By Elana Joy Bartlett
LAST SEMESTER, a female dormer was hospitalized due to what she claimed was “bad dorm food”. Today, some dormers claim that they get upset stomachs because of the same reason.
“How can they be so sure that the dorm food was really what made them sick? Some claimed that that was the case, yet we later found out that they had also eaten somewhere else,” Jasmine Jean Espino, Silliman University Cafeteria Manager said.
No Food poisoning
“If the food was really that bad, if there was really “food poisoning”, then it would affect a lot of people, not just one or two,” Espino added. She explained that if that were the case, the university would shoulder any liability, because the school is responsible for its students, especially minors.
“Once, when a report came of a cockroach’s part being served with the dilis, we stopped serving dilis to our dormers to avoid the reoccurrence,” she said.
Response from Dorm Presidents
Pedro Mabanan, Woodward Hall President, gave a written statement: “There are times that they [dormers] prefer to eat outside. [This is] probably because they don’t like the food that is being served [in the dorm]. Should they [SU Cafeteria] wait until such time that no dormers will decide to eat the food from our cafeteria?”
SU cafeteria does have a supervisor. But according to Espino, this supervisor is not always present. “It’s really up to the cooks to check the food,” Espino added.
The cooks have been oriented time and time again, and if their performances do not improve, they are reassigned. This is done to make sure that the dormers get “good food”. Espino said: “While we admit that we have lapses and that there are some dishes that the residents don’t relish, we must also recognize the fact that each person has his/her own likes and dislikes in food, and we cannot possibly satisfy everyone’s taste.”
Justin Val Virtuzado, Vernon Hall President, said: “Well, sometimes the food has blood, and sometimes the meat is too tough… There was a time my dorm mates warned me to not drink the soup because a dead cockroach had been in it… but the food’s not really that bad. [Hopefully] there would be more variety, and the food would be wellcooked… I do understand it’s hard to cook the food well because there are so many dormers… There are times when the dorm food does taste good. I just hope it would be like that all the time.”
Only used as reason
“Dormers leave SU dormitories because they say the food is terrible; when maybe in reality all they really want is freedom from the curfew rule,” Espino said.
She added: “If the students claim that the dorm food makes them sick, then they should prove it. [They should] preserve that particular piece of food, or at least tell their dorm managers right away. The dorm managers will then inform us. Then we can take the necessary steps to try to make sure the same thing will not happen in the future.”
