Alvernia’s Food Crisis, and How We Got Here

Atticus Wickert Contributing Writer

Pink chicken is not the new green eggs and ham.

Have you ever been through the lunchroom, filled up your plate, sat down and then bit into something that you can swear just isn’t supposed to taste like that? And then for some reason, your food has a texture that just doesn’t make sense?

Students at Alvernia have historically complained about the food. While there have been peaks and valleys in the quality of the meal plan offerings, in general students do not believe it to be very good.

“The Chicken is super dry and sometimes inedible and the quality is different every time I go, I also think that the food could be diversified better and have more options for students.” Said Nickolas Mudjialim a Sophmore student here at Alvernia.

The issues many students who complain about the food have stem from allegedly undercooked food, stale food, inadequate portions, or unappetizing offerings.

“know one time when I ate the food I felt sick to my stomach afterwards for a few days, and I did not like what

I ate.” Said Ryan Silaghi a Freshman here at Alvernia.

The Alvernian is taking a deep dive into why Alvernia’s food is so gross, and what, if anything, there is to be done to fix it..

Alvernia’s food service provider is Aladdin, which is actually a sub-company for a bigger company, Elior North America. Aladdin is employed by at least 150 other clients, and their dining and food is almost comparable at each college.

Having been to three different colleges now, two of which used Aladdin dining services, the food quality has been almost the same. In Columbia College of Missouri, the food was almost always undercooked, and there was never enough food for everyone. Turnover was also an issue. Line cooks would constantly be quitting, and then the cafeteria would be understaffed, leading to more problems with the offerings.

Turnover may also be a problem here. That seems to also be the case here, where Alvernia is going through cooks and head chefs every year, and while there might not be as much of a food shortage here, this contributes to the fact that there are people who just don’t want to eat at the cafeteria anyway.

The quality of lunchroom offerings mysteriously increases significantly when potential students are here to take tours. The bait-and-switch tactics to mislead visitors about the food is arguably not Franciscan. Now there is some food that can be edible, and sometimes they actually do a good job, unfortunately this seems to be whenever students are taking tours through the school.

These complaints are not new. Well-known cases of food poisoning have led some students to only eat at Freshens, which cannot be used for every meal. Why does Alvernia continue to use

Aladdin for food service? Cost may be the main reason.

In the meantime, what can be done? Document your issues clearly and objectively-. If you are wanting to contact Aladdin and complain about the food, you are able to under this link https://alvernia. edudine.com/contact-us-3/. You can also complain to the student government body and bring up how the food is affecting you at sga@alvernia. edu.

Hopefully, Alvernia can solve this food crisis eventually, but until then, make sure to take another look at what’s going into your mouth.