“Undercooked,” “Chunky,” “Inconsistent.”

These are words students used to describe Hubbell Dining Hall’s food options in a Times-Delphic Dining Survey sent out to the student body that collected 101 responses. The TD compiled these responses and spoke to past and current Sodexo employees about the mentioned issues.

Students perspectives on Hubbell’s food options 

A common response from many students about the dining options was the quality and reliability of the food. 65.3% of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed that the food at Hubbell is high quality, noting several instances where the rice was chunky and the meat was undercooked. Additionally, 44.5% disagreed or strongly disagreed that the options in Hubbell are reliable; one anonymous respondent stated the only standard are the chicken sandwiches on the north side.

“The food is inconsistent at best,” Piper Lebert, who took the survey, said. “It’s rare that I can describe it as good, and [it is] much more frequent that I can’t make it through a meal without feeling like I am going to throw up.”

41.6% of respondents agree or strongly agree that there are diverse eating options in Hubbell, noting that lunch foods are especially diverse but that there is still a lack of options during the weekends. Students also noted that, while there are constants such as the Sizzle and pizza sections in the north side, the lack of consistency in the south side makes it difficult to find anything new and fresh. 

“The permanent side gets old fast, and some of it is never good (stay away from the pasta), and the rotating side only has anything slightly edible 1/10 of the time,” Stella Pihlstrom said on the survey. “I don’t have dietary restrictions, but I have friends who are gluten/dairy intolerant and from what I can tell, the options are abysmal.”

20.8% of the students who took the survey said they have dietary restrictions, many stating they are vegetarian or have allergies. Survey respondents said that the signs containing ingredients for dishes often do not list the allergens. One anonymous respondent said they “will eat a plate of fries for a meal if [they] don’t have any other options.”

While Hubbell does have the Simple Servings, Sprouts and Simple Zone areas, which have allergen-free and vegetarian options, students also reported on the survey that these areas are not sufficiently supplied. One anonymous respondent said there aren’t many alternatives to the allergen-free station. 

“Sometimes there’s nothing in the vegetarian area, or sometimes the cheese pizza is so badly burnt that it’s not an option either,” the anonymous respondent said. “On the weekends, they change the red sauce to a meat sauce for the pizza.”

64.4% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that they eat at Hubbell because it’s their only option, many opting to use their dining dollars at campus locations such as Spike’s C-Store and Starbucks.

“I [try to] make sure I have something else to eat in my room, but I can’t just live off of that,” Maggie Rafferty said on the survey. “I need a meal. It is so bad that I literally live off of bacon goudas from Starbucks so that I don’t have to eat [at Hubbell].”

55.5% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed that their money toward a meal plan is well spent at Hubbell. An anonymous student said their meal plan was a “waste of two grand.”

“It makes me annoyed how much I pay for tuition here and how horrific our food is here. It is almost like a spit in the face,” Rafferty said.

Data suggests that students who purchase a meal plan are on average paying more for Hubbell each month than they would be for groceries. 

The residential meal plan with the least amount of dining dollars is the 205 Block Plan, which supplies the buyer with 205 meal swipes — an average of 13 meals per week — and 525 dining dollars. This plan costs $2,829 per semester. For non-meal plan buyers, meals cost about $8, according to meal plans and dining. 

Each semester is approximately 3.5 months, meaning that this plan’s users spend the equivalent of $658.29 per month on meal swipes, subtracting the amount of dining dollars from the plan’s cost. The average cost of groceries for an American household is about $475.25 per month, according to a USA Today article that used a 2022 dataset from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

69.3% of the students who took the survey either disagreed or strongly disagreed that Hubbell food was accurately marketed when they toured Drake. 

“They clearly put more effort into making higher quality food when tour groups or any off-campus entity is present,” Lebert said. “One of the reasons I picked Drake is that every time I was here, there were food options that I could consistently eat. Since coming to Drake it has become significantly harder for me to get myself to eat every day, much less two or three meals.”

Sodexo did not respond to the direct complaints from the survey in time for the deadline for print.

Health and safety

Students’ complaints about Hubbell weren’t just food-based. 55.5% strongly agreed or agreed that they question the cleanliness of the food and employees. 22.8% were neutral and 21.7% disagreed or strongly disagreed.

“Somewhat frequently, foods will be mixed between containers and/or employees will handle several different foods with the same gloves or even no gloves at all, with zero regard for cross-contamination,” Lebert said. 

Several students noted the use of gloves as inconsistent, sometimes nonexistent. One anonymous student noted they’ve seen employees use their phones and touch their faces while wearing gloves and then serve food without changing their gloves.

“I watched them take the same gloved hand, get a meat patty and then touch a spatula and then another meat patty. Not cool,” Rafferty said. 

Daichi Watanabe, a sophomore who worked at Hubbell in spring 2024, served food in Sprouts, the vegetarian section, and cleaned tables and condiment stations. 

“I remember some [of the cooks] didn’t use gloves,” Watanabe said. “I never saw people washing their hands. But I hope they clean them [after using the bathroom].”

The current policy for workers is to always wash hands in between tasks.

“Employees are instructed to wash their hands for at least 20 seconds with hot, soapy water,” Samantha Matt, Hubbell’s dietician, said. “They are to wash their hands when starting work, switching tasks, preparing allergen-free items and after taking out the trash and going to the bathroom.”

Incidents where hand washing policies haven’t been followed are commonly talked about between workers, not just students. Quincy Hill, a first-year who currently works in Hubbell, said he’s “heard cases of a worker not really washing their hands after they use the bathroom.” While he finds it “repulsive,” it isn’t surprising to him.

“It’s not about the workers themselves, but I do feel like, in general, people don’t tend to listen to rules like that,” Hill said. “Especially since they’re in a rush to get back to their stations so they don’t think much about it.”

While these complaints are common throughout the student body, not many students know what to do with them.

“If someone is certain that they witnessed a worker leave the bathroom without washing their hands, I’d advise them to report it to an executive,” Hill said. “Sanitation is something that should always be taken seriously, and our head chefs are strong believers of that.”

The health and safety concerns aren’t only centered around hand washing. Some students in the survey expressed concerns that the kitchen wasn’t sanitary. But according to Watanabe, it is.

“It’s a really, really clean place,” Watanabe said. “They clean every day. The refrigerator inside of the kitchen was really clean, pretty sanitary.”

While the kitchen may be clean, students are still worried about the care put into ensuring utensils and dishes are sanitary for use. One anonymous survey respondent claimed they’ve had “multiple pieces of silverware and cups that had black tar left over on them and [they’ve] also had hair on silverware.”

Pihlstrom spoke about uncovered bowls of ketchup students scoop from and employees picking up utensils off the ground with gloves on and not replacing them.

“I know people have gotten sick from Hubbell, which just makes me more scared to eat there, but I also don’t want to starve,” Pihlstrom said.

Complaints sent to Sodexo concerning the health and safety of Hubbell are shared with the entire management team, Matt said in an email to The Times-Delphic. 

“If an issue occurs, we discuss it as a team to determine what could have caused it and what we can do to prevent it from happening again,” Matt said. “If the student provides their contact information, we do our best to respond and address their issue within 48 hours.”

If employees are caught violating health and safety protocols, Matt says they are dealt with immediately.

“Employees are first issued a warning and are provided with any additional education they may need to understand how to properly follow the protocol,” Matt said. “If the issue persists, it could progress to write-ups and eventually termination.”

Students are encouraged by Sodexo to contact Hubbell’s general manager, [email protected], with their complaints and worries about the dining locations on campus. There are also flyers around Hubbell with a QR code to a survey made by Sodexo where students can leave their opinions on the dining hall itself.