Ryan ChartrandCrispy, fresh lettuce, large, juicy tomatoes, crunchy, flavorful croutons and…a big bold beetle?
In April, Friday the 13th carried more than bad luck as a live beetle made its way into the salad of an on-campus resident adviser.
“I had been looking forward to a nice salad dinner and knew that the only place on campus where I could use a meal on Friday night would be at Garden Grille,” social sciences senior Veronica Moreno said.
“I opened up my salad and took a bite of lettuce and carrots. In the process of chewing my first bite I looked down at my to-go container and realized that there was a live beetle climbing around my lettuce.”
Obviously not expecting that extra form of protein, Moreno spit out her food and made a phone call to the Garden Grille to figure out how the critter had found its way into her dinner.
The chain of campus greens starts at the Cal Poly Sustainable Farm, where the organic farm provides many of the vegetables used by Campus Dining.
“We try to get our greens as fresh and local as possible so Cal Poly is first,” said associate director for Campus Dining Alan Cushman. “Everything is grown organically so they do not use any pesticides. They use all organic methods so we’re dealing with pests and this is a common thing when using methods like this.”
From the growing fields, the Cal Poly farm picks the greens, does their own cleaning process and ships it off to Campus Dining. They then do their own cleaning process.
“We are cleaning our greens twice as a precaution so that we can utilize these organics,” Cushman said “We wash and clean much more than if we were not using organics.”
Despite the multi-cleaning process, bugs can still slip through the leaves, finding their way into food that is being put out to the public.
Usually, ladybugs are the most common insects found in the food. “They eat a lot of other bad bugs so they’re a great benefit,” Cushman said. “And I know that (the Cal Poly farm) has a cucumber beetle that they’re dealing with.”
The specific kind of beetle in her salad was not determined but nevertheless, its surprising presence grabbed the attention of Moreno and Campus Dining.
“We need to know; we want to know. It’s a quality issue and a customer satisfaction issue,” Cushman said. “I really appreciate when somebody does come forward. If people ever experience that, we ask that they please let us know.”
Moreno called and proceeded to go into Cushman’s office where he expressed his apologies and reimbursed her.
“I have a dining plan so he comped my campus express card for $20 and gave me a coffee mug,” Moreno said. “It was kind of a nice cover-up for it like: ‘Oh, you know, sorry about that. Here you go.’ It was a nice gesture, but it was still gross and I’m definitely not going to have a salad from there again.”
With their 100 percent satisfaction guarantee, Cushman said that anytime a situation like this comes up, customers will always be paid back for the inconvenience.
“We want to get money back on their card or get a replacement or something else that they’d like to have,” he said. “We also let the farm know. We don’t want (bugs) in there so we just have to step up our procedures.”
This is the first pest incident brought to the attention of Campus Dining this year, a rare occurrence, especially considering the volumes of salad that go out every day.
Salad bars have popped up all over campus, with Garden Grille and Campus Market using these Cal Poly organic greens. Campus Dining is making the full organic transition with The Avenue next on the list for the change.
“Our main issue is sustainability so we turn local. We are continually growing that program,” Cushman said.