Monday, November 10, 1997
Hershey, Hilgard House plagued by food woes
HOUSING: Residents ill, Department of Health gives clean bill of
health
By Hala Ali
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Residents of Hershey Hall and Hilgard House say they routinely
check for mold before taking a bite of their pizza at the Hershey
dining hall.
And they also claim they occasionally suffer from "intestinal
distress" because of the food.
Unfortunately, relief doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. A lack
of resources, a small budget and a possible lack of attention may
have left Hershey and Hilgard residents with poor living
conditions.
Housing officials deny neglecting the two residence halls and
say they are doing the best they can within their budgetary
means.
The loudest complaints have been voiced regarding the dining
services of the two residence halls, which mainly house graduate
and transfer students.
Residents claim finding bugs in their food, mold growing on
bagels and on the bottom of pizza, hair in their yogurt, hot food
served cold and vice versa – the list continues.
But these concerns are being addressed, according to Mary Nevin,
director of dining services.
"The staff has made some changes in the menu, including
exhibition cooking a couple times a week and upgraded equipment to
hold food at the right temperature," Nevin said.
But residents don’t seem to notice these changes.
"The food quality is garbage," said Meredith Larsen, a
third-year biochemistry student and Hilgard resident. "We get the
bizarre pieces of chicken – necks, backs."
Larsen has contacted the Health Department about the problem and
is waiting to hear from them.
Sasha Goodman, internal vice president for Hershey and resident
representative of the Hershey Food and Environment Committee,
claims to have found bugs and hair in his food, and complained of
pink, undercooked meat.
Everyone at the two residence halls has had some sort of
intestinal distress two or three times a week because of the food,
according to Larsen.
"I can’t think of anything else that could have caused it," he
said.
Residents made other accusations regarding the handling of food
and the cleaning and cross-contamination of dishes.
However, Hershey dining services management refutes these
accusations.
"The food is fresh every day," said Ray Anciano, the dining
services manager for Hershey. "If it wasn’t, we should have been
shut down by the department of public health by now."
According to Anciano, the Health Department made a surprise
visit to Hershey dining last Wednesday. No violations were
found.
Despite his assertions, residents are still concerned with the
quality of food they are eating.
"We have met with everybody about this," said Ruben Garcia,
president of Hershey Hall. "The food is not up to par."
The variety of food provided in the cafeteria is also a major
concern of the residents. According to Larsen, the brochures
describing the residents’ meal plan said that they would have as
many as 10 different entrees to choose from.
"We have yet to see any one of those," Larsen said.
Vegetarian dishes have proven to be a challenge to dining
services as well. According to Garcia, soups that are supposed to
be vegetarian contain meat, and Italian foods that are supposed to
be vegetarian have meat sauce.
With thousands of students to feed – some are vegans and some
are vegetarians who will eat dairy products – providing dishes that
are acceptable to everyone can be a difficult task.
"We can’t offer a vegan item every day, but we continue to work
with students to balance (their needs)," Nevin said.
Food quality and variety is not only a matter of convenience and
taste. According to the residents, it is also a matter of finances.
Many students believe they are being cheated out of their money
because they pay as much as residents of other dorms.
Hershey has less resources, skimpier facilities and a smaller
budget even though its residents pay from $5,200 to $6,600 per year
– the same as the residents on the hill.
"This represents a financial hardship for me and my house mates,
as we are being held hostage by our dining plans," Larsen said.
Goodman speculates that the reason for the disparity is the
larger number of UCLA undergraduate residents, who may have more
money to spend. Graduate students are fewer and tend to rely more
on grants and financial aid to pay their tuition and housing.
Although some of the residents, such as Garcia, are concerned
with food quality, they do not place the blame on the managers of
Hershey dining.
"The cafeteria is trying, but they don’t have the staffing or
structure like the other dorms," Garcia said.
Because Hershey Hall was built in the 1930s, it does not have
the capability to house the more modern equipment available in the
newer halls, such as Rieber and Sunset. This modern equipment,
according to Goodman, includes pizza ovens, grills and dishwasher
machines that scrub the dishes well.
Renovations to upgrade the facility to accommodate new equipment
may cost up to $20 million. This may be one of the reasons for the
discussions regarding the possibility of tearing down Hershey Hall
next year.
"Business Enterprises (which is in charge of on-campus housing)
have been very indifferent," Garcia said. "They have the attitude
to let us scream as much as we want because Hershey is going to
close in nine months."
Anciano, the dining services manager, does not seem to pay much
attention to these discussions. He believes that Business
Enterprises is renovating all the dining halls in segments.
"Hershey’s turn is going to come," he said.
But since Hershey Hall is going the way of the dinosaurs in a
short nine months, Business Enterprises doesn’t seem to have much
time to renovate the dining facilities.
In the meantime, many of the residents have taken action to try
to solve the food problems.
The Hershey Hall government has set up a food hotline, as well
as an e-mail address, for residents to report any problems they see
with the food or any illnesses that they believe may be connected
with the food. They are also in the process of developing a web
page.
According to Garcia, many people have complained to both hall
government representatives and the dining hall management, but the
only way these problems can be addressed is if they know the
specific date and time of the incident.
Anciano has also tried to ensure that student concerns are
heard. He meets with the Food and Environment Committee once a
week. His response to students who claim finding bad food is "Put
(the complaints) on my desk."
However, Larsen argues that it is the dining staff’s job to find
bad food, not the residents’. As well as contacting the Health
Department, she and others at Hilgard have been keeping a log of
problems they see with the food.
Goodman will continue with his efforts to improve the quality of
the food and says he will support any sort of action. "(The food)
is a running joke. ‘The food is so bad it’s … ‘" Goodman said. "I
don’t want our food to be a running joke."
Garcia agreed.
"We’re here to study," he said. "Why are we being taken away
from stuff that doesn’t need our attention?"