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THE DAILY COUGAR
THE DAILY COUGAR
T H E
O F F I C I A L
S T U D E N T
N E W S PA P E R
O F
T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Issue 86, Volume 79
O F
H O U S T O N
S I N C E
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ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT THEDAILYCOUGAR.COM
DINING
Leftovers sent to needy youth Channler K. Hill Editor in chief
UH System Dining Services donate left-over food from the Cougar Woods Dining Hall to Houston’s Covenant House, but uneaten food that has already been exposed to the consumer is thrown away by the end of the day. Employees are not allowed to take food home for health and sanitary reasons. | Carolina Trevino/The Daily Cougar
The food in Cougar Woods Dining Hall doesn’t just serve the students, but its leftovers do too, feeding the homeless youth of Houston. Aramark partners works with a third-party company, Food Donation Connection, which matched the University with Covenant House and other charitable organizations. “Let’s say we bake lasagna, and it never goes out onto the service line. We bake it, we cool it down; we store it in the freezer to use later. That type of thing could then be donated to a charitable organization if it turns out we, at the end of the day, never needed that,” said Geoff Herbert, resident district manager for the UH System Dining Services. “For the purposes of making sure that there aren’t any unintended consequences, we want to donate the
food, we want it to not be wasted, we want to support people who need that support, but we don’t want anyone to be put in harm’s way should the food not be handled properly.” Food Donation Connection has set strict stipulations as to what food can be donated in order to avoid such instances. Any food that is sent out onto the food line, like pizza, cannot be donated because it has been exposed to the consumer. Likewise, produce cannot be donated. However, these restrictions, along with Aramark’s internal process to minimize its amount of in-house waste, don’t leave the opportunity to give often to the Covenant House, leaving students desirous to find a way to make use of its pre-consumer waste. Herbert said he was contacted by FOOD continues on page 3
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Paving the way SGA passes bill to redevelop Cullen Blvd, further beautification Nora Olabi Assistant news editor
As the new stadium inches closer to completion, Cullen Boulevard’s ownership has come under further scrutiny. Student Government Association President Cedric Bandoh’s Rebuild Cullen Boulevard initiative culminated in “Cullen Boulevard Redevelopment” Bill UB 50005, which passed Wednesday night in the Senate Chambers. Bandoh established the initiative in 2012 to voice student concerns and push administration to prioritize fixing the state of the street, a state which he called “pathetic.” “The condition is horrible, and
there have been multiple talks for years on trying to do something about it,” Bandoh said. “We have a stadium opening up in the fall, more and more people are choosing Houston — they see the value of our University. We have more people living on campus. This street is not in the condition of a Tier One research university.” The bill suggests that the space across from the stadium between the Entrance 14 loop and Cougar Place Drive be completely closed off from vehicular traffic. The space would be recreated as a “green space multi-use plaza” that would come under the ownership of the University rather than remain with the city. “We students have played a big SGA continues on page 3
SNAPCHAT continues on page 4
Marching on Several students in the UH Army ROTC program took a major step in their military careers Tuesday when they became officially contracted cadets in the United States Army. After graduation, they will enter the Army as commissioned officers. — Fernando Castaldi/The Daily Cougar