A Coney Island City Councilmember is taking the city to task — over seasoning.
Councilmember Domenic Recchia is chastising the city Department of Education (DOE) for loading school meals with salt.
“I support any efforts to reduce the amount of sodium currently present in school foods,” he said.
According to published reports, if a child ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in a school cafeteria, he would consume more than the suggested daily allotment of sodium.
“This is not an acceptable practice, and steps should be taken to reassess the menu as soon as possible,” Recchia said.
Not all Brooklynites share Recchia’s fear of salt.
“I’m not very concerned about it,” said Bensonhurst resident Yoketing Eng, whose children attend P.S. 215 at 415 Avenue S and the Mark Twain School for the Gifted and Talented, 2401 Neptune Avenue.
Oddly, Eng’s kids refuse to eat school meals for a different reason.
“They feel that the food doesn’t taste good because it’s bland,” said Eng, who is president of School District 21’s Community Education Council (CEC).
The DOE posts nutrition information on its SchoolFood Web site, www.opt-osfns.org. But Recchia said that’s not enough.
“As the parent of three public school students, I did not know this information was available,” Recchia said. “More outreach needs to be done to educate parents, perhaps through sending this information home with students at the beginning of the year.”
