Chartwells held a town-hall meeting on Wednesday, March 4 where students voiced their opinions and told Chartwells executives the issues they had with the food.

The meeting, originally supposed to run half an hour, ran almost a full hour and a half. Students brought up complaints over sanitation, allergens, food quality and staff mannerisms.

“My biggest problem with Chartwells is the weekend food,” Kristina Whitaker, freshman psychology student, said. “Usually there’s a lack of choices, and if there are options, they aren’t good in terms of flavor.”

Other students at the meeting brought up the point that carry-out containers were flipped right-side up, so employees had to put their hands inside of the containers before giving them to the students.

“If I had to say one good thing to a non-OU student about our food service, I’d be able to say the people are friendly,” Whitaker said. “I dread not finding something I like. I’m not picky, but sometimes, something about the food is unappetizing.”

Chartwells acknowledged the complaints, with one of the managers taking notes on what students said and collecting paper copies of the surveys.

“The head chef looked astonished his workers weren’t up to par,” Whitaker said. “It made me feel a bit better because he didn’t know it was such a big issue and was obviously willing to deal with it. That will forever stick in my head.”

Between the meeting on Wednesday and lunch served on Thursday, a majority of the complaints saw improvements.

The front desk developed a new system to hand out carry out containers, where they are closed upon handing them to the student. This eliminated an employee’s need to touch the inside of the box. Drink cups were also placed closer to students for easier access.

Furthermore, staff responded to students comments over some of the food stations being out of certain foods, replacing items in a timely manner.

Head Chef Kevin Peasgood explained that throughout the year, Chartwells has been taking steps to be allergen friendly, but announced a plan for them to separate the top eight allergens into their own station, where students who can’t eat some of those foods can go and get a meal. This plan should be put into place by next fall.

“Communication is big,” Jim Zentmeyer, director of University Housing, said. “So much information came from the meeting. Over 145 student comments came from the online surveys, and we’ve barely scratched the surface in going over those.”

Zentmeyer continued, saying that the town-hall meeting was the best and most effective point of communication found thus far between students and Chartwells.

The complaints weren’t only aimed at the cafeteria food. Some students brought up the issue of lack of transfer meals.

Currently, OU students get three transfer swipes a week, where they can eat in the Oak View Cafe and the Pioneer Food Court. They get a preset meal, as opposed to the all-you-can-eat menu of the dining hall.

However, students had unlimited transfer meals last year, and there was much upset over this year’s reduction.

Gerald Gatto, Resident District Manager of Chartwells, explained that the unlimited transfers were a glitch from switching over to a new server and that it was meant to be three all along.

However, this might be something that changes. Zentmeyer said that part of the new Chartwells-Oakland contract includes there possibly being an increase in transfer swipes per week.

As well as additional transfer swipes, there may be new options in the Oakland Center, as the food court is being renovated this summer.

Chartwells encourages students that have any issues or questions to ask for a manager immediately, and they said they will try and remedy any problems students come across.