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Georgia State’s dining hall food quality is not up to par with the university’s growing student population.
Some students say they’ve gotten food poisoning and even found bugs in their food. However, dining hall users haven’t reported these shortcomings to staff.
Georgia State student Lennis George said he got sick last spring semester after eating a burger from Patton Hall’s dining hall.
“I told all of my friends and everyone else that I knew, because I wanted everyone to be aware. However, there were still multiple people who got sick not too long after I did,” he said. “After getting sick I tried my best not to eat in either of the dining halls. I would eat fast food instead. I grew very fond of Zaxby’s.”
When asked if he reported his illness to a PantherDining staff member, George said no.
Response needed
Georgia State student Andrea Durojaiye said she got sick in March immediately after eating dinner in Piedmont North’s dining hall.
“When I got sick, I realized that I had contracted food poisoning from the dining hall, because I rarely throw up,” she said. “Immediately after eating my meal I began throwing up and for several days after the incident, my stomach was uneasy, and I had a constant need to use the restroom.”
Durojaiye said she didn’t tell anyone she fell ill.
“I didn’t complain to anyone, because I had no idea of who to complain to. I mentioned my sickness to a few staff housing members and they too acknowledged that this is an ongoing problem,” she said.
Assistant Director of PantherDining Suzanne Paltz said students should tell a dining hall manager if they think they’ve gotten sick from eating food from the dining hall.
“There are methods that allow students to give us feedback; however, students don’t utilize them,” she said.
Photo by: Jacob Lawton
Georgia State student Nikolas Holloway fell ill “once around the end fall semester and multiple times throughout the spring semester of last year.”
“I didn’t complain to anyone, because I didn’t know who to tell,” he said.
Durojaiye also said students joke about the cleanliness of Piedmont and Patton Hall kitchens.
“The hygiene in the Piedmont and Patton kitchens has always been the butt of all housing jokes, to put it lightly. I should have complained to the dining staff but I believed that they too had a notion of what was happening but chose not to address it,” Durojaiye said.
She said for the amount of money dining hall users pay, they shouldn’t have to deal with stale food or infected meat.
“What I want to know is where my money is going if it’s not going into the adequate preparation of meals,” she said.
She said the manager will conduct a thorough investigation immediately about students’ concerns about PantherDining.
From the Farm to your Plate
Paltz said PantherDining gets their food from two main suppliers, US Foods and Athena Farms.
She also said some food items come from Sysco, a vendor that also provides food to Sodexo.
“Our chefs order foods with help from our food management software program called Foodpro, based on a rotating 4-week menu cycle,” she said. “From there our chefs and cooks prepare the menu items based on production reports and recipes that are a part of the food management system. Then the food is presented for service. History helps us tweak our production so that we know what to make more or less of.”
Progress at PantherDining
PantherDining is bring new developments to dining hall users. They are developing a mobile app, commuter meal plans are coming in the spring and nutrition consultation is available to students.
Last month both Georgia State dining halls were also awarded the first 2-star certified green dining halls within the southern region of the United States, according to Georgia State’s website. The certifications were given based on the categories of disposables, energy, food, furnishings, building materials, pollution and chemical reduction, and waste and water usage.
Georgia State, the University System of Georgia and Corvias Campus Living also broke ground on a new student-housing complex and additional dining hall on May 14. It is expected to be ready for the student body by the Fall 2016 semester, according to Georgia State News.
