By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The Fort Hays State University Student Governing Association is compiling a report on Chartwells after the dining service for the university was cited for 12 priority health violations at McMindes Hall during its Aug. 28 health inspection.

Students will have an opportunity to speak about the issue during an open forum at the regular SGA meeting a 7 p.m. Thursday in the Black and Gold Room in the FHSU Student Union. SGA has also made a request online for students to contact SGA if they have concerns about dining services.

It has recently come to our attention that our on-campus meal provider, Chartwells, has earned an abundance of violations since our contract began. We are beginning to investigate, but we need your help. DM us any issues you have seen or experienced!

— FHSU SGA (@fhsusga) September 6, 2019

Student Body President Brad DeMers also said he hoped to have a representative of Chartwells at the meeting to address student concerns.

He initially said some of the health violations were “shocking.”

“We are hoping to get some stories to see what students are going through,” he said. “We are going to have a Chartwells representative come to one of our meetings to really answer some questions to see what they are doing to fix these issues and what they are going to be doing in the future to prevent.”

The issue first came to the attention of the SGA when a student expressed concern about the violations two weeks ago.

Among the violations were issues of food not being held at the correct temperatures, mishandling of food, dried food residue on utensils and containers, and issues with a hand-washing station. See the complete list here.

Chartwells had a repeat inspection on Monday, Sept. 9, in which they had four repeat violations, including food temperatures not being correct, expired food on hand and a food container not being clean and sanitized. See a complete list here.

After being informed about the latest violations Monday, DeMers said he wished to wait to comment until after the SGA meeting Thursday.

Through a Kansas Open Records Act request, SGA obtained a copies of health inspections for Chartwells for McMindes and the Union going back to 2010.

Those reports showed repeated issues with food not being held at the correct temperatures, issues with hand washing or hand-washing facilities, and issues with food surfaces not being clean and sanitized.

Going back further, there were repeated issues of cleaners not being stored properly and problems with plumbing.

Chartwells was contacted by Hays Post for this story, but an on-campus representative offered no comment.

Hays Post also contacted FHSU about the inspection and spoke with Teresa Clounch, assistant vice president of Student Affairs.

“After [Chartwells] received the report, they began to work on a food safety action plan to correct the violations. The action plan involves training and direct supervisory monitoring of food service operations on the front line,” she said.

FHSU contracts with Chartwells for dinning services. However, Clounch said she was not at liberty to release information about FHSU contract with Chartwells, including the renewal date for the contract.

Hays Post asked Clounch why FHSU continues its contract with Chartwells knowing of its repeated health violations.

“We take very seriously the importance of providing nutritious and healthy dining options for our students, faculty, staff and guests. Chartwells is our partner in providing this service, and they share in this commitment,” McMindes said in an email. “Chartwells’ charge is to hire and train a staff that they are confident in,” she said. “Chartwells has identified areas they need to address, and their senior leadership on campus is actively working to ensure they not only address the items pointed out in the most recent inspections, but that they establish and maintain only the highest quality of food service to our campus community.”

Clounch noted when a food service provider has violations, the Kansas Department of Agriculture does repeat inspections to make sure the violations have been corrected.

“As we look at these concerns that have been shared through the inspection, I and my senior leadership team we are having ongoing conversations with Chartwells that focus on providing the best service to our students and our guests in McMindes and all the other dining locations on campus,” Clounch said. “We are reviewing their operations and their progress on implementing these action plans.”

“They have shared a plan with us and with those directors in different areas. We will be working directly with the staff in those spaces that are the FHSU staff to make sure they are following the plan that has been put in place.”

Clounch did not release specifics of Chartwells’ plan to correct the health concerns. She said Chartwells has a plan to work through their latest violations on Monday, Sept. 9

“I am confident they are going to be able to implement necessary changes to their food service operations and get things in good order,” she said.