Muskingum university is a beautiful school in the sleepy village of New Concord, Ohio. It’s a great place to study with an amazing group of people who feel more like family than peers. It’s great in every way, shape and form and, as a student, I wouldn’t choose any other school to attend. However, as of late, there have been some issues that are impossible to ignore, mainly concerning our dining hall. There are a few grievances I am going to highlight briefly in this description and I hope to make a point to whoever may be reading this petition.

 

1. The quality of the food since the provider Aramark was contracted has decreased significantly. The instances of food poisoning have increased dramatically, and the food is extremely unappealing to the eye and the palate. The pizza is basically cardboard with sauce that is reminiscent of ketchup, the breadsticks are stale half the time, the pasta is mushy to the point where it is essentially a flavorless past and the potatoes have bad spots that show no obvious effort at removal. There are many more bad food experiences, but these are the most common. 

1. The meal plan prices are utterly insane. 3000 dollars per semester for the food mentioned above. I could make better quality RAMEN in my dorm for five dollars a week.

2. The staff all save for the front check in are unimaginably rude, and I personally have seen multiple people with normal-sized plates of food be told to “watch their portions” or “eat healthier” or “eat a salad”. NO SUCH THING should be said, especially to college students, with many of us being self-conscious about our bodies.
The staff also use profanity quite often when asked to refill toppings or condiments, which is extremely unnerving given that they are paid to do such things.

3.  Food poisoning is rampant, with my personal experience of being expecting to have to miss class due to it at least once a month. It takes a serious toll on our grades. 

4. To make matters worse Aramark seems to know that the majority of their food is undesirable and stations workers to ration out the only good food such as chicken tenders so each of us only get 2 or 3 pieces even though it is 100% within their ability to make enough to meet the demand.

As you can see, the current dining experience at Muskingum is quite frankly a mess.

I have very good faith in Muskingum’s staff and I almost know for certain that this was not the expectation when a contract was signed, and I would encourage Muskingum to do away with Aramark completely or reach out to them to tell them their concerns about the unacceptable situations unfolding in the dining hall.

A course of action should look like this:

1. Supervise all workers to make sure they are following proper hygiene protocols and wash their hands before they enter the kitchen,

2. Have admin actually come and eat the food they’re serving us every so often, so they experience what we’re all eating.

3. Make meal swipes useable at the Winn Cafe in the Walter Chess Center due to the actual effort put in there to satisfy customers,

4.  If all else fails, just get rid of Aramark completely. Their food is currently terrible, their service is less than desirable and their workers clearly would rather be somewhere else, so why keep them here?

I hope this petition gains enough supporters to let Muskingum know that if they wish to change food providers, their student body stands behind them wholeheartedly, and we are tired of the nonsense that our dining hall has put us through.

 

Your signature means everything and I hope to gain support.

 Thank you.