School Lunches: A Thing of the Past
Ray Salazar fondly remembers the lunches he got at school in the 1980s, especially the “stick-to-your-ribs” chop suey and turkey a la King followed by a warm piece of chocolate cake. This wasn’t at a private school — this was Hubbard High School, a public school in Chicago’s West Lawn neighborhood.
Now, as a CPS high school teacher, Salazar shudders at what he sees on his students’ trays today.
“It seems like it’s just getting worse and worse,” he said. “What I see in the lunchroom is those sad hamburgers, as one student described them to me. There’s like, a handful of chicken nugget things and like, an apple.”
Student Reactions
School lunch was once a popular option for Chicago Public School students. In 1976, Lane Tech student George Lemperis said,”I always eat two lunches like roast pork and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, bread and milk, but two of everything.”
Chicago Sun-Times archive
At a recent CPS-hosted taste test at Hanson Park Elementary in Belmont Cragin, students had mixed reviews with some specific complaints. Many complained of undercooked food, spoiled milk and entrees that just don’t taste right.
“I think it should be better,” said eighth grader Fabian Ortega. “It tastes weird.”
He said sometimes if he doesn’t like what’s being served, he won’t eat until he gets home.
Sixth grader London Taylor said the key is to have low expectations.
“Sometimes it is a little nasty, but that is okay,” said sixth grader London Taylor. “We are not going to be getting fancy food like in Paris.”
From Scratch to Packaged Meals
If you ask any longtime CPS kitchen worker, they can tell you when things started to change. Maria Perez has worked in CPS lunchrooms for more than 30 years. When she started, she worked in what she calls a “cooking” kitchen.
“We made almost everything,” she said. “The sauce for the pizza, the patties for the hamburgers. It was from scratch. But that was a long time ago.”
Lunchroom workers take a break after the lunch hour at a Chicago school in 1968.
Duane Hall/Chicago Sun-Times
Privatization and Health Guidelines
A state law that seemingly had nothing to do with food service may be the main reason for the lunchroom angst. In 1995, the state legislature handed control of Chicago Public Schools to the mayor, giving that office power to appoint the school board and CEO. The law also opened the door to privatization, calling on the leadership to “reduce the cost of non-educational services and implement cost-saving measures including the privatization of services where deemed appropriate.”
