Students at the Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) are voicing their anger over online images showing rotten lemons and uncooked pork served at its residence cafeteria, which is provided by Aramark.
Aramark is a U.S. multinational food service corporation which also runs food services at Carleton University.
Aramark representatives met with the school’s students’ union (MUNSU) members March 27 to discuss matters relating to immediate health and safety concerns.
“Their response to us was that they took full responsibility for the immediate health and safety issues,” said Robert Leamon, executive director of campaigns for MUNSU.
Images posted on MUN Dining Services’ Facebook page throughout the past two years show plastic found in soup, a moulding lemon found with oysters, raw pork chops, and a dead fly in a taco.
The most recent photo to spark online controversy was the raw pork chop.
MUNSU started a social media campaign titled #StopAramark criticizing the company that runs food services at schools and prisons across North America.
There is also a petition on change.org demanding better health and safety standards.
As a result of recent uproar on social media, new measures attending to food quality at MUN’s cafeteria are being implemented.
“Over the past few days, a thorough food safety assessment has taken place, including daily food quality tests, and we requested an additional food safety inspection from the province,” the university said in a statement March 26.
Aramark will also bring in a third-party company to audit health and safety protocols and bring in senior leadership to review menu and food service procedures, according to the statement.
Katie Power, a second-year MUN student who eats at the cafeteria twice a day, tweeted a photo of a dead fly found in her friend’s meal Feb. 27.
She said her experience with MUN’s cafeteria has been steadily declining throughout the year, but since outrage at the school over the online images climaxed recently, Aramark has maintained rigorous food inspection protocols.
“This situation has been a wakeup call for them,” Power said. “They are obviously trying to make a change. Whether that’s to fix the image of them that’s being created, or because they actually care about the health and safety about the employees and the students, at least they are changing.”
Power said students, the school, and Aramark have all reacted promptly and thoroughly.
David Van Dyk, district manager for Carleton University’s Dining Services, said in an email Aramark conducts “extensive inspections regularly, and use the results to address any issues.”
Van Dyk said cafeteria supervisors maintain time and temperature logs, check equipment, and as an added measure, when necessary, “utilize a third-party auditor to ensure our locations meet our high safety and sanitation standards.”
MUNSU’s #StopAramark campaign also addresses issues relating to the university’s mandatory meal plan and privatization of dining services across Canada.
Leamon said students at a town hall meeting held March 25 were upset over the mandatory meal plan’s financial strain.
“There’s no opt-out mechanism,” Leamon said. “The financial stress of students is also starting to pile up . . . we’re still seeing students forced into debt.”
Daniel Henderson, a second-year kinesiology student who eats at MUN’s cafeteria twice a day, said he was satisfied with food services but thinks the mandatory meal plan should go.
“To be paying so much for something of that quality is a bit ridiculous,” he said.
