MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Recent reports of raw or undercooked at West Virginia University dining facilities was a main topic at the most recent WVU Board of Governors meeting.
A freshman in Morgantown recently posted a picture of an undercooked chicken sandwich she purchased at Cafe Evansdale. The student immediately went to the dining services office, but there was no staff on duty. She called several times and left messages but her calls were not returned.
According to a report from the Monongalia County Health Department, Cafe Evansdale was cited for 10 violations during a routine inspection on Jan. 28. Inspectors cited the establishment for a lack of cleanliness, a damaged thermometer that was not accurate and improper food storage.
WVU’s contracts with Sodexo for its food services. Sodexo Universities Senior Vice President Carty McMullen explained to WVU officials at Friday’s meeting what happened.
“We ordered precooked chicken through our supply chain because of labor shortages and we were substituted with a raw product,” McMullen said. “Maybe we should have pulled the chicken from the menu, but I do believe it was an isolated incident.”
Since that report, changes have been made to make sure food products are safe for students and staff. McMullen also said they are using social media to document the changes.
“We are required to take temperatures of food every two hours. We are now taking them every 30-minutes and our supervisors are taking pictures of those temperatures and posting them to a website,” McMullen said. “We want to be completely transparent.”
WVU is offering Sodexo employees more training and checking their results with expanded audits. The university will also hold weekly meetings called “Dinner with the GMs” to give students an opportunity to ask questions or raise concerns.
“I take personal responsibility for supporting this team and resourcing it as best we can and it’s important to me and us,” McMullen said. “Our goal is to serve student nutritious, delicious meals.”
Merlyn Bowen, Sodexo vice president of strategic partnerships, told the BOG the company is committed to making changes to elevate its performance on campus.
“We take issues like this very seriously,” Bowen said. “We care about our employees and we do know that like us our employees care about our students, we love our students. We consider ourselves mountaineers.”
WVU Vice President Rob Alsop told board members when something does go wrong it’s important to recognize it, own it, find out why and be forthcoming with the people affected.
“We want to rebuild the trust and transparency with those parents and students that were irritated by the incident so we’ll be communicating more,” Alsop said.