For school foodservice A- isn't good enough; kids deserve A+

Just how bad is the food served in New York City's public-school cafeterias?

The answer depends on whom -- or, actually, what -- you believe.

When the New York City Department of Health released the results of its nine-month-long inspection of more than 1,000 city school cafeterias last month, local newspapers arrived at dramatically different interpretations of the facts.

The headline of the story reported in The New York Times, on an inside page of the paper's Metro section, read "Health inspectors find most school cafeterias clean and their food safe." A teaser on Page B-1 quoted a Department of Health spokesman's comment that "what we found was comparable to what we see in restaurants."

Contrast that report with coverage in the two local tabloids, the New York Post and the Daily News. "Not Fit To Eat," screamed the front page of the Post. Inside, the story headline read "School cafeterias flunk Health Department tests" even though the article stated, deep in the body of the copy, that the great majority of the schools passed inspection "on the first visit -- after corrections were made on the spot or promised."

The lead sentence in The Daily News' article was "School cafeterias that dish out meals to thousands of students are infested with vermin and riddled with unsanitary conditions."

So, is the foodservice pretty bad or pretty good? Actually, it's both.

The facts were indisputable. More than 4,500 violations were found, about one-third of which were deemed "critical," in roughly 10 percent of the schools' cafeterias. Those violations included foods being undercooked and/or held at improper temperatures, kitchens lacking adequate hand-washing equipment, rodents and insects found in kitchens and cafeterias, and foods being held past expiration dates.

The Times provided the more complete, unbiased account of the report, echoing the Department of Health's "good but could be better" verdict. The Post and Daily News sensationalized the reports by dwelling on the more outrageous details and filling the copy with the most outspoken comments from parents and teachers.

Readers should not be naive enough to take any of the school-cafeteria articles found in New York's newspapers at face value.

The tabloids use sensational news to sell papers, and reporters tend to exaggerate claims or play up the most inflammatory pieces of information. The Post and Daily News pilloried the school district unfairly by overstating the case and leaning too heavily on the worst violations.

On the other hand, it is just as easy to claim that the Times, in both the tone of its article and its placement, downplayed a serious situation to the disservice of its readers.

Give the Board of Education credit. It asked the Department of Health to conduct the in-depth examination. Chancellor Rudy Crew was not required to call in that agency. Crew's office said that all violations would be corrected by Aug. 1, in time for the new school year.

However, that does not excuse the New York City Board of Education. The board has a serious problem on its hands, one that it became aware of nearly a year ago. It is not enough to say that 90 percent of the schools serve safe food in acceptably clean kitchens, or that school foodservice is on par with restaurants in those matters.

I don't have to eat in a substandard restaurant. Thousands of school-age children have no choice when it comes to their cafeterias. In fact, for a disturbingly high percentage of youngsters, school food is the only food they eat on many days. School foodservices in New York, and in cities across the country, have a responsibility to keep their operations clean.

While the Board of Education and Chancellor Crew can decry the tabloid newspapers' reporting of the story as unfair, they cannot ignore one simple truth: You cannot fan the flames when there is no fire. It's long past time for New York City to put out this fire.

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