The focus on healthy school lunches has sparked change on state and city levels, including major campaigns in Philadelphia and New Haven, and most recently Chicago, where earlier this summer, cafeteria workers successfully pushed to bring a fresh food program that would eliminate pre-plated frozen meals completely in Chicago schools. Following an announcement about cafeteria worker lay-offs last week, however, all that may be in jeopardy.

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have made national headlines over the past few years as efforts to reform schools and close a nearly $1 billion budget deficit led to school closings and mass lay-offs, inciting a teachers’ union strike last fall and multiple lawsuits alleging violations to the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as civil rights violations. Further, given the tragic, ongoing epidemic of violence in the city, parents are rightly concerned about how the closures could impact their children’s commute.

Last week, the city announced another round of 2,100 job cuts in Chicago Public Schools 163 of which were school cafeteria workers; UNITE HERE 1 Local (a food workers union) reports that another 200 to 300 school cafeteria workers may also be cut. UNITE HERE 1 Local, along with CPS lunchroom workers and parents and grandparents of CPS students who led the two-year “Let’s Cook” campaign for the fresh food program, fear that these cuts will put an end to program before it even begins. “We have worked hard to get fresh food in the schools, but cooking food from scratch requires more workers, not fewer,” said Linda Green, a lunchroom worker for over 20 years at CPS. “CPS is not being realistic about what it takes to serve the food these kids deserve.”