Eat Wise OKC has been in discussions with Child Nutrition Services (CNS) a department in the OKC Public School district for almost three years now. The director of CNS is an employee of Chartwells, a large food service provider, who makes the decisions about what is served at every school.
Yes, you read that correctly. The director of Child Nutrition Services of the OKC Public School District is a paid employee of Chartwells. Let that sink in.
When our Eat Wise board gets together to discuss the outcome of these meetings we seem to always come back to what we think the real problem is: Someone must be getting an incentive to serve crap to the kids. While we have been determined to get healthier and fresher foods on the menu, the endless reasons why they cannot serve better food are irritating at best: "the kids won't eat it", "it's cost prohibitive", etc.
Cost prohibitive indeed! Apparently, only to their bottom line.
Today I read this article by Ed Bruske, a slow food advocate and once a reporter for the Washington Post, who had requested that rebates being received in the D.C. school district be disclosed. He learned that he was denied on the basis of disclosing that information would infringe on Chartwell's trade secrets.
Are you kidding me?
The rebates Chartwells (and other food service giants) receive are supposed to send a portion back to the school districts, but may take an excessive amount of time to do so, if it's done at all.
And to top it off: "Chartwells’ parent company, the $22 billion international conglomerate Compass Group, maintains an entirely separate entity called Food Buy solely to write purchase contracts and collect rebates generated by its many subsidiaries.", reports, Ed.
It would seem that we will have to stand together as one voice and insist the right thing be done: Feed our children well. We will no longer stand for someone making a buck at the expense of children’s health.
Yes, you read that correctly. The director of Child Nutrition Services of the OKC Public School District is a paid employee of Chartwells. Let that sink in.
When our Eat Wise board gets together to discuss the outcome of these meetings we seem to always come back to what we think the real problem is: Someone must be getting an incentive to serve crap to the kids. While we have been determined to get healthier and fresher foods on the menu, the endless reasons why they cannot serve better food are irritating at best: "the kids won't eat it", "it's cost prohibitive", etc.
Cost prohibitive indeed! Apparently, only to their bottom line.
Today I read this article by Ed Bruske, a slow food advocate and once a reporter for the Washington Post, who had requested that rebates being received in the D.C. school district be disclosed. He learned that he was denied on the basis of disclosing that information would infringe on Chartwell's trade secrets.
Are you kidding me?
The rebates Chartwells (and other food service giants) receive are supposed to send a portion back to the school districts, but may take an excessive amount of time to do so, if it's done at all.
And to top it off: "Chartwells’ parent company, the $22 billion international conglomerate Compass Group, maintains an entirely separate entity called Food Buy solely to write purchase contracts and collect rebates generated by its many subsidiaries.", reports, Ed.
It would seem that we will have to stand together as one voice and insist the right thing be done: Feed our children well. We will no longer stand for someone making a buck at the expense of children’s health.
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