Probe of N.Y. School Cafeterias Finds Roaches, Mice

Cockroach-infested peanut butter, hot chocolate packets gnawed by mice and kitchens without running water were among the violations found in the first state inspections of 129 New York City school cafeterias.

Health Department reports made public Wednesday show some 4,700 violations found in city schools since inspections began last year. The city, which serves about 750,000 meals a day, has allowed the Board of Education to police itself in the past.

Inspectors found undercooked beef, food stored on floors and on shelves near toxic chemicals, kitchens without running water, mice droppings and dead roaches.

In one Queens school, food was prepared in an area contaminated with sewage. At a Brooklyn high school, one student complained that he stopped buying lunch after finding a greasy bolt inside a piece of fish. Another teenager said he had eaten a half-cooked hamburger that he called the “murder burger special.” And 60 students at a Manhattan elementary school became seriously ill earlier this year after drinking pineapple juice.

Board of Education spokesman Frank Sobrino promised that the violations would be dealt with by Aug. 1. He said $750,000 would be spent to improve conditions at the cafeterias cited.

Susan Siegel, principal of a Manhattan school that had more violations than any other, said most problems have been corrected, except the roaches.

“It’s a tough battle to keep [the cafeterias] clean,” Siegel said. “There have been times when it was very bad, when we would wash the tables and the roaches would come right out to get the water.”