2008 Woodie Awards
The Racquet Investigates: Insects Found in Whitney Center Spinach
Maggie McCracken
Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: Health
In come countries, grasshoppers are considered a delicacy. Here in Wisconsin, they are not. Students paying more than a thousand dollars per semester expect to be fed quality food. There is no question; the food that a campus serves to its students, especially when students living on campus are forced to sign up for its meal plan, should be of the highest standard, both in taste and in cleanliness. This is why as a student, I was appalled to find a dead, brown grasshopper in my cooked spinach while I was eating at Whitney Center on March 27, 2008.
While it seems fateful that this would happen to the editor of the health section, and while it gives me a great opportunity to write, I don't believe students deserve these kinds of accidents when they have no other choice but to generously pay for the food service the school restricts them to. Due to the school policy, if we live on campus, other than in Reuter Hall, we are forced to pay more than a thousand dollars per semester to purchase the school's meal plan. Since we can't make our own food, and we are forced to survive on the food provided for us at Whitney, it doesn't agree with most students that insects should be found, even rarely, in their sustaining diet.
In interest of the students, I set up an interview with the employees responsible for the food served at Whitney, and whose interests do seem to be serving quality food to the students of UW-L. I interviewed Thomas Dockham, the Resident District Manager of Chartwells, Craig Key, the Operation Director of Chartwells, Don Aspseter, Salesperson of Reinhart Foods (the brand which supplies the foods to Whitney), Mike Merrell, the Regional Sales Manager, and Larry Ringgenberg, the UWL Director of University Centers.
All of the gentlemen I interviewed gave me their reassurances that this was an isolated incident. Mr. Dockham said that in the twenty-six years he has worked for the university, this is only the second time a bug has been found in food at Whitney (the first time, a bug was found in blueberry yogurt). Dockham also informed me that the food companies had relayed to him the fact that many times when you are eating green beans at Whitney, the stems you think are the stems of the bean are actually grasshopper legs. "The food is grown in the ground," said the representatives. "This kind of thing can happen." Despite informing me of this, both Dockham and the Reinhart representatives assured me that students can feel confident in the food they are eating at Whitney.
While it seems fateful that this would happen to the editor of the health section, and while it gives me a great opportunity to write, I don't believe students deserve these kinds of accidents when they have no other choice but to generously pay for the food service the school restricts them to. Due to the school policy, if we live on campus, other than in Reuter Hall, we are forced to pay more than a thousand dollars per semester to purchase the school's meal plan. Since we can't make our own food, and we are forced to survive on the food provided for us at Whitney, it doesn't agree with most students that insects should be found, even rarely, in their sustaining diet.
In interest of the students, I set up an interview with the employees responsible for the food served at Whitney, and whose interests do seem to be serving quality food to the students of UW-L. I interviewed Thomas Dockham, the Resident District Manager of Chartwells, Craig Key, the Operation Director of Chartwells, Don Aspseter, Salesperson of Reinhart Foods (the brand which supplies the foods to Whitney), Mike Merrell, the Regional Sales Manager, and Larry Ringgenberg, the UWL Director of University Centers.
All of the gentlemen I interviewed gave me their reassurances that this was an isolated incident. Mr. Dockham said that in the twenty-six years he has worked for the university, this is only the second time a bug has been found in food at Whitney (the first time, a bug was found in blueberry yogurt). Dockham also informed me that the food companies had relayed to him the fact that many times when you are eating green beans at Whitney, the stems you think are the stems of the bean are actually grasshopper legs. "The food is grown in the ground," said the representatives. "This kind of thing can happen." Despite informing me of this, both Dockham and the Reinhart representatives assured me that students can feel confident in the food they are eating at Whitney.
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