve sent a question/comment to Jeffrey Mills as well without receiving a response. I’ve been assuming his e-mail follows the same one as other District employees – first name dot last name at dc dot gov… So, for what it’s worth I wouldn’t assume he’s not responding to you because of your blog and activism. It’s disappointing though.
Ed: What if everyone who could afford to do so just said no? What if parents across the country just boycotted this food and said, “We will no longer allow you to feed our nation’s children garbage.” What would happen?
KHodge, I’m not assuming anything. I know that Mr. Mills receives my e-mails. It’s getting answers to the questions that’s the issue.
Sad, very sad.