CHLOE KOWALYK
News Editor
Ongoing student concerns regarding the inconsistent quality of FSA food on campus – resulting in upset stomachs, allergic reactions and overall dissatisfaction – have sparked efforts by FSA administrators to intervene. FSA has blamed staffing shortages for the problems and has recently taken steps to hire more workers. Whether these efforts will resolve the issues raised, however, remains to be seen.
Just a few weeks ago, Kelly Protz, a sophomore theatrical production and design major who is allergic to tree nuts, had a severe allergic reaction after eating at Blue Devil Grill.
“I got a white chocolate cookie during Mexican week last week and looked at the menu board to see if there were any of the symbols next to it and there wasn’t, so I got it instead of my normal peanut butter one,” she explained.
Protz is referring to the menu board at Blue Devil Grill, which lists specific symbols next to each menu item, indicating whether or not they contain a specific allergen, or are vegetarian or vegan-friendly.
“I had the cookie the next day before my first class of the morning and I felt the texture that nuts have, and I turned to my friend and said ‘this cookie has nuts in it… I have to leave,’” Protz continued. “I was out for almost the entire day because of anaphylactic shock.”
Anaphylactic shock is the body’s response to a severe allergic reaction in which the body releases a flood of chemicals that induces the person to go into shock. “I couldn’t breathe without a coughing fit, I had severe chest pain, my throat hurt,” said Protz. They took Benadryl, and stayed with a friend to make sure that if their symptoms got worse, they could get to the hospital.
Unfortunately, Protz is not the first of SUNY Fredonia’s students to suffer from an allergic reaction due to FSA food and mislabeling. One student, Nadia Stiell, told her story in a The Leader article published online on Oct. 25 in which she ended up in the Brooks Memorial Hospital emergency room after eating dinner at Cranston Marché, and having an allergic reaction due to improperly labeled food.
In response to recent scrutiny by The Leader and other students this semester, FSA has added allergen information to its website, complete with labels for each allergen. Darin Schulz, FSA executive director, said in a Nov. 5 email interview, “we have recently completed an upgrade for the menus on the FSA website that has been in the works for several months. Now, allergen information is available to everyone on campus for every item of food we produce, with one click on your mobile device.”
Although this allergen information is finally uploaded online and easily accessible after years of it not being this way, students are still required to download a PDF file for every single dining hall on campus. FSA could instead print out and laminate these menus, and place them outside of each dining hall for easier access.
In the past few weeks, several other students have come forward with stories of raw or undercooked food, moldy food and allergic reactions. The hit or miss quality of food on campus has even led Allyson Youngs, a junior public relations major, to focus her blog, Fredonia Food Fest, an assignment for a social media class, on her experiences with campus dining. Youngs thinks that the food on campus is mostly decent. In regards to specific food concerns, “the only thing I find frustrating is getting food that is under or overcooked,” Youngs said. “I’ve had friends who have hit their fried pizza logs on the table and they sound like a rock. We pay all this money and it is just frustrating to get food like that.”
Although Youngs is generally satisfied with the food service FSA provides, she said, “I just feel that there should be more of a uniform understanding on how to properly cook food” and cited an incident where she ordered a warm quesadilla-like wrap, and was only given a cold brick of cheese within a cold tortilla. “I couldn’t eat it,” she said.
Youngs does believe that more can be done to address allergen concerns, however, especially labeling certain allergens on the ordering kiosks at Willy C’s. Currently, there is no way to filter out allergens on the kiosks, despite the fact that FSA has the allergen information for each menu item available to them, and even has these same labels on the menu at Blue Devil Grill.
From her experience writing the blog and interacting with students who have had similar experiences as her, Youngs would like to remind students to “just be mindful of the fact that this isn’t home… just find something you like and try to opt for a safe menu item you know you like.”
Schulz also noted that students can bookmark this page for an updated list of food options and allergen concerns for each meal at each dining facility. He also said, “during every incoming student orientation, FSA encourages all students with any type of food allergy or dietary restriction to reach out to the Director of Dining Services, Dean Messina, who will help them navigate dining on campus.”
Previously, Schulz and FSA attributed the poor quality of food to understaffing concerns. One email was sent out to students on Sept. 21, 2021 advertising positions available. Checking through the Dunkirk Observer’s job listings, and plugging in keywords in their search tool such as “FSA,” “food” and “SUNY Fredonia,” no openings for FSA popped up.
I then looked at SUNY Fredonia’s Human Resources page to check for employment opportunities within FSA. To check FSA’s employment opportunities, select “Other Campus and Community Employers” under the employment opportunities tab. A list of companies is included on this page, including FSA. However, clicking on the FSA link takes you to an old, outdated page on FSA’s website.
This webpage advertises job openings for working at “Centre Pointe,” which is the former name for Willy C’s that was changed around three years ago, and Cranston Marché. The webpage also lists that there are only openings for Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., and says that “most positions are filled within the first few weeks of each academic year.” For an organization claiming severe understaffing, updating the webpage and advertising for positions locally would seem to be appropriate steps.
FSA Board of Directors student member Marc-Anthony Bullock said that “to combat the understaffing issues we are facing, [FSA has] to make the jobs appealing to the students. Most of the current staff are either adults or students,” Bullock continued. “There’s a ton of students on campus who have a lot of free time and could use extra money for school and other personal things. FSA needs to advertise that they need new staff members instead of just saying it,” he said.
FSA workers currently get paid minimum wage. In an Oct. 21, 2021 email from Susan Cortes, director of campus payroll services, minimum wage is increasing to $13.20 per hour, effective on Dec. 23, 2021. What remains unclear is whether FSA must comply with the state and SUNY-approved increase in the minimum wage since the email was addressed to “Supervisors of non-FSA Student Assistant and College Work Study employees.”
According to Schulz, FSA has increased its student staff in the past two weeks. “Our successful employee recruitment efforts across campus helped FSA bring student staffing back to normal levels,” Schulz said. “We are excited to welcome this new group of student-workers, who have received in-depth training on all aspects of food preparation, including avoiding allergens and maintaining proper temperatures.”
Training is indeed an issue about which students have voiced concerns this semester. In a Leader interview published Sept. 23, 2021, a student who used to work for FSA who wished to remain anonymous, said “I personally don’t think we had proper training for sanitation and health.” The student explained that they, along with other employees, were just told to do certain things, and said that some students didn’t even know how to properly make sandwiches at the sub station in Willy C’s.
Additional student employees have told The Leader in recent weeks that it has been “extremely difficult training new students this semester; more than usual” and that staff have “not [been] able to give students the training we usually do.”
Despite these workers’ claims, Schulz insisted that new student employees have been introduced to an “in-depth” training procedure. “Along with their training, FSA student employees have a hierarchy of people around them while on the job to guide and support them, including student leaders, FSA unionized workers and managers,” Schulz said.
Bullock feels that the food on campus “needs to taste good as well as look good.” With most on-campus students required to pay thousands of dollars for a meal plan each semester, they should expect a proper meal without mold, dead flies or getting sick due to the presence of avoidable allergens.
Schulz said “despite our team’s best efforts, occasionally an item of food is served that does not meet standards. It is the exception, not the rule, considering the thousands of individual food items or meals prepared on a daily basis.”
Schulz encourages students to let FSA know if they encounter such experiences. “We encourage students, instead of simply posting a complaint on social media, to bring them to the attention of an FSA manager, who will deal with the situation immediately,” he said.
Bullock explained that the board is “aware of these concerns, and as far as [he knows] they are planning to fix them.” “I don’t know exactly what the plans are but I guarantee it will be discussed at future meetings,” he said.
FSA faculty board members were contacted for this story, but declined comment. We reached out to FSA student member Jenna Woods for an update on FSA’s reforms, but due to a family emergency, we were unable to get a response. An update will be available soon. Fredonia students deserve to see changes in FSA operations soon, including better training, greater accessibility to allergen information and a sustainable hiring plan to prevent further staffing shortages and improve the overall quality of food.