CHICAGO — Most Chicago parents expect their children’s school kitchens to be clean and safe. Instead, the CBS 2 Investigators found just the opposite.
Eleven percent of CPS schools that CBS 2 sampled failed the mandated health inspection last year. Two years ago, it was worse, as CBS 2 found the failure rate to be 30 percent. Even though there is improvement, some schools are still not making the grade.
At Pullman Elementary School in Chicago, there were two failed inspections in 2014 due to rodent infestation and live cock roaches. They were found in the prep room dining area and a storage office — findings that shocked one students mother.
“Wow, wow,” Chatika Covington says. “They’re going to have to do something about it. If they found that stuff inside the school they have to for the kids safety.”
“I’m very mad,” says Ameisha Jackson, the mother of another student. “They didn’t tell nobody that.”
At Prosser Career Academy, health inspectors found more than 150 rodent droppings in their kitchen, and ironically, even in the kitchen where culinary arts students learn how to be chefs.
“At the end of the day, our student’s safety is our most important task and so we don’t want to see this at all,” says Leslie Fowler, Executive Director of Nutrition Support Services at Chicago Public Schools.
But pests are not the only problem for CPS schools. Fifty pounds of milk was thrown out at Metcalfe Elementary Community Academy last year because it was not kept cold enough to be safe to drink.
Harriet E. Sayre Elementary Language Academy had a similar problem. The city health department sent inspectors to Sayre after receiving reports last April that 20 students who had eaten chicken nuggets had gotten sick. The inspectors found the school had cooked eggs, chicken nuggets, cheeses, egg salad sandwiches and hamburgers all stored at unsafe temperatures. A stand-up cooler was not maintaining proper temperatures.
“Hot food hot, cold food cold is important, because you want to stay out of the danger zone,” says Fowler, referring to conditions in which bacteria grows. “Bacteria growing can make people sick.”
Fowler said the health department’s investigation of the food poisoning case at Sayre was “inconclusive” as to whether anything at the school caused the kids to get sick because none of them were tested or treated by a doctor.