Inside the LunchroomWORKERS’ VISION FOR REAL

FOOD AND SAFE SCHOOLS

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REAL FOOD.REAL JOBS.

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2 :: INSIDE THE LUNCHROOM

WE ARE THE NEARLY 2000 COOKS, FOOD SERVICE WORKERS AND STUDENT

SAFETY STAFF OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PHILADELPHIA (SDP). EVERYDAY,

AS 146,000 STUDENTS STREAM IN AND OUT OF OUR LUNCHROOMS,1 WE

COOK AND PLATE THEIR MEALS; KEEP THE CAFETERIA SAFE AND ORDERLY;

CLEAN UP THE TRAYS LEFT BEHIND AND ENSURE THERE’S PLENTY MORE

FOOD FOR TOMORROW. WE LISTEN TO STUDENTS’ CONCERNS—THEIR

HOPES AND CHALLENGES INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM.

Our job is to ensure that, for our students, school continues to feel like a home away from home. To us, that means making certain that kids are safe—and, of course, eating well. To help us do our jobs successfully, we strongly believe the School District of Philadelphia needs to make some changes.

In a survey of 434 SDP employees, along with several interviews, the employees discussed how they saw the transformation of food and safety in the school dis-trict. The results of these surveys reveal the inside story of the problems keeping our schools and lunchrooms from being as strong as they can be—while also point-ing the way towards potential solutions.

WORKERS’ VISION FOR REAL FOOD AND SAFE SCHOOLS :: 3

Survey says:

Safety is an enduring problem Violent incidents in the lunchroom and elsewhere on school property

are unfortunately all-too-common occurrences in our school system, with over 4,000 incidents reported in the 2011-2012 school year.11

Evidence from our survey suggests, however, that the District provides neither adequate staffing levels nor training to the staff on-site. 40% surveyed indicated that they

had recently witnessed a violent incident where there were not enough staff present to address the situation. Similarly, 35% pointed out that they witness violent inci-dents every year where there aren’t enough staff present.

Survey Says:

Train us to help keep schools safeMigdalia Lopez, student safety staff with five years of service in the District, currently employed at Bodine High School, found herself embroiled in separating fighting students on her first day of work, when she was the only person around. What’s more, she had received no preparatory training to handle such a situation. “I’ve been in the district for five years,” she said, “and I’ve never been trained as far as safety.” “I think it’s very important we get training for what-ever the danger may be,” she went on to say. “There are a lot of differ-ent situations where we don’t know what to do.” Indeed, 60% of those surveyed indicate that the last time they received training was over a year ago.

Once again, the solution is clear: student safety staff not only need to be present in sufficient numbers, they need to be trained in basic practices that can prevent unsafe incidents from occurring. Some staff, having received such training in prior work, draw upon their experience to work with students as aides. Harriet Staples, student safety staff at Julia R. Masterman Middle and High School, spoke about her work with a nonprofit program sponsored by Americorps, then called National School and

Community Core (currently Education Works), which helped her to work with students. When it came to potentially violent inci-dents, “they trained us to break the fight up before it starts,” she said. “We didn’t get any of that with the school district.”12

We care deeply about the safety of our students, and so we ask the District to make sure that more of us are in the lunchroom—and that we receive training to do our jobs the very best that we can.

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4 :: INSIDE THE LUNCHROOM

Survey says:

Students Like Fresh FoodFor several years SDP has been converting full-service kitchens, in which food service workers cook and serve fresh food daily, to what are known as “satellite” kitchens: kitchens with minimal equipment, designed to serve pre-packaged,

frozen and pre-plated meals.2 In 2011-2012 alone, 26 schools were converted.3 While the District has reversed course in September 2012 and brought cooking back to ten schools,4 more can be done: a 2011 report commissioned by the SDP and conducted by the firm S.R. Watkins & Associates, noted that approximately 60 schools had some kind of operational kitchen equip-ment capable of preparing food for service on-site.5

Meanwhile, 78% of our survey respondents believe that students enjoy fresh food much more than pre-plated food—a conclusion backed up by personal interviews.

Marcia Teagle, a Food Service Manager at Julia De Burgos Elementary who has worked for three years in the District and has experience with both satellite and full service, reports that her students, “don’t care too much for

the satellite meals.” They’re “pre-packaged meals that sometimes are tasteless or undesirable to children.”6

Juanita Jones, Lead Food Service Worker at Olney Elementary, a school with a satellite kitchen, com-mented that “making the food fresh on a daily basis, the presentation of the food, setting up everything” is preferable because the students “have more choices.”7

“You interact with them in seeing what they want.” Gloria Gales, who has worked for 19 years at Jay Cooke Elementary, described what it was like making fresh food, before the conversion of her full-service kitchen to a satellite facility. “We cooked real food,” she said. “And the kids had just what we had. And it was made from scratch. We made it up ourselves. Everything was just wonderful.”8

The trouble is, 64% of our survey respondents report that at least half the food we serve is being thrown away. A substantial number (17%) report seeing most of the food thrown away.

“We cooked real food. And the kids had just what we had. And it was made from scratch. We made it up ourselves. Everything was just wonderful.”

—Gloria Gales,

Jay Cooke Elementary

Survey says:

The students aren’t eating the food. Nutritious, healthy food for children is an ideal shared by everyone with an interest in the school district. Many of us have children or grandchildren attending Philadelphia schools; we care about the kind of food they’re getting.

The trouble is, 64% of our survey respondents report that at least half the food we serve is being thrown away. A substantial number (17%) report seeing most of the food thrown away.

Nor does our survey suggest these meals are appetizing to adults. A large majority of respondents (79%) reported that they never saw their principals eating in the lunchroom.

How can we improve? The answer may lie in how we prepare and serve the food.

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WORKERS’ VISION FOR REAL FOOD AND SAFE SCHOOLS :: 5

Survey says:

Let us cook!Gales’s school, like many other schools, has operable kitchen equipment that can be used to prepare fresh meals—suggesting

that the conversions can not only be arrested but reversed. Julia De Burgos Elementary, converted in 2011-12 to a satellite kitchen, was reconverted the following year to a full service kitchen.9

Reporting on some of these recon-versions, the Philadelphia Inquirer

quoted one 7th grader at Juniata Park as saying, “we’re in love with this food.” Senior Vice President for Food Services Wayne Grasela was quoted as emphasizing the “educational component” of the return to full-service meals. “There’s more interac-tion with our staff in the serving line,” Grasela said. “There’s an opportunity for staff to work with them to explain what it is we’re serv-ing, encourage them to take healthy options.”10

And the staff want to help: 57% of our survey

respondents have indicated that they would love training in helping their students to eat right.

The answer is clear enough: SDP should commit to letting us cook for our students. They should stop the conversion of full-service kitch-ens to satellite kitchens, and diver-sify the range of foods available to them. We call on the District to expand the role of cooking in our schools, and return fresh food to our lunchrooms.

There’s more interaction with our staff in the serving line.... There’s an opportunity for staff to work with them to explain what it is we’re serving, encourage them to take healthy options.

— Senior Vice President for Food Services Wayne Grasela

Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture.

6 :: INSIDE THE LUNCHROOM

For us, the students often feel like our own children. “I used to live in this neighborhood, and I’ve been here for 19 years,” Gloria Gales said of her school. “I see them from babies on up. They come back to see me. I know everybody, and everybody knows me.”13 “I greet my students when they come up by first and last name,” said Juanita Jones. “I love it.”14 We feel tremen-dous passion for our students, and excitement to see them grow up and succeed in the world. Our job is to let them know—as Marcia Teagle put it—“that someone cares

for them. It’s just a matter of shar-ing the love. Just being kind.”15

Sentiments like these are what make our schools anchors for strong neighborhoods and safe communities. Our survey results powerfully confirm the notion that the District would benefit greatly from our input in the decisions that affect our schools.

“We play an important part in the education too,” says Juanita Jones. “We’re just one big team. The more training we get, the more educated we get in our doing jobs, and the

more input that we’re allowed to put into our jobs can only make it better.”16

“The more training we get, the more educated we get in our doing jobs, and the more input that we’re allowed to put into our jobs can only make it better.”

— Juanita Jones, Olney Elementary

TO BUILD SAFER, HEALTHIER SCHOOLS, WE NEED TO BE GIVEN ALL

THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO HELP OUR STUDENTS FEEL AT HOME.

WORKERS’ VISION FOR REAL FOOD AND SAFE SCHOOLS :: 7

Our Vision: Real Food and Safe SchoolsThe School District of Philadelphia has done significant work in improving the lives and welfare of their students. But our survey of frontline workers in the schools’ lunchroom indicates that significant obstacles to having truly strong schools remain.

Accordingly, we call on the SDP to do the following:

n Let us cook! Use the kitchens we have, and commit to phasing out pre-plated and frozen food.

n Help us keep kids safe. Make sure adequate student safety staff are always present in the schools.

n Train us to do our jobs right. To keep our schools healthy and secure, training should include healthy food and cooking programs and innovative techniques to ensure safety.

n Solicit our input. We understand what it takes to make students feel they’re at home.

Our schools need many different kinds of reforms to make them as great as they can be. These recommendations seem to us to be crucial steps in the right direction.

ENDNOTES

1 Susan Snyder and Dylan Purcel, “Closings may worsen school vio-lence,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec 14, 2012

2 SR Watkins and Associates, “Communities Putting Prevention to Work,” V-693 Kristen A. Graham, “26 Philadelphia schools los-

ing full-service kitchens,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 30, 2011. Available at: http://articles.philly.com/2011-06-30/news/29722033_1_school-meals-kitchens-elementary-schools

4 Graham, “Philadelphia School District reopens some full-service cafeterias,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 06, 2012. Available at: http://articles.philly.com/2012-11-06/news/34931640_1_cafeteria-worker-wayne-grasela-meal-sites

5 SR Watkins and Associates, “Communities Putting Prevention to Work,” V-69.6 Interview with Nikil Saval, April 11, 2013

7 Interview with Nikil Saval, April 12, 20138 Interview with Nikil Saval, April 12, 20139 Compare Graham, “26 Philadelphia schools…” with Graham, “Philadelphia Schools losing full-service kitchens”10 Quoted in Graham, “Philadelphia Schools reopens some

full-service cafeterias” http://articles.philly.com/2012-11-06/news/34931640_1_cafeteria-worker-wayne-grasela-meal-sites

11 Blue Ribbon Commission on Safe Schools, “A Blueprint for Action,” January 2012, p.1. Available at: www.philasd.org/announcements/BRC-Report.pdf

12 Interview with Nikil Saval, April 17, 201313 Interview, April 12, 201314 Interview, April 12, 201315 Interview, April 11, 201316 Interview, April 12, 2013

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