If you haven’t heard the usual adages about how similar Sodexo’s offerings in Englar Dining Hall are to prison food (we’re just one tier away…), hopefully my experience should give the word on the street some validity.
I found a maggot in my salad from the salad bar on Monday, September 17th. That’s right, a worm. Well, not really a maggot. Those things fester and are pretty tiny. I suppose I mean a grub, but that would probably invite some kind of macabre irony about me eating some grub in Glar. No. I made sure to rush that bowl over to the manager on duty who whisked it away with all the grace of a manatee before returning with the blanket statement that the food is so “fresh” that sometimes the workers cannot control for foreign objects.
To her statement I angrily responded that those behind-the-scenes workers probably handle all the salad bar components with their hands (gloved or not) considering spinach leaves and the like do not simply grow out of the ground into those white rectangular containers. Clearly someone should be looking for these vomit inducers, considering restaurants nationwide have been shut down for similar offenses.
And as a sickened friend of mine with who I was eating brought her unfortunately uneaten meal to the washing station, she overheard the employees talking about how they found ‘another one of those worms.’ I guess this kind of party pooper is not as rare and noteworthy as it sounds.
Now here’s the real problem. There are certain workers in Glar that entertain the hell out of me, in both good and bad ways, and Rita Webster has been most helpful getting food on the bar for this vegetarian athlete; however, Sodexo really needs to get a handle on their employees to ensure that creatures do not hang out between the folds of your pasta, the leaves of your lettuce, or the slices of cheese in your sandwich. Thank you.
Editor’s Note: Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Beth Gerl has released a statement with regards to this letter to to the editor.
As with all opinion pieces from contributors, the opinions and views of this piece are not necessarily the views of the McDaniel Free Press or its editors.
Hope this is an isolated incident. I’d heard that everyone loved the food at Glar 2.0 The staff should isolate the type of food that’s introducing that contamination & toss it out. Even if means putting a sign on the salad bar, “Due to conditions beyond our control, there’s no salad today…”
If there was any doubt that Mr. Stein is indeed a blithering idiot, surely the above contribution will remove said doubt. I sincerely hope he is not a journalism major.
Sodexo is the official foodservice provider for the US olympic team. If their food is good enough for real athletes (and it is), then it is certainly good enough for the spoiled, whiny “vegetarian athletes” (lol) of a small liberal arts college in suburban Baltimore. If this person had found a band-aid or a piece of glass (something that could ACTUALLY BE CONTROLLED by Sodexo employees) in their food, then they would have a legitimate grievance. Instead he just comes off as a churlish fool, and I suspect that is just what he is.
Sodexo also provides food for prisons. The quality of the food provided is not constant across all institutions it provides food for, so who cares who else it provides food for? And if it’s not an isolated occurrence, they need to be doing something about it. And they may well be. It’s impossible to tell from the statement released, but that’s par for the course as far as bureaucracy goes.
I eat in the dining hall everyday, and I love the food! I think that the dining hall manager has always been super helpful, polite and in many cases gone out of her way to be helpful. The new programs and menus are way better then they have ever been. Jason Stein is clearly just looking for 15 minutes of fame.
“Sodexo & McDaniel College are truly committed to providing great food & service to the McDaniel community. Recently a small green leaf worm was found in a bag of cleaned chopped lettuce delivered from our vendor. While this was an isolated incident, we have contacted the vendor and they are investigating. In addition, we have taken additional measures onsite to attempt to prevent a similar occurrence. Our team of professionals is available to address any concerns & ensure that our customers have a great dining experience. We encourage feedback from the McDaniel community in several ways; email us through the dining servic webpage or by seeing us in the dining hall.”
The idea that any of the above article is a legitimate complaint should be immediately stricken from the mind for 2 reasons. 1 there is no proof any of this happened anoint could all be a simple ruse to get published for petty reasons. 2 the poor writing of this shows that it was either written in a big huff with out thinking and contains personal attacks rather than well thought out remarks about the quality of the food. Is the food in englar as good as our mothers home cooking? no but then our mothers are not cooking for several hundred people each day, day after day, all year long. congratulations you found a worm in your food and decided to write a “spicy” article to make a name for yourself. well mission accomplished you are now known as a whiny asshole by the greater McDaniel community who complains, makes personal attacks and offers no proof.
I think some of (the majority) of the comments above are extremely insensitive and completely uncalled for. What if it was you that found the worm in your food? You would be extremely angry that there was an animal in your food. I never thought Glar had good food. I also had a grudge against Sudexo going into my freshman year because they provided food for my high school and if you can believe it, the food was worse in high school. I give Jason Stein major props and congratulations for having the nerve to openly criticise Glar. I know most you would not doing anything about it. He obviously wants things to change and is taking the initiative to start the change. Being someone that ate in Glar for 4 years, and only enjoyed it for maybe 20% of the time, I think Glar definitely needs to change and be much more careful about what it puts out for people to eat.
When you criticize Glar like this op-ed does, you are criticizing the people that work there. That is plain and simple. It’s not like the food magically appears from the glar god and maybe if we sacrifice a lamb at midnight we can have chicken tenders tomorrow. When you criticize glar you are criticizing every cook, server, cleaner and supervisor in there. I find it exceptionally obnoxious that us here at McDaniel (predominantly middle class kids) are going to complain like this without even contemplating “hmmm, I wonder how much he’s getting paid. I wonder if it’s enough to live on, or does he have to work another one to pay the bills. I bet it sucks getting here at 5AM to set up breakfast”. But no, instead we walk up, look disgusted and yell about a worm in the greens. Yes, Glar is run by Sodexho, but bringing a grudge against a multi-national company and then yelling at the employee that is putting food on your plate for working for them is a crappy way to go about it. I’ve been going to Glar for a while now and this is the first time I’m hearing anything like this. That means it’s NOT A PATTERN. Also, thank a college employee the next time you can, god knows they deserve it for putting up with us.
Are you all saying that Jason has no reason to complain? That having live worms in your food isn’t of concern? And how is wanting vermin free food an attack on Glar employees?
I have a hard time taking complaints seriously when the student complaining don’t know the difference between maggots and worms, insults the manager’s physical presence (“all the grace of a manatee”) and doesn’t seem to realize that yes, the employees probably find worms on occasion because, well, vegetables grow in the ground. If it HAD been a maggot of course it would point to a health hazard. I’m sure the employees do their best to find the little buggers before serving food to students but really a little leaf worm is not going to hurt you, it’s not “dirty” and maybe you should learn to roll with the punches a bit more (and maybe visit a farm for a day!).