Chicago Public Schools foodservice workers demanded that CPS move away from a growing trend of replacing cooked fresh food with frozen food that's shipped in, according to WFLD-TV in Chicago, Ill. For the full story, click here.
Editor’s Insight: Some observers will suspect that the foodservice workers are concerned about protecting their jobs; more work is needed to cook food from scratch than to simply reheat it.
This may or may not be a factor in the sentiment being expressed. But the school system needs to nonetheless determine if what the workers are saying has merit. Kids need to be served nutritious food, and they won’t eat it if it doesn’t taste good. Frozen food can certainly taste good and it can be nutritious. But will it provide the variety that kids want? One cannot assume that schools can’t get the job done with reheatable food. The question requires more investigation. What can be said, however, is that preparing food from scratch gives kids an opportunity to learn more about nutrition. TV chef Jamie Oliver has proven that involving people in the preparation of food from scratch is a very educational experience. 04-13-12 By Elliot Maras
