A meal plan here at the University of Maine can put a strain on the pockets of students and families.  The cheapest meal plan available is “The 25 Plan” which offers students the ability to swipe into a dining hall 25 times in a semester for the price of $310.  Plans go up in price from there, including more swipes and options for meal plan dollars attached to the swipes. Students are paying a lot for the privilege of eating at our dining halls. The consensus that most meal plan holders, including myself, seem to have come to is that the quality of food available is more often than not unsatisfactory.  Sodexo, the international corporation to which UMaine delegated the responsibility of dining services on campus, does not have enough interest in the quality of food that it puts out on a daily basis as much as it does its profits.  

The total revenue that Sodexo pulled in during the first half of 2024, was roughly 12,101,000,000 euros (a figure equal to 13,412,748,400 USD), this is a number up 4.5% from the previous year.  In North America, the organic growth was listed as 10%. These numbers indicate business is booming for the massive multinational corporation. As the dollars are being raked in, the quality of food remains unsatisfactory. Anecdotally, just this past week one of the main-line options at Hilltop were pork ribs.  Unfortunately, about half were totally uncooked, with uncooked lumps of fat present in many.  On a more regular basis, hamburgers will commonly have hard bits of plastic or parchment paper present within .  The rest of the food available, usually on the main line or the pizza option, are hastily prepared, making for a negative experience all around. In the effort of fairness, there are a few good options. Stir fry is usually a safe bet, since it’s prepared and made to order. The fries can be great with the seasoned salt, and the fried chicken sandwiches are almost always adequate.  For the most part however, these options are unhealthy. The healthy options available are either on the main line or are just a make-your-own salad. This leaves the more health-conscious students with few options.  More often than not, the main line option consists of some variation of grilled chicken or rice.  I personally have never gotten chicken from the main line that has been properly cooked.  Either it’s as hard as a hockey puck and is far too dry, or pink and totally uncooked.  The rice, to my memory, has never been cooked right.

This is, to a point, to be expected.  It would be unrealistic for us to expect food to be perfect when it sits out under a heat lamp for 15 to 30 minutes. What I am asking for, is the food quality that I feel I’m paying for.  This is an opinion most UMaine students would agree with.  We are paying too much money for a subpar product.  It’s very clear that profit is valued more than delivering what students need.  The dining halls are far too understaffed, even from an outsider’s perspective it’s clear how prevalent the issue is for UMaine dining.  The utensils are always running low, the dish return is always a nightmare and tables are rarely cleaned. There may simply be too few people to take care of the monumental task that is preparing food for the thousands of people who eat at Hilltop or York dining halls.  

It doesn’t feel like I am really asking for all that much.  It wouldn’t take a lot to move from the realm of “inadequate” to “mediocre,” and all we are asking for is some meaningful change.  Perhaps they should pay the current workers more, perhaps Sodexo should spend some of its revenue on better quality ingredients or appliances, and perhaps hire just a few more employees.