Teenagers and Food Service (Rant!)

[Marzoli]

I am a Junior Class sponsor this year, and my duties include overseeing the running of the concession stand for ballgames. My job is to order what is needed, make sure things get done on time, and schedule workers. The other sponsors are at the games to supervise.
It is an interesting thing how some people regard a simple concession stand--some people think it is a miniature restaurant! They demand all sorts of foods that we are not set up to serve. We serve hotdogs, pizza, and the usual popcorn/candy items. Today, I was approached about serving nachos. I have seen with my own eyes the low standards of cleanliness that SOME of these kids have, and I would not want to eat anything from a crockpot they had supposedly washed after the previous night's game! Picture cheese that has not been scrubbed off and you've got the idea. No matter how much I tell them ... Anyway, I don't think we'll serve nachos!
Now my point is that a majority of these kids work in fast food restaurants in the area, and I (naively) thought most of them would know how to serve and clean up. Mistake! They're not bad people, but some of them do not understand the idea of FOOD POISONING!
It's a pity that kids are employed and not really taught the basics of sanitary food handling. (I do not eat in fast food restaurants for this reason...)

[kuan]

Well, lucky for us that fast food restaurants try as far as possible to minimize the risk of foodborne illness by building safeguards into their products. Yep, this is the reason why the stuff tastes so bad. Precooked hamburgers which you only need to microwave, salad dressing full of preservatives which come in single serve packs. However, nothing can substitute for good old fashioned common sense. Much can be avoided by frequent handwashing and good personal hygiene.

Maybe if we'd get more funding for basic health education... hrm.

Kuan

[Marzoli]

I'd settle for a required stint in a school kitchen with some MAJOR cooks overseeing the kiddies! Or maybe more emphasis in the home economics classes on basic food cleanliness. Unfortunately, this kind of training never seems to go beyond the classroom--they never see it as a real world issue.

[Peachcreek]

I agree with the sanitation training. I am convinced some people can't recognize dirt! I have to get on dishwashers constantly about the usual-lipstick on glasses, crud on the flatware, etc. You go back and the dishroom looks like a sty. I have seen people mop a floor and have it look worse than before they did it! And this is all basic sanitation. I don't even want to think about cross-contamination, improper handwashing and other less obvious vectors of foodborne illness. You need to hammer that information into their heads! And until they learn, hope the supervisors are paying attention!

[Pastachef]

I absolutely believe that sanitation involving food handling should be taught in schools, as well as at home. It could be a matter of life or death. I've seen some pretty ignorant habits and mistakes among the college kids in the kitchen where I work. The first major problem is that kids their ages are basically lazy. I've countless times found them leaving food out on the counter that requires refrigeration - deli meats, milk, cheeses, mayonnaise. I fear for what happens over the weekends when I'm not there to catch it. The sororities hire bus boys at $8.00 an hour. They may show up two to three hours late, way after the chafers have burned out, to clean up and put away leftovers. They pad their time, do NOT hand wash the dishes which our set up requires, (soap and water washing, then the sanitizer, and put the dishes away wih food dried on them. I have to rewash everything the next day. Our sanitizer is not up to code, and that's another thing I've been fighting about for years. It doesn't get hot enough to sanitize. I think the public in general, (unless they read a lot) is in danger of food poisoning. I've heard too many people say that cooked food is good in the refrigerator indefinitely, and that if it was bad, it would smell bad! ARRRGH!!! People can be stubborn about this too. Case in point - I stocked the salad bar with freshly sliced deli meats one afternoon. The next morning I discovered that someone had unplugged the salad bar, and the food was room temperature. How long I don't know!!! The housekeeper had a fit because I threw it all out! I offered to let her take it home. She declined. I've seen our maintenance man unclog the toilets or get inside the dumpsters and jump up and down on the trash to compact it and then come inside and put his unwashed hands inside the ice machine and salad bar!!! I have no problem keeping my weight down at my job. I won't eat there! The girls use the bathroom and don't wash their hands in spite of the many signs I put up, then they walk past the cereal containers and stick their hands in to get a snack, ignoring the scoop! They blow their noses in the kitchen and then pick at the food without washing their hands. YUCK! We've had he house president lecture about it at meetings. I've complained over and over to my boss. She says she will back me up, but nothing short of locking the kitchen in between meals would work, and they're not going to go for that. Gosh it felt good to rant and get that off my shoulders

[Flash]

This has got to be one of my BIGGEST pet peeves: Sanitation!!!
Unless the kids are SERIOUS about food, and are available, I wouldn't even bother with the darn stand. Anyone gets sick, and it's on your chest--it would bother my conscience something awful.

That said, I think we need to not eat at concession stands run by kids--or at least ones that aren't insepected by the food/health board. On the professional side, in California, it is mandatory to have someone at all times in the kitchen with a state confered sanitation certificate. I didn't used to be like this, however, even this is not good enough for me. I think we should push nationwide for ALL EMPLOYEES of restaurants to be required to have a state sanitation certificate. At the VERY LEAST, ALL EMPLOYEES working in the kitchen. It boggles my mind why this is not already the case.

As for fast food restaurants, please read "Fast Food Nation ," It's truly a remarakble book.


FLASH

[Svadhisthana]

the general public needs to be better educated or become less lazy about it. I hate using a public restroom and seeing women come in, use the facilities and then leave without washing their hands. Or, even worse- change a baby's diaper without washing hands afterwords. EEEWWWW.

[panini]

Pastachef,
These kids are a product of their homes. Its fact that 95%+ foodborne illness occurs in the home.
Don't be afraid to eat out! Your chances are better than going to a friends for dinner.

[Pastachef]

I think you are right, Panini. A couple of times I have had incidents here the kids would go home for a holday and come back with food poisoning. I have to bite my tongue when they say, "But the only place I ate was at home." I'm not afraid to eat out. I just rarely find the time

[Marzoli]

Unless the kids are SERIOUS about food, and are available, I wouldn't even bother with the darn stand.

If only you were my principal, my superintendent, my school board, my community! Ah, but the darlin's have to finance their Prom! When I balked at some of the food demands, I was told that we are there to service the community and some of the people don't have a chance to feed their kids before coming to a ballgame--therefore, we should offer a "meal" for them. Oh, yeah, that was really a fun day! Not only are those kids not SERIOUS about food, but they are not at all SERIOUS about cleaning up the stand afterward, let alone preparing any kind of food during the game! Ha!
Oh well, I'll survive. But it is nice to know that I am not alone in this distrust of some of these kids' hygene habits! They are not bad people. They are just not really careful about things.
This year will end, the Prom will be over, and it will be summer vacation. Then I can wash my OWN dishes!

[Pastachef]

I really have a rant today. Yesterday I made several batches of different cookie doughs and put them in the refrigerator at the sorority for baking today. When I went to get the dough, half of it was eaten raw and there were many finger tunnels throughout. These girls are adult young women. This is gross! Guess what they had for dessert today? Raw cookie dough!

[Flash]

Well, here's one solution.

Make your cookie dough, then roll in plastic-wrap as "logs," making them as big in diameter as the size of cookie you want and FREEZE IT! -- it's harder to eat that way, but still possible. You can keep the odds in your favor if you label it: chicken parts, fish peices for fish stew, or something they are not likely to eat frozen . When ready to bake, slice frozen dough, tray-up, and pop'em in the oven.

freezing dough doesn't work for all cookies, but it does with your basic oatmeal, choc-chippers, sugar etc...

*best when baked on a sheetpan w/silpat (sp?)


Good Luck--and remember, always label (even if it is misleading).





flash

[Pastachef]

I guess learned my lesson. But I didn't want to freeze the doughs for one day. Only to chill it. Besides, the roll out dough wouldn't have been thawed early enough to work with it in the small time frame that I had for such things. I think their behavior was totally childish as well as disrespectful. They had so many snack foods, including an assortment of cookies to appease their greed.

[chefboy2160]

Hey folks , I have 2 boys ages 15 & 12 and they have both spent a lot of time in kitchens with me as they were growing up . They both wash there hands so frequently it realy makes me proud that this lesson has sunk in this well . Teach them at a young age and they will carry it through there life .

[april02]

---I am very sorry about your situation and I want you to know that there are teenagers out there who take working with food at home, in resturuants and even at a snack stand seriously... being one myself. I don't want you to take this the wrong way but... if your kids can't handle it why not nominate their parents. They are much more likely to be concerened with the same things you are... if you have trouble motivating the kids to bring their parents in offer a break on PROM tickets to the top 5 families or something... just something to maybe consider... ---april---