A watchdog panel charged with rooting out government waste and corruption and carrying the power to indict criminals recently turned its attention to a whole other topic: the quality of school food.
The Kern County Grand Jury chose to investigate the quality of school lunches after hearing “from multiple sources that the food might not be to the liking of the students.”
Jurors spent weeks meeting with principals, consulting with lunch ladies and sharing lunch with students at 16 schools in six separate districts throughout Kern County.
A sample of findings from the five-page report?
Nine out of 10 students prefer chocolate milk to regular milk.
Salt and pepper enhances the taste of food.
Older cafeteria buildings are quieter than newer ones.
Two grand jurors who visited Tevis Junior High in Bakersfield were grandparents of two children there, Tevis Principal Paul Coon said. They recently enjoyed orange chicken and hamburgers while investigating lunchroom conditions.
“They were very curious about how many staff members ate in the cafeteria,” said Coon, who admitted he had no idea students were dissatisfied with their meals, as the Grand Jury contended.
“I thought a complaint was made, but then I found out the grandkid was here,” Coon said. “We're really proud of our food program here.”
During their research, jurors noticed students licked their plates clean when provided seasoning.
“In one instance, the meal was partially consumed as served, however when salt and pepper were added it made an overall improvement to the taste of the food,” the report states.
Grand jurors placed the blame squarely on the National School Lunch Program, which sets out guidelines restricting the amount of sodium allowed in school meals. They described salt and pepper as “the missing ingredient” in most meals sampled.
The report lays out a tragic tale for one cafeteria worker interviewed, who strives to serve students tasty meals, but whose hands are tied by those USDA nutritional guidelines. Instead, the worker is relegated to serving bland burgers and hot dogs.
Making a mess of the problem is the cost of meals, which grand jurors equate to quality. More expensive meals taste better, they contend.
In a sampling of schools where anywhere between 36 and 94 percent of students receive free lunches, that's an issue, the jury states. Can beggars be choosers? Grand jurors say absolutely.
They're recommending schools implement more theme bars from which students can pick a plethora of toppings for tacos, hot dogs and baked potatoes. (They eat more in these cases, the grand jury says.)
Examining how to make lunch rooms quieter is of paramount importance, too. Some of these lunch rooms are just too darn loud, the report states.
But in the case of Tevis Junior High, it’s a matter of cutting costs. The cavernous cafeteria doubles as the band practice location, Coon said.
“The acoustics are great for sound,” Coon said.
At least one recommendation — implementing a “share table” such as at Richland Junior High School in Shafter where kids can give away unwanted pieces of fruits and cartons of milk — is illegal, Coon said.
“I about died,” Coon said. “They threw that school under the bus.”
While the California Department of Education recommends schools exhaust all possibilities of donating leftover food, the agency warns that food described in the Grand Jury report could be “potentially hazardous,” if children have taken it from the cafeteria line.
There are signs in both English and Spanish warning students against sharing food in the Tevis Junior High cafeteria, Coon said.
And, in a move that could eliminate the possibility that another Grand Jury ever has to examine this issue again, they're urging districts to add suggestion boxes in lunch rooms.
February 3, 2016
The Bakersfield Californian
By Harold Pierce
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