The overall enjoyment of eating on campus has been a point of contention for students and faculty alike for years now, but recently, that has changed from students just not liking the food to questioning the quality and safety of the food that they eat. There have been cases of undercooked and raw food, predominantly from the Social House, that have students concerned.
Chartwells is the catering company that provides food to UW-Green Bay, servicing locations like the Social House, the GB Grill, and the Phoenix Club. Chartwells has been with the school since August 2016, with a recent contract renewal in 2022. Some students have linked the dip in food quality to their contract renewal, believing that the company did not put forth as much effort once their contract was renewed.
Beginning in the spring semester, students have been complaining about receiving raw or undercooked food from campus dining, with repetitive issues with the pizza and the chicken served at the Social House. This has raised concerns over the safety of the food being made, which has left students worried about potentially dealing with stomach problems while trying to maintain their overall school-life balance.
One such student is Zach Bridges. He is a junior who has had a meal plan all three years of his college career but says “the amount of times I’ve gotten bad food has made me consider not getting a meal plan next year.” Bridges has had many instances of receiving undercooked food at the Social House and has had his share of issues with the pizza dough being undercooked. He complained that when he picks it up, “it just droops over,” and upon closer inspection, found the dough to be “way too soft to be cooked all the way through,” saying “it’s just not supposed to look like that” He has expressed that he is nervous about the safety of the food, and has reported stomach issues nearly every time he eats on campus.
A survey of 70 UWGB students found that 43 students had received undercooked food from campus dining services. Students are becoming increasingly concerned with these ongoing issues, and it has gotten to the point where nearly half of the students surveyed said they will not be purchasing a meal plan in the future.
Surveyed students did not have good things to say about Chartwells dining services. When asked to describe on-campus dining services in one word, most students used words like “cheap,” or “bad,” with some even going as far as saying “it’s worse than prison food.” Some students had good things to say, describing the food as “reasonable,” and “decent,” and that “it gets the job done.”
Above is a graph detailing the types and amounts of raw food that students have received from campus dining. The biggest culprit in this issue is chicken, predominantly from the Social House. Eating raw chicken can be very dangerous. Raw chicken has two dangerous types of bacteria in it called salmonella and campylobacter. Ingesting these bacteria can cause severe food poisoning that can lead to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, and chills. This creates a particularly dangerous situation for students. Salmonellosis can last for four to seven days or longer in severe cases, and in most cases is not something students can power through to still make it to class.
While most students are young and healthy individuals, salmonella can be deadly for those with weakened immune systems, or older individuals such as some professors that may use campus dining services. While most young, healthy individuals can recover from salmonellosis in less than a weak, the bacteria can still become deadly if it is able to enter the bloodstream as it can cause symptoms like sepsis, reactive arthritis, and in severe cases, Typhoid Fever.
Even if it does not develop into salmonellosis, the consumption of undercooked chicken can turn into less severe forms of food poisoning. While this is less dangerous than salmonellosis, it can throw students’ schedules off, force them to miss classes or work, and can become very inconvenient for them, especially at a time like these nearing finals and move out day for those living on campus.
The next most undercooked food item that the students in the survey complained about was the pizza from the Social House. Undercooked pizza has many risks that come with it because of the many different ingredients that make up a piece of pizza, each ingredient coming with its own risks when not cooked thoroughly.
Undercooked pizza dough, which is what students complained about the most, can be very dangerous if consumed. Raw dough can potentially contain raw flour, and has a chance of carrying E. coli, which is a bacterium that, like salmonella, can be very dangerous to those with weakened immune systems. Consumption of raw dough can also lead to food poisoning and digestive issues like bloating and stomach cramps.
While most cheese that is used on pizza is already safe for consumption even before it is cooked, there is still a small chance that the cheese can contain harmful bacteria that would not be killed if it is not cooked properly.
Another issue with undercooked pizza is the eggs that can be used to make the dough or the sauce. Like undercooked chicken, an undercooked egg can contain salmonella. For these reasons, whether it be the dough, sauce, cheese, or toppings, it is imperative for the safety of the students that the pizza is cooked all the way through, with no raw ingredients to be found.
The best and only way to fix this issue is to identify the root causes of the problem. It could arise from a number of factors, such as employee training or effort while working, funding or the type of food that is purchased by Chartwells, or even the equipment that is currently being used in the kitchens, such as the grills, ovens, or fryers possibly being out of date or low quality. Whatever the issue is, the only group who can accurately diagnose the problem is Chartwells themselves. Unfortunately, Chartwells was not available for an official statement when approached by The Fourth Estate. Hopefully if students continue to complain about these issues, Chartwells will take a special interest in diagnosing the exact problem, working on a quick, cost-effective solution, and enacting it as soon as possible in order to keep UWGB students safe and healthy while restoring the trust that students once had in campus dining.
These dining issues that continue to plague UW-Green Bay represent more than minor inconveniences and poor taste. They represent a growing concern for the health of students and well-being, as well as a growing lack of trust in campus institutions. Attendance costs at UWGB continue to rise, and with the rising costs, students deserve accountability, transparency, and most importantly, safe food. Meaningful change needs to be enacted throughout campus dining services, whether it be better training, better oversight, more funding, or facility upgrades in places like the Social House kitchen. Until then, it is safe to say students will continue to have stomach issues that can inconvenience their daily life, and some may even go as far as to question the safety of their food, and whether they will continue to eat food that is provided by Chartwells when they return in the fall semester.