Congress Poised To Act On Clean Lunchrooms
(WFOR-MIAMI)
It was three years ago when Hialeah 5th grader David Hernandez told CBS4’s chief consumer investigator Al Sunshine about what he saw in his school cafeteria. The Hialeah Miami-lakes student told Sunshine, “Like sometimes they’re doing, they’re cooking and their hair comes out and it’s in the food.”
And as Sunshine has repeatedly reported for more than a decade now, parents had no way of knowing what was going on in their school kitchens. Several years ago, local health inspectors were finding potentially serious violations in about 1 out of every 3 schools they checked out.
A common violation included insect infestations, known by inspectors as a violation of Vermin Control. Sunshine asked the Miami-Dade Health Department what the violations meant and was told quite simply, “They had bugs in the kitchen.”
Plus, don’t forget what happened when CBS4 started asking local schools to see those reports? Instead of showing the Public Reports one local school official ordered Al Sunshine off-campus and warned, “I am going to call the resource officer so they can come and arrest you.
Sunshine asked for the second time, “Can you please show me the cafeteria inspection report?”
Administrators refused, but CBS4 was able to find his school’s report, and all the problems inspector had found, at the Miami-Dade Health Department.
As a result of the exclusive CBS-4 I-Team investigation, Florida lawmakers passed a series of new regulations several years ago requiring to schools to publicly post those cafeteria reports in Public Areas of the School and also on-line for parents, students and anyone else to see them.
U-S Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the CBS4 Investigations prompted the Congress to take action too.
The Broward Democrat said, “It was all thanks to you and your investigatory work”.
Congress is now formally debating making Open Inspection reports and Online Postings the law across the country. Congresswoman Schultz said just last week an amendment to the national school lunch program passed its first committee hearing.
It requires schools nationwide to follow Florida’s lead and publicly post sanitation reports inside their schools and online where anyone can see them.
And when Sunshine recently had a chance to meet with the heads of the Miami-Dade and Broward School Systems; both Superintendents Alberto Carvalho and James Notter said they thought it was a great idea for the rest of the country to follow Florida’s lead in mandating parents see what kind of work is being done behind school kitchens to serve the safest food possible.
Full Congressional Debate on the proposed amendment is expected to heat up later this fall. Supporters expect the inspection report provision to sail through the hearing process.
No matter what happens in Congress, don’t forget under current Florida law you have the right to see your public school’s cafeteria inspection report. It’s also required to be posted online. If it’s not, it may soon be a violation of not only State law, but Federal law as well.