The 40 Worcester School Cafeterias with the Most Health Code Violations

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Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Patrick Sargent, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

A review of all 52 Worcester Public Schools cafeterias over the past four years (2011-2014) has found hundreds of health violations at the city’s public elementary and secondary schools.

Health code inspectors noted that some school cafeterias had evidence of rodent and insect infestation, stoves and refrigerators were not adequately cleaned, broken and hanging ceiling tiles in food prep areas and, at nearly all the schools, the temperature for the hot water at hand sinks was not at the regulated level of more than 110 degrees.

SEE SLIDES BELOW: #40 to #1: The Worcester School Cafeterias with the Most Health Code Violations

Vanessa DeArman, Project Coordinator for the Food Safety/School Food Safety Program with the National Environmental Health Association told GoLocal, "Equipment and facilities are two of the biggest issues facing school cafeterias related to food safety. These two areas are often noted on health inspections as needing improvement.”

Of the ten schools with the highest amount of violations, eight of them were secondary schools. Only Forest Grove Middle School (#11) was not in the top ten.  

GoLocalWorcester asked Amanda Wilson, Worcester's Director of Housing and Health Inspections, what the reason would be for all of the secondary schools to be so high up on the list. 

Wilson said, "You’re looking at that data differently and that’s actually pretty interesting. There are several elementary schools that we pair down to middle schools, so when you have a lot of wear and tear on facilities, then there tends to be additional need for repairs. When you’re coming to a school with 400 kids at an elementary school, and then you’re moving to a school like Forest Grove, you’re doubling the number of kids and people coming in and out of there every day. So you’re going to have that additional wear and tear of equipment, staff, people and all of that combined. I would also take into account the age of the buildings as well.”

Nearly every single one of the violations were abated within weeks of the inspections. However, on multiple occasions throughout schools in the city, food service was stopped and not allowed to continue until the problems were resolved.

“We have incidents where if the violations were not corrected by a certain time that we’ve notified the school, then they would not be able to have service there if it wasn't corrected by a certain time," said Wilson. "Those are typically done through email communications to multiple parties through their lunchroom staff and the people that are in charge of the facility. One of those instances may be the hot water, and restoring the hot water. It may be that they’re waiting for a part or something like that, but in an instance such as that, we cannot allow the cafeteria to operate like that."

DeArman added, "USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) provides many training resources related to food safety, including training and guidance related to the required food safety programs based on HACCP principles. USDA also funds the National Food Service Management Institute, which provides a wide variety of resources, such as Food Safety in Schools, and provides face-to-face and on-line instruction. USDA also funds the Center of Excellence for Food Safety Research in Child Nutrition Programs, which provides training for state agency and school nutrition directors on food safety. USDA is establishing professional standards for school nutrition directors and employees, and food safety is one required area."

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Related Slideshow: #40 to #1 - Worcester School Cafeterias with the Most Health Code Violations

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