Dec. 4, 2018
By Eva Yeo
The recent E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce has not impacted Dana Dining Hall as much as farmers and some college students.
“To see countrywide how this has affected farmers is astounding,” said purchasing and CBORD manager of Dana Dining Hall Kc Marchione. “Produce is a very time-sensitive food, so romaine is coming into harvest and [farmers] can’t sell it. Their losses are extremely detrimental.”
Marchione stated that there was not a great loss of money or food in Dana because of the E. coli outbreak. “A lot of farmers are hurting more than us. We have great partnerships with our vendors that allow us to make adjustments to our system if necessary,” she said.
No students at St. Lawrence University have reported contracting the E. coli virus due to eating romaine lettuce. However, a freshman at Bates College, who requested to remain anonymous, did. “I ate from the salad bar at my school and I couldn’t leave my dorm for two days because of my symptoms. Additionally, my stomach was in pain for over a week,” she said.
She believes that even though the FDA has narrowed down where the breakout is coming from, it’s still important for schools to remove romaine lettuce from their dining halls so that this doesn’t happen to other students. “The virus seriously impacted my ability to do schoolwork,” she said.
Dana Dining Hall has partnerships with a primary and secondary vendor, and Marchione has worked with the second vendor to purchase different kinds of lettuce besides romaine. “The breakout does affect supply, but it is my understanding that our vendors are taking care of our needs first. They haven’t been shorting us out of our second [lettuce] choices,” said Marchione.
The production manager of Dana Dining Hall, Kathleen VanTwyver, said that the staff was notified [about the outbreak] during Thanksgiving break. Nearly all of the romaine lettuce that they already had, needed to be thrown away. “We had maybe one case [of lettuce] that would have lasted through the break that was disposed of because of the outbreak.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced an E. coli breakout linked to romaine lettuce on Nov. 20, 2018. According to the CDC website, their investigation is ongoing and will continue to be updated as more information becomes available. As of Nov. 26, there have been 43 reported cases in 12 states, 16 hospitalizations and zero deaths.