City Eats has filth in food

All SF State student Steven James wanted was a side order of mixed vegetables. He got that, and more. Amongst the cauliflower and string beans was a bloody Band-Aid that was used by a cook at the City Eats Dining Center.

This incident, which occurred in September, is just one of several complaints about the dining facility for residential students. After filing a complaint to both President Robert A. Corrigan and Residential Dining Facility Director Annette Pettit, James requested an amendment of his housing agreement and that the cook take an AIDS test. He said when he picked through the food the Band-Aid wrapped around his finger.

Before this incident, employees were asked to wear finger condoms to cover Band-Aids. Now, posted notices in the kitchen read, "No one may work with a bandaged finger or hand without using a latex glove. Please report all bandaged fingers or hands to a manager."

Pettit said there was minimal light in the upstairs kitchen on the morning of a campus-wide power outage in September, but she made the decision for the cooking to continue, since they still had steam and gas for cooking. She said this might have been when the cook took off her finger condom.

"I demanded that they find the person that dropped it in there and that that person be given a sexually transmitted disease blood test," James said.

The cook, Nancy Reyes, said she took the test because she had to.

"I just had to agree," she said quickly, and walked off to ask her boss if she could speak about the situation. She later came back saying "no comment."

The results of the AIDS test came back negative, but James said had it been the other way around he would have taken an AIDS test also.

Dr. Marilyn Wong of the Student Health Center said the chances of a transfer of the virus would have been very slim.

"The HIV virus is a very picky virus, so it does not live well outside the bloodstream," she said.

Relieved that he found the Band-Aid before he ate it, James said he feels bad for the people who ate out of the pan before the Band-Aid was found, but he wants to make people aware.

"I have the grounds for a lawsuit here," James said. "If you can improve the service of the dining center and the food you serve, and the quality of the food you serve, then all the better."

Although two attorneys said he may have a case, James said he is not looking for monetary gain because he doesn't have the time or the money to pursue it.

James said he sees this incident as something that definitely needs to be addressed. So does Pettit, but she said it was an accident, and "accidents do happen in life, even though we don't like them."

For students at the dining center, the accidents are happening just a little too often.

Bright smiles cover a glossy brochure for the residential dining center that talks about providing food that will nourish your body and "delight your taste buds." Students here on campus who have to eat the food say it's anything but that.

"They don't care about our well-being as far as the cleanliness," said history student Kendall McCune. "If this was in the private industry this wouldn't be happening. The health department would be here and shut this place down if it was Lyons or Denny's."

The San Francisco Health Department did appear at the dining center in James' case, but the dining center was not cited because they too thought the incident was not intentional.

Many students said if they could afford not to eat there, they would try to get out of their contract plan, but they said it's really hard to do that.

"I'm forced to eat here. I'm locked in, and I can't get out of it because I've signed a contract that says I'm going to live here and that I'm going to purchase food," McCune said. "It's like buying a used car without even driving it or seeing it."

After several calls to the Residential Housing Department, no one was available to comment on what grounds a student might be able to amend their housing agreement.

An employee who wished to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job said a mouse was also found alive in a fruit bowl about two weeks ago.

Mice rumors about the dining center are moving through the residence halls and the campus like a fanned fire, and many students are outraged and concerned.

Freshman Erin Robin was in the dining area when she heard a student scream after seeing the mouse in the fruit bowl. She started to eat at the dining center again after two weeks, but said she tries to eat there as little as possible.

"My mom's wasting all her money," she said. "I don't want to eat that crap, it's so unhealthy -- I don't want to get sick or anything."

Robin met once with Pettit and then took it into her own hands, contacting the Health Board about the situation.

Pettit said she was not informed of the fruit bowl situation.

"We have mice problems," said Pettit. "It's not like we're breeding them anywhere."

She said mice come in through openings in the facility and exterminators have come. She said she can't keep the mice out if the facility lets them in.

Biology major Mercy Sponsel said she can afford to eat outside of the contract meal plan.

"The food here is not healthy, and it's not necessarily sanitary either," she said. "I can afford to feed myself a lot better than what they're doing for the amount they're charging us, and for the quality of food that they're giving us."

Pettit said cafeterias are always an easy target.

"Can we do a better job? Yes we can. Are we working to do a better job? Yes, we are," she said. "We're meeting with people, trying to be responsive to people and provide food service everyone can be happy with."

Although James has amended his contract and now eats on his own, the cook continues to work in the dining center. No disciplinary action was taken.

[ Golden Gater Online October 26, 1995 ]

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