Watch CBS News

City Council Looks Into Expired Food In Boston Public Schools

BOSTON (CBS) – The City Council is trying to find out why so much expired food has been found in Boston's public schools.

The director of food and nutrition services for the schools was reassigned after inspectors recently found 280 cases of out-of-date food in 40 cafeterias.

WBZ-TV's Peg Rusconi reports

Councilor John Connolly opened a two-part hearing on the issue Tuesday with a blistering attack on school food management.

"We are seeing a food and nutrition services department with little or no inventory management controls and a lack of coordination," he said.

School Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson also testified at Tuesday's hearing.

"Let's be clear," she said. "The food we serve to our students is safe and let me take this opportunity to assure you that our dedicated and very hard working cafeteria managers and kitchen staff would never serve anything to children that they would not serve to their own families."

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Jim Smith reports

Podcast

The expired food has been removed from schools. More than 3,000 boxes have been set aside at the USDA storage warehouse in Wilmington where the food is kept, because it's still unclear how old it is.

Connolly told WBZ-TV the food may not have been harmful, but it was fiscally wasteful.

"(There was) no coordination between the folks who set the menu and the folks who oversee the inventory. So it created a nutritional disaster for our kids and also a financial disaster for Boston Public Schools and for taxpayers."

A second hearing will be held Thursday night at 6 in Roxbury.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.