Sudbury Schools Announce Changes After Undercooked Chicken Incident

Eight days after students were fed undercooked chicken during lunch, Sudbury Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Anne Wilson emailed a release detailing changes that will be made to prevent the incident from happening again.

"The safety of our students is a top priority at SPS ..." Wilson said in the email.  "Today, Mary Will, SPS Director of Business and Finance, Bob Leupold, Sudbury Board of Health, and I met with Eric Pimental, Regional VP from Chartwells and Erin Long, Regional Support Manager from Chartwells. As a result of our meeting, the following steps will be taken (in addition to the enhanced monitoring by SPS and Sudbury Board of Health that I detailed in my previous message)."

Effective Monday, Feb. 27, Wilson said there would be a change in the kitchen manager position at Nixon until a new, permanent manager is hired and trained.
 
"Ms. Wendy Bonnell, Chartwells SPS Food Service Director, will be on site at Nixon to serve as Kitchen Manager, as necessary," Wilson said. "Ms. Bonnell also will provide direct oversight during the transition period when the new manager is hired. We will receive documentation regarding the training and experience of the new employee."

Wilson also said the six boxes of the "uncooked" chicken purchased for SPS and delivered to Nixon (one box) and (five boxes) have been pulled from the shelves and will not be used
 
Among the other changes are Chartwells will develop and implement a protocol for labeling all uncooked products, and will provide increased frequency of food safety training from once per week to twice per week for all kitchen staff members. 

"We will receive documentation of the specific training through monthly written reports," Wilson said.
 
Wilson also said as of today there have been no reports of sick students as a result of eating the undercooked chicken. 

"However, we consider this to be a very serious incident that should not have happened and we are working closely with Chartwells as well as providing additional oversight to insure that a similar incident does not happen in the future," Wilson added.