I NEED HELP!! My School Lied to Me and No One Will Help

[Patrick]

Dining On Lies

I am currently a freshman at the University Of San Francisco. I have been a vegetarian for four and a half years. I am writing you because of a situation that has occurred with the vegetarians on campus and the food service in our cafeteria. Part of the reason that I chose to attend USF was because they stated that they had food for all dietary needs, and specifically vegetarians. Upon arriving at school I was initially disappointed with the options that I had to eat. I understand that this is a common concern for vegetarians but this is not the reason I am writing you. At the beginning of the year my vegetarian friends and I were concerned as to whether or not the French fries were vegetarian. We asked the man preparing the fries and he assured us that they were. My friends and I ate the French fries on a regular basis for about six months, feeling ill after eating them every time. Also during this time my friend was served calamari and told that it was a vegetable. She stayed in bed for two days, not able to keep any food down. This occurrence increased our concern as to the validity of the vegetarian labels given to the food. About three weeks ago, as we were eating the fries, one of our friends told us that they were indeed cooked with the chicken. We went into the cafeteria and asked the chef who proceeded to hold up a large box of vegetable oil and ask, "Are you happy now?" The days passed until one day I entered the cafeteria I noticed that the chicken fingers were being cooked in the same oil as the French fries. My friends and I decided that it was high time to ask someone in charge what was really going on. We asked to speak to the manager and she assured us that it was, and always has been, their policy to cook the French fries separate from the chicken. She stated that, "(they) needed to remind the team of the correct way to prepare the fries." She assured us that this was a one time mistake but having seen this done on many occasions my friends and I decided to be much wearier of the French fries. The following day we returned to the cafeteria and noticed that fries were being cooked in all three containers of oil. At this point I asked to speak to the head Chef. He came out and I asked him what the policy concerning the French fries and the chicken was. He said that he has been working there for a year and a half and had never heard anything about cooking the fries separately until the previous day when the manager, the woman that I spoke to on the pervious day, told him that they needed to change what they were doing. At this point we realize that not only was this a one time mix up but that we had been eating fries cooked with chicken all year long. I, seeing the cafeteria similar to any restaurant, asked for the money that I had spent on the food back. They stated that any money issue was not their problem and that I needed to talk to the man in charge on hiring and paying them. After a full day of running around, being tossed back and forth from department to department, we finally found his office. He was not in the office at the time, so my friends and I left him a note and said that we would be back to talk to him when he returned. When my friends and I returned to his office, he sat us down and said that he had received our note and that he had talked to the manager and there was nothing more that could be done. I told him that I wanted my money back because we were lied to and that we had been unknowingly poisoning our bodies with their food. He stated that “poisoning” was too strong a word and that I was getting too angry over this issue. He took down my friends and my information and said that he would be contacting us. I received an e-mail from him later that week which stated that he is "I am denying your request for a refund on your Flexi-meal plan. You must either use the funds by the end of the school year or forfeit them." He did not address the issue of us being lied to, nor did he apologize to us for the mistakes that had been committed. He blew us off as if we, and our beliefs, were not important. We returned to his office unsatisfied and confronted him about not addressing most of the major issues. He told us that there was nothing that he could do for us and that we should return the following morning to talk with him, the head chef, and the manager of the food service. When we entered his office, my two friends and I felt immediately on the defense. They reiterated to us that they had done many things to improve the choices for vegetarians and vegans in the cafeteria. We told them that the choices were a smaller part of the issue than the fact that we had been lied to and were eating, to us, poison all year long. They refused to apologies or to offer any compensation for the damages, both mental and physical, that they have caused us. And this is where the situation stands; they refuse to give us back the money that we have spend already, they refuse to give us back the money that we haven’t spent on our meal plan, they refuse to apologize, and they are going to take no action to inform the rest of the students of what has occurred. So at this point my friends and I are at a dead end. The only person that has authority over this man cannot meet with us until the last day of school. I don’t feel like anything is going to be resolved regarding this issue and I would like to know what my legal rights are in this situation. They lied to us about the content of their food and they don’t consider it an issue. I know that if I was in a restaurant, this would not be the service that I would receive. In addition, I feel that if I was Kosher and they had lied to me about something being Kosher when it wasn’t, that I would receive my money back in a heartbeat as well as an apology. I believe that these people feel that my beliefs are not as important as it would be if it was my religion. I would love any guidance or support that you could give me and my friends. Thank you for taking the time to listen to my concern.

[Warren]

I'm very sorry that this has happened to you and can definitely relate. I am not in the law field but I would suggest that you speak to an attorney to see that your legal rights are and whether or not you could bring a lawsuit against the school. You might be told that there isn't anything you can do but at least you will know for sure. That's all I can suggest. I hope something positive will come of this. Good luck.

Warren

[lauren]

i think there a number of options that you have, however, most will take some time.

These are ideas on what i might do:
Get the school paper to do a story on it
Meet with the Student Government if there is one
Speak with any professors you are close to and see if they have any advice or if they can help spread the word
Go up the chain of authority and document in writing who you have tried to meet with and their response.
Basically building a case that you are trying to go through appropriate channels.
Offer suggestions to the food service.
Does your school have a law school of sorts?

i would try to use this situation to educate others about choice issues and animal consumption.

i am not sure when school ends but it might pay to stir up some controversy and get this issue on the minds of students and possibly try to get local media to cover it.

i think this can all be done in a very respectful way -- without demonstrations, etc but consistent.

Just my random thoughts.

lauren
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[animalattorney]

I can write a "Change-Your-Practices-or-We'll-Sue-You" Letter and see what they do....(Most likely change their practices)

Let me know if you're interested...e-mail me since I usually don't check this list - thanks

Christine
_________________
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Christine Garcia
www.animalattorney.com

[mike]

I completely agree that you should not have been lied to and perhaps what they stated about their menu choices was stretching it a bit. A big bit! The kitchen and food is only as good as the students demand so please take your passion for better food and make this a project. This is what college offers, a chance to explore your passions, and I can feel from your story just how passionate you are. Food shouldn't be cross contaminated and a kitchen supervisor that cares about student's health should be in charge. You can help educate the school. It's a reverse role. You have created an opportunity for yourself to explore your passions. I think USF food service may be evolving to the next level and you may be there to help them see the light.

I want to also say that what you see going on in that kitchen is a relection of what goes on in restaurants everywhere. You are learning a lesson that will stay with you your entire veg life.

We did a fun thing in college. We didn't have a big cafeteria or food service, it was a small school. We started a food co-op and had about 40 students involved. For about 25 dollars a week we were able to give everyone in the co-op a big box of veggies and bags of grain because we bought everything wholesale. Once a week we would purchase veggies at the early morning commercial vegetable market and go to the warehouses of the natural foods distributers and get bulk quanities and bring it to our school and devide it up. It was a great way meet people and learn how to stretch money. But this was art school and there were many alternative types of people that already were vegetarian or moving in that direction. College is such a wonderful place to experiment. Take your passions and learn to fly. Everything is possible.

[Gemini]

Just wondering if there's an update on what happened with this? Any more news/reaction from the school?

[LHLisavegan]

I'm sorry that this happened to you. The group Vegan Action has a specific campaign on getting vegan food into college dorms/cafeterias. Check them out and perhaps they'll be of help, especially as far as working with you to get veg*n foods available in the future for you and others who are interested in having veg options. They're at veganaction.com

[Guest]

I dont understand..I wrote a couple long responses to this but they are no longer here...what happened????
John

[tammy]

It gets confusing when people put the same post in multiple forums, as the original poster did. I think you probably replied to the "other" post.

You can use the search link (top of screen) to find everything you posted, or the link below which contains your forum id:

http://www.bayareaveg.org/forum/search.php?search_author=VeganReikiAngel