Dear Editors,

Thank you for your article regarding the food service at CSUEB.  I believe your comments were spot on.  Personally, I was disappointed the Einsteins Bagel kiosk was not open this summer.  It is such a convenience to have refreshments available on that side of the campus since many students park on that side of the campus.  Even though it is closed, I find it interested the cooling units for the air conditioner or equipment are still being operated.

Unfortunately, I think you just touch on the problems related to food service provided on campus.  In general, I am disappointed with the practices used in the facilities I visit and find the overall quality of the food marginal.  Let me provide some examples that cause concern.

At Panda Express, they have decided not to make plastic silverware openly available to the patrons.  Instead, silverware and drink cups are dispensed by the cashiers that handle the customer’s money.  Although I can deal with the cashier handing me a cup, having a cashier handling my silverware is not appropriate.  Particularly in the cases where the cashier handles my silverware and then puts it in my cup.  Now I have both contaminated silverware and cup.  Cashiers should handle the money, not the food and utensils.

The cook at the cafeteria in the University Union handles the customer order slips as they prepare the food.  These are commonly completed by the customers on the serving counter, which I am never convinced is clean.  Let’s suppose a student sets his backpack down in the restroom because there is no place else to put it.  Later, the same student sets their backpack on the serving counter while they are completing their slip.  The next student uses the counter vacated by the backpack to prepare his order slip and hands it to the cook.  The cook in turn handles the slip and either puts it in the the rack for the order slips or on the food prep cutting boards in front of the storage for the cold items.  You might as well be preparing the food on the bathroom floor.

The cafeteria in the University Union pre-cooks their french fries.  This allows them to quickly prepare them for the students but sacrifices quality.  If they fry the pre-cooked fries in the fryer and the demand for fries is not there, they usually leave them in the fry basket until needed.  At that time, due to the fact that they are cold, they will fry them a third time to reheat them.  Because of this practice, the fries are never particularly good.  Sometimes they have be fried three or four times before they are served hot and saturated with oil.  No crispy french fries here.  Most fast food places seems to have solved this problem.

Finally there seem to be a complete disregard for the campus and the expenses with associated with the facilities.  In the winter or summer when the student center is heated or cooled, it is not uncommon for the food service staff to prop open the doors so they can wheel their carts and supplies to other building.  It is not uncommon for them to simply leave the doors open, making it even more difficult and expensive to heat or cool the student center.  This practice should a disregard for the campus.  Most of us learn at an early age to shut doors behind us.

These are just a few examples of the problems related to the food service on campus.  These are only the practices I see done in the open, I can only imagine what happens behind the scenes.  Although I always expect there to be some problems, the practices I see demonstrate a lack of caring about the quality of the food, safety of the food and being good tenants on the campus looking out for the overall good of the students and its employees.

I hope changes can be made in the future to improve service, food quality and food safety.

Name withheld on request

Graduate Student, CSUEB