I wanted to share some concerns I have had about possibly spoiled food and unpleasant odors coming from the school food and drinks after Spring Break. A few classmates and I have noticed that the food seemed off, and some of the drinks smelled rancid. I believe that this is due to the energy and other issues we may have been experiencing at the school for quite some time. Did the power go out at some point during spring break, causing the food to spoil?

One incident that really grossed me out was what happened with the vending machines. On the second day back from spring break, my friend went to get their food from the vending machine, which dispenses meals students can receive with their student ID and PIN, which contains their DOB. But to our disgust, we found that the sandwich that they received had a weird, slimy residue with a slight green tint to the meat. We decided to disregard that and, instead, my friend went to drink their juice, which was provided with the meal, only to find a slimy texture, rancid aroma, and possibly even mold forming.

It is quite worrying to some to find issues within the school food, which I and many put our trust in and eat. I myself have experienced this when we first came back from spring break. I had gone to get lunch from the usual stand out in front of the med building. To my surprise, when I opened up the container, hoping to enjoy some chicken tenders, I instead found a dead fly. No one likes a dead fly in a closed container of food. Who knows how long it could have been in there? A couple of hours? Perhaps a day? Possibly even a week if it was stored before spring break started. This also applies to the fruit and veggies; I certainly will not even give a single look to the bananas the school provides after finding a particularly mushy banana, as if it were rotting on the inside, even though it looked really yummy on the outside.

What really worries me is that someone could have gotten sick. What if the milk spoiled and someone didn’t realize it until they had already drunk it? That could cause them to get sick. The same thing goes for the juice and fruit. While no one is at fault for this, food storage should have been double-checked before being served to students, especially since, before spring break, the school was experiencing issues with electricity and internet. Overall, this is one of the few times I have experienced this many issues when it comes to school food, but this is an issue that worries me a lot.