Director of dining: ‘We do take food safety very seriously’
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Students spoke out at a FHSU Student Government Association meeting Thursday night about getting sick after eating food from the McMindes cafeteria.
The senior director of Chartwells dining on campus, Amila Ramanayake, gave a short statement at the meeting and then answered questions from student senators and students in the audience. Chartwells runs the dining services at McMindes Hall and at the FHSU Student Union.
The McMindes Hall cafeteria had 12 priority health violations during an inspection on Aug. 28. Four repeat violations were found on Sept. 9.
Jake Boucher, a second-year transfer student, has a residence dining plan. He said he became sick multiple times this semester after eating eggs in the McMindes cafeteria. He told the Senate he also found moldy cheese and bread being offered by Chartwells.
“The panini press is gross,” he said. “I have had to microwave my burgers because they were raw. I pay $4,000 for my meal plan. I don’t feel safe eating in the cafeteria some times.”
Nathan Feldkamp, a junior who lives in the residence hall, also has a dining plan. He expressed concern at the meeting about food being mislabeled. He told Hays Post after the meeting he is allergic to tree nuts, and accidentally ate a cookie with nuts in it at the cafeteria because it had been mislabeled.
Brad DeMers, student body president, said SGA received 11 responses from students in its investigation of the health violations. Among these were students being served raw or undercooked chicken. He also said students complained about food workers not wearing gloves or sneezing or otherwise contaminating their gloves and not changing them.
Ramanayake told the Student Senate he did not wish to make excuses for what happened, but he and the Chartwells staff are working to correct the violations and problems through staff training.
He said he is in daily contact with Chartwells upper management since the violations. A culinary supervisor is set to visit the campus on Monday for an audit.
All Chartwells supervisors are required to have ServSafe training on food safety, and a supervisor is always on duty at each of the Chartwells locations during food service. New employees all go through training on food safety, and online refresher courses are mandated for continuing employees, Ramanayake said.
“We do take food safety very seriously,” he said. “It is a very important part of what we do, especially the quality assurance piece.”
Chartwells has a third-party auditor, EcoSure, that evaluates the food service at its locations. Chartwells as a corporation also does independent audits of its locations, he said. Chartwells has also requested training with an inspector with the Kansas Department of Agriculture, the agency that oversees food inspections in the state.
SGA through the Kansas Open Records Act requested the Chartwells state health inspection records for the Union and McMindes since the Chartwells contract began on campus in 2010.
DeMers said SGA had seen a pattern in which the service would have a significant number of violations then be forced to come back into compliance, have no violations, then the number of violations would spike again. He asked what Chartwells planned to do to be more consistent and prevent violations in the future.
Ramanayake emphasized again training and education were going to be key in solving the food safety concerns.
One student senator asked if employees can be dismissed for repeated health violations. Ramanayake said employees can be dismissed on a fourth safety violation.
Several of the most recent violations during the Chartwells inspections were related to food not being stored and served at the correct temperature. Bacteria and other microorganisms can grow rapidly in food that is not kept cold. Hot food is required to be heated and maintained at temperatures that will kill the bacteria.
Ramanayake said he and other Chartwells staff are being more vigilant about checking food temperature and are teaching associates about the importance of food temperatures.
DeMers asked Ramanayake if employee turnover was a part of the problem in meeting food safety standards.
Ramanayake acknowledged Chartwells has an issue with turnover. He said he did not think it was an issue of pay but the seasonal nature of the employment. He said he is working with Chartwells corporate offices on hiring and retention.
He said associates also may feel the pressure to get food out to the line as fast as possible because lines are backing up in the cafeteria, but Ramanayake said he and the other managers are emphasizing to workers they need to make sure food is cooked correctly and at the correct temperatures before it is served.
DeMers concluded with, “There are a lot of freshmen and sophomores that don’t have a choice when it comes to dining on campus, so I am glad that you came today because this is a big step forward. We really need to address this. I think just continuing the communication and to stop that pattern, I think will benefit all of our freshmen and sophomores and everyone else who lives on campus who eats.”
Ramanayake encouraged students to report their concerns. The McMindes cafeteria has a HappyOrNot terminal where they can report with a happy face or unhappy face about how they felt about their service for the day. Chartwells also has a text service, Text2Chat, that goes immediately to Ramanayake and the supervisor for the specific area for that number — cafeteria, retail, catering.
The numbers are as follows
- Residential Dining: 1-785-261-0240
- Retail Dining: 1-785-261-9990
- Catering: 1-785-261-9991
Feedback is shared monthly with the university.
He also extended an invitation to students and student senators to tour the Chartwells kitchens. He said students can contact him at 785-628-4731. He said he needs at least an hour notice and would prefer to have guests in the kitchens when they are not serving, which would be 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Guests will have to wear food safe attire, including hair nets, aprons and shoe covers.