Still waiting for them to bring it to the table....
"The complimentary breadbasket is disappearing" by Beth Teitell | Globe Staff May 19, 2014
It would be premature to pronounce the restaurant breadbasket dead. But what was once a straightforward offering has become so tricky that when chef Eric Gburski was deciding what to give diners at Estelle’s, his new Southern-inspired restaurant, pickles seemed a safer option than warm cornbread.
“Not only are pickles gluten free,” he said, “but they’re soy and nut free, and there’s no dairy in them.”
Oh, staff of life, what’s happening to you?
In restaurants all over town, the traditional complimentary breadbasket is disappearing, a victim of two of society’s most powerful forces — the economy and the antiwheat juggernaut.
“You’ve opened up a Pandora’s box,” Mario Mariani, the general manager of Pain D’Avignon, a wholesale artisan bakery and cafe in Hyannis, said by way of starting a discussion on the topic. “It’s a sore point.”
Is it GMO wheat?
With restaurants trying to fight their way back to pre-recession levels of profitability, Mariani estimates that 15 percent have started making diners ask for bread if they want it, and another 10 percent have stopped ordering table bread from his company.
I really have to say, folks, that it really is true that only the 1% significantly gained from the "recovery." There NEVER WAS ONE for the rest of us.
The NPD Group, a market research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y., is also seeing a drop in bread consumption at sitdown restaurants.
I don't like any of the filler they place before you anyway, but then I rarely, if ever, go out to eat.
****************
At the South End’s popular Tremont 647, “One of the things we didn’t like was seeing waste,” said chef/owner Andy Husbands, a longtime antihunger fund-raiser....
Between labor and flour costs they are now serving blue potato chips five times cheaper than bread.
Despite restaurateurs’ fears that diners will resent paying for something that was once free, consultants and suppliers are advising clients to borrow a tactic from the airlines and start charging a little extra....
Now I just feel insulted at this agenda-pushing fare.
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I'm glad I missed the lunch:
"Boston schools food program in chaos, report finds; Report details losses, hostile workplace" by James Vaznis | Globe Staff May 19, 2014
Widespread dysfunction in the Boston school system’s food service program is leading to millions of dollars in losses each year and creating an apparent “hostile work environment” for employees, according to an external review obtained by the Globe.
I can't believe it. I just can't believe it.
The review, commissioned by the School Department and completed last month, found the program had lost more than $21 million over the past eight years, even after the department took steps to rein in costs and increase revenue, such as raising school lunch prices.
I ju$t lo$t my appetite.
The management problems are so dire that the food program even lacks a system to alert cafeteria cashiers about students with food allergies, potentially putting the students at risk, according to the review by the Council of the Great City Schools, a national consulting and advocacy organization.
Okay, that last bit I noticed! This is government that loves its kids.
And the food services frequently plans menus — without consulting individual cafeteria managers — that include products that are unavailable, creating last-minute disarray.
Meaning the kids don't know what surplus government slop is coming at them?
On Sunday, interim Superintendent John McDonough called the findings both “hard-hitting” and “disturbing.” He said the School Department already is taking steps to address some of the problems, such as having the finance division oversee food services instead of operations.
“The review did uncover and made allegations about severe deficiencies that require strong action,” McDonough said in an interview, adding that he was most surprised by the work conditions employees faced.
**********************
In the review, employees described the leadership style of food service administrators as “management by intimidation.” It noted “several employees became extremely emotional” during interviews, while others refused to speak for fear of reprisal.
Who would have ever thought there were bullies in the school cafeteria?! I knew some mean ones, but just figured they were sour old maids.
Cafeteria managers told interviewers they were threatened with reprimand if they asked too many questions of the central food office. Employees also said their e-mails and phone calls to the food service department often went unanswered.
This is a long lunch line, yeah.
The food service program has been saddled with problems for years. Most notably, in 2011, then-City Councilor John Connolly conducted a surprise inspection of several cafeterias that revealed that taco meat, cheese, and other food items were kept in freezers well beyond their expiration dates.
I know, I remember.
In response, the School Department ousted its food service manager, and under new leadership the program appeared to be heading in the right direction. Over the last two years, food services took advantage of special government program to make breakfasts and lunches free for all students regardless of family income, and even started a free food truck last summer that traveled to neighborhoods with a high concentration of low-income youths.
But unbeknown to many school observers, the program’s annual deficits began to rise again.
?????????????????????????
The deficit for last year was $3.6 million and is on track to reach that level again — a situation similar to the financial crisis the program faced about five years ago. Last year’s deficit prompted the School Department to commission the review.
Why is that kid crying in his lunch?
Running a deficit in a program that is supposed to be self-funding is problematic, said Samuel Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a government watchdog.
Then only one meal a day for the kids.
Related: Skipping Breakfast
Just food for thought.
“We thought the meal problem had been solved, but apparently that was not the case,” said Tyler, who had not seen a copy of the review. “That means there are dollars allocated to food services that could be better utilized for classroom supplies or other educational needs.”
In the past, the School Department has largely chalked up the deficit to rising food costs and, until the switch to free meals, families who did not pay their lunch bills.
They made kids cry in Attleboro and Utah.
It also said schools sometimes gave away meals to students whose families failed to fill out applications for federally subsidized free meals, causing the School Department to pick up the cost instead of the US government.
I want to know which bureaucrat embezzled the tax loot.
But the review, which described the School Department as “extraordinarily tolerant” of the financial losses, said the deficit “may reflect a lack of organizational will to address the underlying structural issues within the program.”
The program, for instance, has no long-term strategic business plan and “does not have people with the appropriate skill sets, backgrounds, and training in several key management positions,” the review said.
McDonough said he was unsure if he agreed with the assertion about unqualified managers.
In many ways, the program largely is still functioning in a pencil-and-paper mind-set, paying vendors with paper vouchers and tabulating worker hours on time sheets.
That's weak!
Oh, what a millions-dollar tax break would buy.
The program also lacks some basic financial protocols, such as a failure to reconcile the number of meals sold at the cafeterias with what is billed by a private contractor that supplies meals to the dozen of schools that have no kitchens.
Aaaah! Which well-connected firm?
To fix the problems, the review came up with more than two dozen recommendations, including fully utilizing federal commodities to reduce food costs, computerizing the process of ordering food and tracking work hours, and creating a strategic business plan.
McDonough is expected to give the School Committee a summary of the review at its meeting Wednesday and a more thorough presentation in the coming weeks....
I'm done picking through this plate.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE: Interim schools chief gets glowing reviews, but don’t ask him to stay
Not for lunch, anyway.
Also see: Do no harm to kids
Even the desert sucks.
Related: Skipping School Series: School Lunch
The more things "change".... (blog editor pushes away tray in disgust; not even the prisons would take it).
It's getting close to dinner so I'm going to have to get my plate of gruel. I'll be back later.
