Food Services ESP — 
Building a Quality Workforce

Privatization — A Major Threat for Food Services Workers

Privatization strikes Food Services more often and more completely than almost any other category of public school employees. The effects of privatization on Food Services employees are dramatic and long-range, including loss of income, health insurance, and pension benefits. If ESP are retained by the privateer in some capacity, they work for lower wages, often with no benefits, no promotional opportunities and no job security.

There are three general reasons why privatization establishes a foothold in food services: discrimination, lack of certification, and the part-time nature of the work.

• Discrimination — Cooking, serving and cleaning up historically has been seen as women's work. Even though many men have joined Food Services departments, workers still do not receive fair wages and benefits, not to mention basic respect and recognition. In addition, Food Services employees are usually lowest paid, least trained and least respected by school administrations.

• Lack of Certification — This reason for the constant threat of privatization actually stems from the first. Because generally there are no employment standards, regulations, certifications, licenses, or ongoing training and professional development for the men and women who cook, employers think, "anyone can do this." This perception is completely wrong.

• Part-Time Work — The third reason follows the first two. Antiquated schedules for food services based on mothers who volunteered part-time in the cafeteria are still entrenched, so that, except for supervisors' jobs, most food services positions remain part-time regardless of current needs. When the majority of a department is staffed by part timers, it becomes almost impossible to achieve any recognition or enhancement of terms and conditions of employment.

Full-time workers don't have it much better. They are usually quasi-managers or supervisors of departments that are under-staffed, difficult to schedule, and have huge problems keeping good employees or getting substitutes. The struggle for better terms and conditions of employment, job qualification recognition, better defined promotional opportunities, and professional development is ongoing, even for full-timers.

A good first step toward discouraging privatization would be to develop and implement a federal Public School Food Services Certification requirement that would accomplish much the same recognition that the Commercial Drivers License did for public school drivers. It would define skills that must be achieved before an individual can become a part of the public school Food Services Quality Workforce. Enhanced respect and recognition would follow and more impact would be made on terms and conditions of employment for Food Services ESP. The individual would be recognized because he/she is particularly qualified for the job being done.

Privatization Is the Sell-Out of Student Nutrition

Privatization creates a disconnected, transient, and non-resident group of workers who are poorly paid and not committed to the school district or the community. The contractor is generally a corporate entity for which food services often is not the primary product. When privateers invade the Food Services category, two groups in the school will lose out. Obviously, the employees are the most seriously affected. But what Food Services employees understand better than anyone is that students also lose out.

A Basic Fallacy: "Food Service Should Pay for Itself"

Somewhere along the way, the school cafeteria got caught in a really bad idea: that it should be self-sustaining, unlike any other public school activity, such as sports programs or interest clubs. This concept has eroded Food Services programs in our public schools for many years. School administrations use a budget based on tax dollars to operate the school. Districts often run in the red, a deficit that is remedied by more tax dollars or state aid. If a pro-gram runs short of funding, usually another source of money is found, or money is transferred from another budgeted department. Only in cafeterias is it expected that whatever is taken in deter-mines the quantity and quality goes out.

Privateers have been able to capitalize on this bad idea better than anyone. By accepting that paying for itself is appropriate, the privatizers have been able to create a need for their services, lending credibility to the misguided perception that private companies be-long in public schools.

The important message that Food Services ESP must convey in the face of privatization threats is that the majority of Food Services ESP live in their school district, work in their school district, and vote in their school district. Food Services ESP are the resident roots of the neighborhood school.

To Section 4: The 21st Century Food Services ESP — Not Just Lunch Anymore