There’s a worm in my strawberries!”
By Janese Low
Finding a worm in the
strawberries is certainly not an
appetizing experience. This hap
pened recently to a student in the
Hamilton complex. It seemed like
one of a long series of complaints
endemic to the food service in the
dorms. The story, however, is not
as simple as the question of
whether dorm food is bad. What
should concern the dorm resident
is the question of choice and re
sponsibility. Institutionalized
food will always have its draw
backs. But UO dorm residents no
longer have the same restrictive
service their counterparts re
ceived in the 50s.Students today
do not have portions of food
slapped on their plate as they
walk through the lines in Carson.
Instead, they can choose from s
salad bar, a hot entree line and a
selection of breads and cereals.
Some students have com
plained the low quality of food
available and the manner in
which the food is prepared. Just
where does the problem lie? First,
a look at the system behind the
food supply. Most of the meats
and vegetables purchased for the
dorms come from local distribu
tors. In the case of fruits, it de
pends on what is in season. Cere
als used in the dorms are the kind
you would normally find on
supermarket shelves. For ex
ample, those made by Kelloggs,
Post and Ralston. Most of the
baked goods come from local
bakeries such as Williams Bak
ery. Sometimes, food salesmen
introduce a new product which
the food service would try. Ac
cording to Fred Babcock, Univer
sity Food Service Director, the
food service has been modifying
its meat purchases such as buy
ing extra-lean ground beef and
less breaded products. Another
idea that is relatively new is
“Fresh Fish in Season.” After
planning for fish in the menu, the
purchaser calls up local suppliers
the week before the meal to check
what kinds of fish will be avail
able. On the day of the meal, the
fish is delivered fresh.
Food preparation is an
other area which has undergone
a few changes, the elimination of
some breaded products has re
sulted in fewer deep-fried en
trees. Fish is also mostly broiled
instead of fried. Food preparation
and menus are discussed weekly
in meetings held by Elva Koepp,
the central kitchen food manager
(and also the only nutritionist on
the payroll), and the supervisors
from all the dorm cafeterias. The
group goes over menus from the
previous year (and from about
the same month) and replaces
items that were not popular with
new recipes or other favorites.
The feedback on such items usu
ally come from the cooks and the
1
supervisors. Information from
the suggestion boxes are also
evaluated.. Some of the recipes,
however, date back to the 50s!
So why the gripes? Ac
cording to Fred Babcock, one of
the reasons is that the current
dorm population is mainly com
posed of freshmen, these stu
dents, he says, are conditioned in
high to believe that institutional
ized food is awful, he also notes
that the complaints come in
cycles. There are usually more
complaints at the end of terms
and in the middle of winter.
When the weather is warm, the
complaints slack off. What about
complaints that there are too
many deep-fried foods? With the
specter of heart disease hanging
over our generation, there is ris
ing concern about the amount of
saturated fats in the American
diet. The food service uses a
quantity of red meats and deep
fried products - shouldn’t
changes be made? According to
Elva Koepp, the food service tried
providing fish and chicken en
trees more often but the students
—. ■ ill
Pesticide Alert
The reason given for the worm is the strawberries was that
the food service chose to buy fruit with less pesticides. However,
other chemicals can also be inadvertently ingested. For example,
all the oil used for frying and in salad dressings in the dorms is
cottonseed oil. Since cotton is not a food crop, the pesticide restric
tions on regular food crops do not apply to cotton. As a result, oil
that is pressed from cottonseed may contain large amounts of
chemicals.
What can you dp?
The first thing is to be informed. You can ask the supervi
sors in your dorm where the produce comes from. They can
usually tell you because packing regulations require such infor
mation to be printed on the side of the box.
You can also visit or call OSPIRG at EMU Suite 1
S 686-4377