Just the facts, sir

After 30 years of covering non-commercial foodservice, I admit that I have become a little protective of this industry. Being privy to what goes on in college dining halls, on hospital patient tray lines and in school cafeterias has given me a much different perspective on the challenges being faced by foodservice staffs in these institutional settings.

Knowing what I know, I am more sensitive than most people when I read an article in the consumer media about the quality of food on a college campus, in a hospital or at an elementary school. I bristle at the clichés reporters use, such as “mystery meat,” or when they make generalizations about food quality based on hearsay or on the writer’s own—often one-time—bad experience.

But I understand their perceptions and the fact that they don’t know what we on the “inside” know, and so I don’t make too big a deal about such stories.

However, being a professional journalist, two things are too egregious for me to ignore. One is not learning the facts, and the other is insulting a person or an organization.

On The Daily Meal, a website devoted “to all things food and drink,” editor Colman Andrews did both.  In an article titled “Congress Tells Schoolchildren ‘Screw Your Health’”, Andrews misstated pieces of information regarding foodservice provisions in the $1.1 trillion spending bill passed by Congress. For example, he stated that schools could receive a waiver for the USDA’s whole-grain requirements if they “claim it would be a hardship to substitute whole grains for refined flour.” As school foodservice directors know, the whole-grain challenge hasn’t been so much offering whole grains is it has been getting children to eat them. So the waiver is designed for those schools that have encountered financial difficulty because kids are not buying whole grain-rich foods.

Andrews also said the spending bill “repeals required sodium reductions,” when in fact the legislation merely suspends further reductions.

Finally, Colman slams the School Nutrition Association by calling it “laughably named” and saying it “claims” to be committed to improving the quality of school meal programs. I’m not sure how many school districts Colman has visited or how much time he has spent speaking with members of the SNA or attending any school nutrition conferences. But in my opinion, if you aren’t familiar with the workings of any association you should avoid casting aspersions on its mission or motives.

The Daily Meal, which says that it “produces more culinary content than any other resource,” lays claim to being “your friend on the inside, discovering and reporting with a sense of fun and curiosity.” So I’ve reached out to the editor to challenge that claim as it pertains to non-commercial foodservice. I’ll report his response in a future issue.

Congress may very well have had its own motives for addressing school foodservice in this spending bill, ones that have nothing to do with actually caring about what’s being served in school cafeterias. But school foodservice is a challenging enough environment without being taken to task by people armed with nothing more than misperceptions and third-hand information.

What’s New for 2015

The oft-quoted maxim, “the only constant is change,” certainly was true for FoodService Director in 2014. Most notably, the magazine lost both its associate editor and its editor in the space of a month, prompting me to step back into the role of editor-in-chief. I’m happy to report that, thanks to the support of our sister publication, Restaurant Business, and editors at CSP magazine, we didn’t miss a beat. December’s and January’s issues were published on time with the same high-quality content our readers have come to expect.

This month, we welcome a new associate editor, Katie Fanuko, who will cover healthcare and school foodservice. I will take over coverage of college and B&I foodservice.

We also will be introducing two new elements to the publication. One will be an advice column, in which readers will be invited to ask questions of some highly respected foodservice veterans. The other will be a chefs’ council, which will become our sounding board for all culinary trends, innovations and challenges.

We’re excited for 2015. We hope you are, as well.