By Juan Montoya
We got a call this morning from a local businessman who said there were some Brownsville Independent School District employees throwing away entire boxes of food into a dumpster and frankly, we didn't believe him.
But he was adamant that it was true so we made our way back to the warehouses behind the BISD main office on Price Road and took a gander at what he had reported.
Sure enough. There, inside the chain link fence, two trucks were backed up against a recycling dumpster and were throwing away boxes of food into it. We suspected, as did the person reporting the matter to us, by the sound that there full cans of tomatoes (Red Pack) going into the trash. The man in the blue said he was going to report us because we were taking pictures without his consent and got off the truck to take the license plate of our car.
We didn't have the opportunity to tell him that he was a public employee in a public facility and therefore he could not have the expectation of privacy that is afforded to other people. But in his irate state, he wouldn't answer our questions of why he was throwing food away. Now there may be a perfectly good reason (although we can't think of one) of why the district would throw food away in broad daylight when we're sure that some food bank would love dearly to distribute to to needy clients.
We have put in a call to some board members to see whether they can clarify this for us and will pass on their response when we get it.
Later in the day, we got an email from someone we assume works with the BISD and he stated:
"Good afternoon Mr. Montoya. I will only discuss the matter of alleged food waste.
The department you have in question is the FNS dept. The pictures you show clearly show employees dumping cans into a container that clearly states recycling, but what you can't see that the cans are clearly empty. We at FNS dept. have been recycling cardboard and tin cans for over a year. Now, you also state that the cans sound full when dumped into the container. The sound that you hear is actually the empty tin cans falling from about 15' in the air to any empty recycle bin creating a big echo within the walls of the bin. Thank You for your concern in advance and please let the people know, YES WE HAVE TOMATOES )"
Now perhaps someone in administration can instruct this BISD employee on the finer details of the First Amendment.
6 comments:
Juan, perfect food is thrown away everyday in the school cafeteria if the students do not eat it from their school tray. Food cannot be placed back in the serving line if the food is placed in the student tray. This is a federal guideline
and not a school district policy. It is sad because you would think that instead of the food going into a trash can it could go to a food bank.
the boxes look empty
Empty boxes and empty cans go into recycling containers. They recycle.
Why do you try to twist the truth so much?????????????
uh huh
If the guy was just throwing out the recycle trash why was he so paranoid?
Why was the food thrown away? Who gave the orders?
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