By Juan Montoya
We guess that greasy, cholesterol- and sodium-laden barbacoa that went bad and was nearly consumed by the children who eat breakfast at the Brownsville Independent School District might have had something to do with the district losing its spot at the top of the statewide list compiled by Children at Risk.
The Houston-based nonprofit dropped BISD from 1 to number 14. All BISD students qualify for free meals because a sufficiently high number of them qualify as low income.Children at Risk "encourages change for children through research, education and by influencing public policy."
The BISD district has been operating without a permanent administrator for its food service programs for almost two years when Sliverio Capistran was found dead in his truck in front of his apartment, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.
Murmurs of discontent surfaced when cafeteria directors across the district's 50-odd campuses detected a foul odor emanating from the bad barbacoa. The BISD moved to stop the use of the processed beef after it found out its distributor – Valco, of McAllen – was having the meat processed in Mexico. VCalco also provided babacoa to other school districts in Region 1 covering the area roughly south and east of Laredo almost to Corpus Christi in the east.
How Region 1 and school district nutritionists gave the barbacoa the thumbs up is anyone's guess. As you can clearly see by the nutrition information tag, there's not much nutrition there. Cholesteral, sodium, and saturated fat are some of the main components.
And even after the BISD administration insisted that the meat was U.S grown, doubts persisted to the point where the USDA launched and investigation that continues to this day.
There were other complaints. Some parents and students said they had been fed bad pork sausage during breakfast, among other things.
The non-profit also ranked other school dsitricts. RGV school districts in the top 10 are: Rio Grande City at No. 2, Weslaco at No. 3, McAllen at No. 5, Los Fresnos at No. 7 and Donna at No. 8. All five districts also provide some type of after school snack to students and most offer supper through the Child and Adult Care Food Program.