The Los Angeles Times – Joy Resmovits
“Liliana Rodriguez was alarmed when her son told her he bit into a meat patty and felt his teeth come into contact with frozen meat. Tuesday morning, she found a way to air her concerns when Steve Zimmer visited her child’s school, Vine Elementary School, in Hollywood. Zimmer stopped by for the first day to talk to parents, in a conversation that switched between Spanish and English. “I’m a very involved parent,” said Rodriguez, mother of a fifth-grader at Vine Street, and a 12-year-old who went to Vine Street and is now in 8th grade at a different school. Rodriguez quickly became accustomed to her sons’ food complaints, and initially tuned them out. But she started taking their gripes seriously about three years ago, when she drank from a school-supplied milk carton and it didn’t taste quite fresh. Her sons told her that the food is often undercooked. Sometimes, they bite into patties and feel something frozen. “My kids don’t like to eat at school very often because the foods are frozen.” She says this is a concern for the kids, but she also worries about wasted food.”(more)