The Bean is responding to a city health inspection in September in for which the campus cafeteria received 14 health violations, including issues related to proper holding temperatures and pests found within the dining space and storage room.
Dr. Ryan Richardson, vice president for student life, said when he saw the results of the inspection, it was his priority the health of students had not been negatively impacted.
“While I am always concerned about making sure that the Bean and ACU dining is always providing an absolutely stellar experience for our students,” Richardson said, “I was not concerned that that experience was being hurt by the things that were cited.”
Ken Weaver, senior director of dining services, said the inspection’s overall score of 85 was largely affected by “minor infractions,” which he finds to be “coachable” issues that can easily be addressed. For example, one of the violations referred to a cup that was left on the food preparation counter of the salad station.
“She just set her drink down and was getting ready for a shift, and the health inspector had happened to be there, and that was only one that was found in the whole facility,” Weaver said. “We just told her, ‘Hey, next time, just make sure, when you come to work, place your cup on a low shelf where it’s not on a food contact surface.’”
Weaver said if taken away this, along with other violations, including a wet rag left on a rolling cart and a cracked utensil, the Bean’s score would have been in the 90s.
“Sometimes the score does not really tell the true story,” he said.
However, news of the inspection and viral social media posts about the Bean sparked discussion on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YikYak about the Bean’s sanitary and nutritional values.
“I was definitely scared to eat anything there, especially the meats, vegetables and fruit,” said Kamile Rodriguez, sophomore nursing major from Hewitt.
One of the posts that Rodriguez saw was a picture of a piece of broccoli with a bug in it, which led to increased complaints from students and parents. Richardson said ACU takes these complaints seriously and launched an investigation to verify the post.
“That one happened to be a national concern that everyone was dealing with, and that specifically had to do with a broccoli product that we discontinued at that moment,” Richardson said.
Weaver said the Bean serves fresh vegetables, so the broccoli was a grower issue, but efforts were still made to eliminate the problem.
Despite these efforts, Rodriguez said she still has yet to see progress in the daily meals.
“It’s been very, very mediocre, like there’s been good days and bad days,” Rodriguez said. “I kind of just go and eat the same things, but recently, I feel like not a lot has been changed.”
Both Richardson and Weaver encourage people to avoid taking their critiques to social media, but instead use the feedback machines in the dining hall, which send them a daily report. Students can also reach out to speak to someone directly and follow @dine_acu on Instagram for updates.
“It’s not that you shouldn’t tell other people your experiences, but if you tell ACU dining, I know them to be the most amenable humans to helping remedy any dissatisfaction,” Richardson said. “We’re gonna keep doing better, more, grow. I want this to be the place that people would prefer to come to eat.”
