Salve Regina University uses Sodexo as its campus food provider. Our main dining hall, Miley, is the largest branch of the various Sodexo branches on campus. Sodexo food is also served at Wakehurst, along with Jazzman's, Sodexo's coffee shop chain. With countless students dining at Sodexo operated eateries at Salve, one would hope that the food is edible and healthy.

All freshman students are required to have the unlimited meal plan option, while sophomores are required to have the 14-meals a week plan. The chart below, from Salve's website, breaks down the meal plan options. The first column indicates the fall semester cost, the second is the spring semester cost and the third is the total cost. Therefore, all Salve on-campus freshman are required to pay $5,490 for Sodexo food.

This wouldn't be a problem if the food were healthy, or at least edible. Tons of students have complained about the quality of food that they've received from Sodexo. Everything from undercooked meat and poultry, to hair and dead insects in student's food has been recognized. Here are a few of the photos shared with me from what student's at Salve Regina University have experienced while dining with Sodexo:

Raw chicken:

"Rainbow" steak:

Dead insect in a salad from Mallorie M. (Yup, there are wings on there.):

Dead ant from a taco:

Dead insect in a salad:

It is absolutely outrageous that this is what these students' thousands of dollars are being spent on. During my freshman year, I would always buy my own groceries or order in takeout (which wasn't good for my waistline or my wallet) because of how terrible the food at Miley was. Many times I would leave the dining hall after seeing more raw chicken on my plate than I could handle. Of course this made my parents upset because they were being forced to pay almost $5,500 for me to have the unlimited meal plan in the very same place that I would get nauseous from. As college students continue to pay thousands to eat this food, some without a choice, how can this possibly this comply with Sodexo's values?

One would think that dead insects in a customer's food isn't within their guidelines of acceptable services. This is the mission statement taken directly from Sodexo's website:

Sodexo states that they strive to, "improve people's wellbeing" in this statement. It is beyond me how these pictures, from actual student encounters at Salve, indicate that Sodexo is "improving" their wellbeing. Granted no college dining hall is going to have amazing, home-cooked food. However, one would hope it would be properly cooked and free of insects. It has not been reported that students have gotten sick from this food, however just hearing about the raw chicken and dead insects in this food is surely enough to make anyone queasy!

So to all the Salve student's who are just as frustrated as I am, I encourage you to stand with me. This is an unacceptable use of our money and we deserve better quality food. Here's to tacos without dead ants and steak without rainbows. So long, Sodexo!