Apr 21, 2009 8:14 am US/Eastern
Are Lowell's 'Lunch Ladies' Being Frozen Out?
LOWELL (WBZ) ―
Remember the lunch room ladies? Those friendly women who helped you pick out your Jell-O and urged you to eat veggies in school?
In some communities they may become victims of the budget axe.
According to the
Lowell Sun, there's a food fight brewing in Lowell over whether to replace the lunch ladies and the hot meals they help prepare with unknown service workers who would serve what one critic calls "frozen TV dinners."
While city officials say they're just trying to find ways to save money, some cafeteria workers call the plan "unconscionable."
Lowell will test a pilot lunch program at one of their elementary schools when kids get back from April vacation. Right now they use "lunch ladies" to serve meals that are prepared at another school and brought over in warming boxes. For the last eight weeks of the year the school will test the Preferred Meals program. That program delivers frozen meals that are compartmentalized.
School officials tell The Lowell Sun they can save almost $70,000 annually because with Preferred Meals, they could cut down on employee hours. A school official also says the meals are a better product than what the students have been eating.
Though Lowell officials deny the lunch ladies would be replaced, the union claims the new program would send "whoever is on their payroll." A union spokesman added "it is unconscionable to replace good workers and healthy meals just to balance the School Department bottom line."
Are the lunch ladies worth sparing? Would the kids be worse off without them?
Join the conversation on wbztv.com!
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