Adair Creach

“Ughh. Lowry food.” We all know the constant, moaning refrain. You’re stuck with the old standby: black beans and rice again. But before you start to daydream about Lowry being sucked into a black hole, imagine this: a cafeteria with far fewer choices, significantly lowered food quality and less ethical/environmentally friendly sources, run by a multinational corporation with little concern for their employees. Unfortunately, this could be Wooster’s future. Maybe those black beans aren’t looking so bad now.

So besides your tummy’s potential suffering, what else is at stake if Wooster goes corporate? First and foremost, the ensured benefits of food service employees will be out the window. Some would stay on staff, but they would no longer be employees of the College. This means a few things.

First, their future salaries and benefits would be at the mercy of a corporation. Given the track record of how the large majority of huge corporations treat their low level employees, this is not good news. Second, while some benefits such as health care would be available to them after the switch (if, and only if, the company decides to keep them on staff at all), here’s a big one that wouldn’t be: tuition for their kids. This is a huge benefit to their current jobs that absolutely will not be replaced.

But this is not only an issue of social justice for the current workers. It is also an issue of the quality of the food we consume every day and even the environmental impact of the sources of that food. Because our dining services are in-house, we as students have an unusual amount of influence over food choices. When we pushed for Kitt to open for dinner, we got it. When we pushed for more vegetarian and vegan options, dining services provided them for us. When we brought up the need to buy local, suddenly more local food appeared on our menus. We may lose this influence if we outsource. Our cafeterias may operate on a “heat-and-serve” system, and we may not be able to affect where that food comes from or what goes into it. And for anyone out there with dietary restrictions (vegetarians, vegans, gluten-free folks), your options will be severely limited, if not eliminated. Good luck sticking to our mandatory meal plan.

With the loss of our local food and diverse options, we lose something of our Wooster identity. Wooster claims to be a place that is accepting of all lifestyles and an institution that concerns itself with environmental standards. Outsourcing dining services would be a giant leap away from those ideals that make us proud to be Wooster students. This move says that we do not put student health first, that we do not put the environment and local farmers first, and certainly it does not respect faithful College of Wooster employees. Kenyon outsourced its dining services a few years ago, and pretty quickly students and alumni were so dissatisfied with not only the food itself, but also the ideals behind it. Students, do not take this issue lightly. If you feel strongly that outsourcing is a poor decision for everyone involved (except big business), please let our administration know.

Get involved with the Students Against Outsourcing meetings (the next one is Wednesday, March 6, in Severance 009 with John Sell and Laurie Stickelmaier), the Facebook group and online petition. And the next time you start to complain about Lowry food -— because don’t worry, we’ve all been there — think twice.

Adair Creach is a writer for the Voice and can be reached for comment at MCreach15@wooster.edu.