Is Our Cafeteria Safe? Health Code Violations Spark Concerns

By Max Baron

Irvington High School and its food provider, Aramark, are currently under fire after an article from The New 96.1 which covered “31 Restaurants in Westchester County With Healthcode Violations.” Although most of the list included actual restaurants, our high school-middle school cafeteria and kitchen was reported at number 17.

The article noted seven health codes that our school has violated, regarding issues such as a lack of efficient cleaning, improper storage of food and equipment, possible access for rodents to enter, and much more.

Irvington has been long known as a prestigious town with successful schools and high taxes to support the town’s unique and historic amenities. However, with a report of health violations at our own school, it seems that some change must be made for the well-being and health of students and teachers at Irvington High School.

Our cafeteria is shared between the middle school and high school, which means there can be over 100 people in this space some periods of the day. Therefore, it is extremely necessary that we keep it clean and safe. Many parents of Irvington students are concerned by this recent news about the building where their children spend a lot of their free time, as well as eat, while at school. Students, however, seem to feel less urgency about confronting this issue in our school community.

Eleventh grader Carter Pollack explained, “it was definitely very surprising to hear about these violations, but I’ve never had any negative or health-threatening experiences in our cafeteria.”

Most of the violations listed in the article had to do with ‘behind-the-scenes’ aspects of our cafeteria, such as kitchen cleanliness and food care. This might explain students’ weak stances on the issue. Whether or not this news worries you as a member of the Irvington community, the situation is undoubtedly a reminder to do our best to take care of our school environment. Although we cannot control the state of our cafeteria kitchen, we can do our best to keep the areas that occupy students extra clean.