Editors' Blog

Here at FSD we've got a lot of opinions. The Editors' Blog is a place where we get to speak our minds. Check back often for posts from Paul King, Becky Schilling, Lindsey Ramsey and Peter Romeo on the foodservice topics of the day.

Do We Need Food Policy Councils?
How involved should government be in our eating habits?
11-19-2012

Part of my weekend reading was an article about the creation of a Food Policy Council for the city of Madison, Wis. According to the article, which appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal, the 23-member council is charged with making “spending recommendations to the mayor and City Council about how to make nutritious food more affordable to low-income residents, boost the local economy and...

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Tale of Two Hospitals
After Hurricane Sandy, whether or not hospitals had power the goal was still the same: feed patients and staff.
11-12-2012

When Hurricane Sandy struck the New York metropolitan area two days before Halloween, some of the most severely affected institutions were hospitals. Whether from flooding, a loss of power or a combination of the two, several hospitals such as NYU Langone Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan had to evacuate patients. Others were able to maintain service even without power, and a lucky few managed to escape relatively unscathed.

One of those less fortunate hospitals was Bayonne Medical Center in New Jersey.  The 278-bed hospital sits in the middle of a narrow strip...

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Crime and Punishment
Detroit school’s lunch ban punishes students with hunger.
11-07-2012

In one Detroit school, if your classmates have a food fight, you lose your lunch for a week. That was the case at McLeod Bethune Elementary-Middle School, a part of the Educational Achievement Authority of Michigan, a district created to help low-performing schools boost academic standing. When 175 students were involved in a food fight last week, the school’s administration decided the punishment would be to suspend foodservice for a week.

I have a hard time believing this was the best solution to the food-fight problem. First, students were encouraged to bring food from home...

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Yes We Can
Another example of the power of the student mob.
11-01-2012

Have you been following the dining services drama at the University of Miami during the last few weeks? The short version is this: A Chartwells-employeed dining services worker, Betty Asbury aka Miss. Betty, was fired from her job after a man walked out without paying for breakfast. Asbury maintains she didn’t see the man because she was ringing up a customer that had come in with him. Because of Asbury’s popularity with the students, they quickly banded together...

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Riding out Hurricane Sandy
FoodService Director will be looking for your “Frankenstorm” stories.
10-29-2012

Here in New York City, the editors of FoodService Director magazine and foodservicedirector.com have orchestra seats for the weather system meteorologists are calling Frankstorm, Superstorm and Storm of the Century. We are working remotely, as long as the power holds out, because the area around our office in lower Manhattan is right in the path of the storm surge.

It was a little more than a year ago when we went through this same scenario, when Hurricane Irene hit the tri-state area in August 2011. But because this hurricane is merging with a cold front from the west, the...

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