ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown School District food service workers are clamoring for a new contract after negotiating in vain for nearly a year.
Cafeteria union workers have crowded into recent school board meetings to complain about poor working conditions, understaffing, overwork and lack of fair pay.
- ASD food service workers are clamoring for a new contract
- They say positions are being cut and food quality is poor
- District disputes claim of job cuts
“Nobody cares about us, even though we do a lot for the students,” South Mountain Middle School kitchen helper Aliena Kates said. “Not only do we feed them and we tried to accommodate, you know, health issues, diets and stuff like that and we still never get appreciated [for] what we do and everything we do."
Workers have been without a contract for nearly a year, with the last contract expiring last summer. Negotiations are ongoing, District Communications Manager Melissa Reese said.
The last contract with the food services union, Pennsylvania Joint Board Workers United Service Employees International Union Local 391 A, was for three years, from July 2019 to June 2022. The food services union declined a request for comment for this story.
Under the agreement, a middle or high school cook's pay rose from $29,850 in 2019-20 to $30,447 in 20-21 and $31,056 in 21-22. An elementary school cook’s salary increased from $28,820 in the first year to $29,396 in year two and $29,984 in the last year.
In 2016, 150 cafeteria workers received an average wage hike of 3.25% per year, under that three-year contract with the school board. That meant a full-time elementary school cook earned $26,505 in the first year, $27,366 in year two and $28,255 in 2018-19.
Susie Beller is the head cook at Ramos Elementary School and has been with the school district for 25 years. She told school board directors at a recent meeting that 18 positions had been eliminated on March 20th.
Interim Business Manager Charles Linderman disputed that food service worker positions were cut. He said there were too many workers, so when people left they tried to reallocate the positions.
Kitchen and school cafeterias workers speaking during recent school board meetings say a lack of staff has made their work harder — so much so that employees sometimes need to leave work for medical treatment. They also said short-staffing causes students to wait in long lines, which means they have less time to eat. The food service workers also complain the food given to students is poor quality and mostly processed.
Lori Hertzog is a cook at Allen High School. She said she has three cafeterias that she has to supply with food. With two people out, she said students don’t have time to eat their food.
“My lines are long. And these kids aren't standing in the lines to eat,” she said. “Or if they do and they get through, they take something off the tray and the rest goes in the trash. So you're throwing money away by cutting our jobs."
Beller said the interim director, Pam Gallagher, eliminated the positions.
"If this processed food is not good for adults, why give it to our children in our school?"ASD kitchen worker Flora Nunez
Gallagher is with Food Service Solutions, the independent contractor that the board hired in November 2022 for $5,600 a month to oversee Child Nutrition Services, conduct a search for a permanent director, provide menu planning and support hiring. The school board hired Gina Giarratana as the director of Child Nutrition Services last month with a $120,000 annual salary.
Many of the food service employees who commented at recent school board meetings asked the district to provide students with better quality food.
Employee Flora Nunez said the school district needs to do away with the processed food. The district currently uses Gold Star Foods and Feezers Foods for fresh and pre-packaged items. Bread comes from Morabito Baking Company in Norristown and milk is sourced from Pocono Dairy.
“Let's talk about food, especially processed food,” she said. “If this processed food is not good for adults, why give it to our children in our school?
Some parents at Building 21 told LehighValleyNews.com in March that because the school lacked a cafeteria, the food had to be brought in, and the meals were not hot. Microwaves had been available to students, but when students made them a mess, they were removed.
After hearing students' complaints about the food, Superintendent Carol Birks said Gallagher and other administrators have conducted some focus groups with students on changes they want to see.
“Students wanted more choice, they wanted more choice based on their ethnic backgrounds, things that are used to eating at home,” Birks said. "And they wanted to have more choice and opportunity in the variety of meals.”
The superintendent said they’ve also started a pilot program at Building 21 where they’ve brought in fast food items from Domino's Pizza and Subway for students.
She said they started the pilot program at the high school in the third week of April because they found few students were actually eating lunch there.
