Instead
of complaining about the food in the school cafeteria, a little
reporting will enable student journalists to write about what goes on
behind the stainless-steel warming trays and steamy glass.
Consider looking at the county health department’s inspection reports for your school cafeteria. In Pinellas County,
Poynter’s home, inspectors make unannounced visits to each school four
times each year. To see the reports, a reporter need just look up the
health department in the government pages of the phone book, ask for
the environmental health division, and request the inspection reports
of the school. The reports are public record, available for a modest
fee (15 cents a page, plus a $10 research fee, in Pinellas).
In
Pinellas, evidence of roaches or rodents would prompt an
“unsatisfactory” rating, for example, but no schools got such low marks
on the latest round of inspections. School cafeterias tend to be
cleaner, better staffed and better funded than many for-profit
businesses that serve food, said Charles Minor, who runs the Pinellas
office that does the inspections.
He encouraged student journalists to look into the inspection reports for their school or for restaurants that students
frequent. Restaurant inspections are available through the Department
of Business and Professional Regulation, a state agency, and, in
Florida at least, are available online.
Reporting
on the corrective steps the cafeteria has taken – or not – might make
interesting reading. Be sure to review the reports with someone who
can interpret them for you, and to give the cafeteria staff or
administration a chance to respond to what you find.
And remember, the
report doesn't have to be bad to be news. It just needs to be
interesting. And the story needs to be fair, clear and accurate, with
key points of view represented.
Since
the story will be based on facts -- public records that the reporter
requested and received -- it likely will have more substance than the
typical “Isn’t our cafeteria food crummy?” article. The story will
have teeth. And the process of reporting it will have been food for a
student journalist’s brain.
