Reheated food has been provided for the last 4 weeks: students demand a deadline

Continued from front food, and also to offset some of the additional food shops many students are now forced into spending as they can no longer eat college food. We recommend extra financial support for those who receive the Durham Grant.

• A set deadline as to when our kitchen will be back to normal, and promises for additional compensation should this deadline not be met.

• A timeline in which we will see refurbishments of college accommodation. Feeling the impact of work being done on our kitchen, for the benefit of other colleges, whilst we ourselves are living in run-down accommodation is unfair, demoralising, and reinforces the idea that Aidan’s is a college not valued by the University.

• Somebody from the UEC to come down to the JCR to listen to our concerns and explain why Aidan’s was decided as the college to be co-opted into a project for the be erment of self-catered colleges.

The open le er is signed off saying, “We understand that many of the points in this le er may have never been considered during planning projects. However, you can no longer hide behind naivety. We have provided clear evidence as to the mental, physical and communal detriment of this project. You must act accordingly.”

On 27th January, the coorganisers of the open le er received a response from Jeremy Cook, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Colleges and Student Experience). In the le er, Cook wrote “As you know, a Central Production Kitchen [CPK] is required to provide formal and event catering for self-catered colleges. In recent years, the number of self-catered colleges in Durham City has increased in response to student demand for self-catered accommodation, and this is likely to continue.

“The University has rigorous protocols in place for its senior catering staff to manage specific incidents around food safety. The first step should always be to report any concerns in relation to food safety to your college’s catering team, who will initiate the investigation procedure. “

Liv Eren, one of the organisers of the open le er and St Aidan’s student, described the response from the Pro Vice Chancellor as “meagre” and “it doesn’t really address our concerns, if anything it blames us for being so upset about it”. She also argues that asking for £1000 compensation per student for the poor food quality is a fair ask considering the University is spending “huge sums of money on expansion and other projects”.

She described having personal experiences of mouldy bread and said she was only eating 30% of the food due to its poor quality. She said the food quality is “so bad, you just become desensitised”.

She questioned the University’s decisions saying “Why on earth are we transporting Aidan’s food around Durham when you’ve already established that you have a spare kitchen in Hild Bede why are we suffering, eating meagre meals everyday for other colleges benefit?”

Students have expressed issues with the food triggering disabilities. One of the students who signed the le er said “the food changes have affected me quite a lot. I have an autoimmune condition which limits swallowing, meaning it’s important that the food quality is good. In recent weeks I’ve found myself skipping meals due to being anxious about the food triggering symptoms. I’ve experienced meals which are generally bad quality, reheated, and unappealing, such as the photo where we were trying to figure out what it actually was.” in individual sauce, salt & pepper and yoghurt pots having a large environmental impact.

St Aidan’s JCR president, Joe Eaton said: “It’s clear that for some people living in college at Durham University is looking less and less a ractive. To be clear though, this is in no way the fault of the amazing catering and servery staff at our college. This isn’t their doing, it’s the doing of a flawed, reckless and over budget university infrastructure policy that has consistently overlooked the needs of both the students and the college. As a student leader, I will always support, at any opportunity, students standing up for something they believe in.”

Former St Aidan’s College JCR president and current Durham SU president Joe McGarry said “Students pay extremely high fees, and also have to put up with very low standards. The college staff and student reps raised concerns repeatedly about the implementation of the CPK, and we’ve seen the hard work the servery staff and chefs are doing in the kitchens in Aidan’s, but the poor project management is something even they can’t overcome without support.” throughout the last decade. The proposed arrangements for St Aidan’s College were discussed prior to implementation with Durham County Council’s environmental health team, who were satisfied with our well-established processes for managing food safety.” environmental impact; as one example, we will be providing a reusable water bo le to every student in catered accommodation at St Aidan’s College, considerably reducing the need for single-use plastics during this period of development works. Our recently appointed food supply partner, Foodbuy, are commi ed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

The le er further states that “within the planning of this temporary service, we carefully considered any additional workload which would be created for our staff. Aspects of the catering workload, for example logistics, have indeed increased; however, we have enhanced our staffing levels in response to support the delivery of these tasks.

“The University is investing over £100m in a residential refurbishment programme to improve the quality of college accommodation over this decade.”

Other students have referenced eating disorders as students are no longer willing to risk eating from college for their own health, others spoke about the difficulties in logistically receiving food they have paid for. A student said “Since our food is being transported from Hild Bede, we also need to sign up for packed lunches by breakfast two days before the afternoon we need it, compared to before when we could sign up the morning of, which is usually impossible due to timetables changing and other commitments clashing.”

A St Aidan’s JCR exec member told Palatinate about “habitual side-lining of the college [by the University]” - they said “This college, I feel, is where they often put people who are not fi ing into the conventional idea of what a Durham student is and it really plays into problems with classism and elitism”. The student expressed concern that the communal beer garden space had been built over in order to make way for CPK and the University’s Executive Commi ee showing li le respect for student’s spaces in college.

Students raised serious concerns about the environmental impact of transporting the food across the city. A member of St Aidan’s College Eco Society estimates that “1000 plastic cups per day minimum are being used” as well as the plastic

Laura Curran, Durham SU’s Welfare and Liberation Officer said, “This is not the first time that changes in catering have impacted students in terms of finances, physical health, and mental health. When catering became centralised in 2019/20, students saw a significant decline in the quality of the food. Inadequate portion sizes and improperly cooked food saw students left hungry after meals or reluctant to eat them at all. University management saw the consequences of major changes in catering back in 2019, so the fact that these issues have resurfaced despite this prior knowledge is, to me, inexcusable.”

Palatinate asked the University for comment regarding the claims. In response, the University provided the le er from Jeremy Cook, ProVice-Chancellor which was sent to the open le er organisers on 27th January. The le er states “we’re commi ed to providing a quality student experience to all our students’ adding ‘our catering is delivered to the highest industry standards.

“St Aidan’s College was chosen as the most suitable site [for the CPK] following careful deliberation, in the course of which the views of college management teams were sought and heard. I would ask all students to bear with us through the period of building works.”

In response to allegations made about food standards being lower for Aidan’s students the le er states: “I can reassure students that the methods of food preparation and delivery in use at the current time at St Aidan’s College are an industry standard, used in a wide range of hospitality environments in the catering industry and across a number of colleges at Durham

“We share students’ concerns around mental health issues connected to food, and around the cost of living, which affect students across the University. There are extensive support mechanisms in place. We would urge students affected by either of these issues to seek support from their College, from the Counselling and Mental Health Service or from the Student Money Advice service as appropriate. The University takes the mental health of its students very seriously and is currently working towards achieving the University Mental Health Charter.

“We are also determined to reduce further the University’s

Palatinate contacted Durham County Council: the Head of Community Protection Joanne Waller responded to the allegation. “We were contacted by the university’s health and safety team to inform us of the planned kitchen works at St Aidan’s and the intention to temporarily supply meals which had been cooked and blast chilled. Cook-chill systems are a safe method providing that appropriate control measures are put in place by the food provider.

“Food safety management systems do not need official approval from the council. However, food business operators have a responsibility to prepare and implement these measures and we do check these are in place during our routine hygiene inspections.”