Stomach-turning lunch meals cause outrage at high school
By CeFaan Kim
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PATERSON, NJ (WABC) — There’s a combination of outrage and disgust at a school in New Jersey over the stomach-turning images of meals being served to students for lunch.
In Paterson Wednesday night, on the menu was a main course of confusion served with a side dish of disgust.
“God bless all the kids out there but no, especially something like that, no,” one person said.
Photos were posted by a parent on social media last week, of the disturbing food served at Paterson International High School.
It looks more like a Rorschach test than something you would eat.
But Veronica Aponte, a former student of the Class of 2019, says this has been a problem for years.
“It was just awful. Like things that were supposed to be cold, they were lukewarm — biting into a chicken nugget you shouldn’t be seeing pink or red,” Aponte said.
“I wouldn’t serve my children that,” Paterson Board of Education President Kenneth Simmon said.
Simmon is now calling for changes to the district’s $5 million food services program, noting about 95% of the district’s students qualify for a free or reduced lunch.
“Many of our students this is the only meal that they get,” Simmon said. “It may cost us more money, but I don’t think finances is something that needs to be the key factor.”
The board president says they could decide to re-train the staff that prepares these meals and that would happen immediately.
Or they could decide to outsource the meals to an outside vendor and that process would take a bit longer.
But either way, he says, the decision will be made as soon as possible.
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