Columbus Schools Consider Outsourced Lunches - meals would be delivered frozen heated on site

[The Straight Story]

Columbus Schools Consider Outsourced Lunches



COLUMBUS, Ohio -- School officials in Columbus are considering a plan to privatize most or all of their food-service operations to save money.

Superintendent Gene Harris has recommended that the district outsource food-preparation operations for kindergarten through eighth grade by next school year.

The proposal means that all meals would be delivered frozen to elementary and middle schools and heated up on site.

District Chief Operating Officer Larry Hoskins says the change could save $4 million a year. The district would try to shift the food workers into other jobs.

http://www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/news.apx.-content-articles-CMH-2008-01-24-0008.html

[MNDemNY]

1. Give 'em MREs. nThey can "heat" them in thier armpits.

[Squatch]

4. Actually, MREs come with their own heater.

It's really quite effective.

[MNDemNY]

5. Even better.

[BuelahWitch]

2. There go more decent paying jobs and benefits

:argh:

[Squatch]

8. Where do the jobs go? Do they disappear?

:shrug:

[WinkyDink]

11. Yes, yes they do. No more in-school kitchens = no more in-school cafeteria cooks.

I doubt if the frozen-food company will need them.

[Squatch]

12. So, who cooks the frozen meals?

[BuelahWitch]

17. They're not going to be hiring the cafeteria workers

And if they do, the former school employees will more than likely get cut wages and benefits.

[katmondoo]

3. All heated in a microwave no doubt

We still really do not know how safe it is. I use my microwave sparingly

[dysfunctional press]

6. ...

:eyes:

technophobes are just ridiculous sometimes.

[Sydnie]

7. True story

I live in a small town that only has two schools. We farm out our kids to local high schools so we only have an elementary and a middle school here in town. Several years ago we renovated both of those buildings, added on where space was needed, and upgraded both cafeterias with all the equipment required to be in an industrial kitchen in both buildings. (these buildings are side by side on adjacent lots) As soon as the renovations were completed, they closed down one kitchen almost completely, except for the hours that food service to the students was required. All food preparation was done in one kitchen and a minuscule amount of that was actually, from scratch, created on site. Almost all of the food that is served in both buildings are precooked, prefrozen, and reheated in one building and trucked to the other building to be served only. They spent thousands on refurbishing these kitchens to assure that their state grant would be honored then we let the equipment sit, unused, because it's cheaper to "heat and eat" than to prepare from scratch. And no, they didn't lower the cost to buy lunch for the students either.

Some local schools even have "sponsorship" ads in the cafeteria and get deliveries from local fast food places to serve on their menu daily. It's a sad state of affairs, no doubt about it. When a slice of pizza or a burger in a bag is the "comfort food" of an entire generation, we have strayed from the goal too far, IMHO.

[WinkyDink]

9. And one more job opportunity for the little guy/woman bites the dust.

Let's hear it again for Capitalism.

[BuelahWitch]

16. Ones that generally have pretty good benefits to go along with them

[knitter4democracy]

10. And they wonder why our kids are fat.

Seriously. I hope they have a hard time selling those things. It's a bit more expensive to pack my daughter's lunch, and yes, she eats some of the meals the school serves on some days, but heck, if it were just that, she sure wouldn't. Ugh. It's barely food by then.

[thereismore]

13. And while they are at it, why don't they skip food inspections too. Some kids will get sick,

but hey, we saved $$. Parents will pay for the doctor, not the school district. Way to go Columbus!

[donsu]

14. hope they are not using microwaves to heat the food

many problems with microwaves

one being the content of the food is changed by the microwaves and when you eat it it changes your blood but they don't know why or how or if it matters or not.

not making this up - have read and posted articles on this.

I've never trusted microwave ovens.

[Snarkturian Clone]

15. A lot of Philly school district schools already do this...

and the stuff is VILE.

[LibertyLover]

18. This concerns me greatly

my husband just got a job with our county school system as a cafeteria worker. It doesn't pay much, but it's something. At the moment he's a temp, but there should be a permanent spot opening in our city's high school soon and he could get it. Then he'll get a $2 an hour raise and benefits. With our 5 year old daughter in school, it was the best job he could take because he has to get her on the bus in the morning and get her in the afternoon and this job lets him be home to do that. He has been at home with her since we adopted her 4 years ago and frankly living on just my salary has been difficult. If something like this happens in our school system it will be bad for us. It will mean that until the kidlet is old enough to get herself ready in the morning, breakfasted, and on the school bus and be trusted to be home alone in the afternoon for a few hours, he'll be stuck at home again. I hope our system doesn't decide to privatize.

[aikoaiko]

19. I think restaraunts like Applebees/Olive Garden already do this

I can see why it might be useful.