Sodexo Faces Health Code Challenges on College Campuses

This headline was modified after print on November 5, 2019.

Sodexo, the French food services company and Marist College’s food service supplier, provides meals to hospitals, private prisons in Europe, clinics, correctional facilities, and more. But the multi-national, multi-billion-dollar corporation found itself in hot water after a recent, though not isolated, health incident on a college campus. On August 29, a student at Minnesota State University at Moorehead (MSUM) found a dead mouse in his food in the Kise Commons dining hall, where Sodexo supplies food services. 

The student, Isaac Oliphant, captured video evidence of the rodent mixed in with his steamed spinach. Oliphant reported to Valley News Live that it was his first time eating at that particular dining hall, and it would most certainly be his last. MSUM blamed Sodexo for incident, and Sodexo has launched an inside investigation. 

Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, has also pushed back against the food Sodexo has supplied. In early September, Citadel students reported multiple rodent sightings and undercooked chicken, which pushed students in the school to start a hunger strike on Sept. 18. Others opted to boycott the school’s dining hall, according to The Post and Courier. Facebook posts showed brown water from the water fountains and pictures of undercooked meat. William Sapp, a graduate from The Citadel in 2011, explained to The Post and Courier that, “‘You’ve got kids who have taken out huge student loans to go to school, and they’re so proud to be there because of the tradition and everything, but they’re living in squalor…”

Steven Sansola, the Marist Associate Dean of Student Affairs at Marist College, said that “it is unfortunate that this is happening at other schools. But this happens sometimes when the colleges do not engage quickly enough with the food provider and then it gets to the level where students may protest.”

Though there may not be mice in the food at Marist, some students have raised concerns about their Sodexo food, even taking to social media. The Instagram account, @biggest_maristdining_fans is co-owned by Talia Logerfo ‘22 and Claire Carmello ’22, who wanted to gather real student opinions about the food served in the dining hall.

The account originated in the beginning of their freshman year at Marist. Logerfo and Carmello both strongly disliked the dining hall food. Logerfo said “We’ve had raw chicken served to us three times at the dining hall, hair in food and bugs in food as well.” They decided to make this Instagram account to express their feelings about the new meals they tried every single day. “As a joke Claire said that we should start an Instagram page, like a finsta about our experiences at the dining hall,” Logerfo said. Their sought to create funny content, something for Marist students just to laugh at and relate to. But things escalated when other students began sending in information about their own personal issues with the dining hall. 

“They started sending us DMs [direct messages] of their experiences. Like one girl sent us a DM of a spider in the salt shaker, and that was just the beginning,” Carmello said. They have received pictures of completely burnt burgers, hotdogs being put on slices of bread instead of buns, and white residue left on the red cups and bowls used in the dining hall. Eventually, Marist Dining staff caught onto the account.  Kate Cole, the Field Marketing Specialist, Colene Doughty, the General Manager, and Sansola contacted the two sophomores for a meeting. 

“Basically, they asked us why we had the account and what it was about,” Carmello said. “And most of the meetings that they arranged after the initial one were focused on what we can do to improve the dining hall.” Logerfo and Carmello would go around to students and ask what they would like to see in the dining hall. The requisite meetings did not come easy at first. Logerfo said that when they shared the list of proposed changes for the dining hall with Cole, she seemed hesitant to accept the complaints. 

However, a few of their suggestions actually did come to light. “We suggested more fresh fruit, so now they do the berries on the weekends. They have the avocado toast on Friday mornings, smoothies on Thursday, pancakes on the weekends, more gluten free options and more,” Carmello said. One night in particular, Carmello and Logerfo remembered being sent in numerous pictures of raw chicken being served in the dining hall. When they told the Marist Dining, they “knew that the chicken was raw that night, but they did not know it was being served that way until after…They found out eventually the whole batch was raw, and they seemed pretty embarrassed about it, and apologized to us.”

Doughty and Sansola both explained that they are always extremely proactive when these kinds of events come to their attention. Doughty said, “When we get a complaint, if we do not get it in real time, it is really hard to understand where we got this product from, so we can trace it back to see who prepared it.” She further explained that the staff would normally find out who was on shift at the time of the preparation of the item, when it happened, what station it was at, who was on schedule and continue to drill back from there. 

“It is important for us to know this information, so we can see if a chef needs to be retrained,” Doughty said. Doughty and Sansola explained that they randomly walk around all stations to make sure everything is running smoothly, but they both agreed that there is always room for improvement and that they value student input.