Behind-the-Scenes School Lunch

by Katherine Gustafson · 2010-01-27 06:00:00 UTC
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The quality of school lunches is a big topic these days. The debates over school-lunch safety, meatless Mondays and school garden programs, among other things, are vociferous and ongoing.

People are finding all sorts of ways to put in their two cents. A teacher is chronicling her experience eating school lunch. And now, Ed Bruske, a former Washington Post reporter and urban homesteader, recently spent a week observing food preparation at his daughter's elementary school in Washington, D.C., and documented the project in a six-part series called "Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen" on his blog "The Slow Cook."

"When I asked to spend time observing the kitchen operation at my daughter’s elementary school, I thought I was going to see people cook," writes Bruske in his conclusion post. "Was I ever in for a surprise." He describes a food-prep system that involves absolutely no cooking, just heating and steaming of frozen and packaged foods.

In a follow-up post he reveals that by coincidence the Washington Times was running a concurrent investigation into Chartwells, the company that delivers these delectable meals to D.C. schools, questioning whether the company's provisions actually measure up to federal safety standards.

It all makes for fascinating reading. Like our school lunches, our national debate on the subject is only just getting warmed up.

See Bruske's posts here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Photo: back_garage via flickr

Katherine Gustafson is a freelance writer and editor with a background in international nonprofit organizations.
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