Complaints Unveiled: UWM Student Claims to Find Worm in Food

Students have voiced complaints about the food quality in the residential halls at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on social media and in complaints to the university, a Media Milwaukee investigation has found.

These complaints range from undercooked food to insufficient options for students with dietary restrictions to finding worms in the food of one student. One student told the university she would rather eat “chicken bones” because the food quality is so poor, an open records request revealed.

During the spring of 2022, the university dining hall adopted a plan to ensure no students had food insecurity.

This new dining plan allowed students to have an unlimited number of times they could swipe their student IDs and not have to worry about spending money on their residential accounts. However, due to the alleged low quality of food, some students have chosen to cancel their dining plans.

Media Milwaukee reached out to UWM Restaurant Operations for open records about dining. UWM responded:

• “We have received 97 direct student/parent comments submitted through our “contact us” web form.”
• “We installed a series of QR-coded posters in each of the UWM Residential Dining Cafés that take students directly to the form where they can provide us direct feedback.”
• They received 21 Contractual Inquiries (7 Fall/ 14 Spring)
• 9 Menu Suggestions (0 fall/ 9 spring)
• 8 comments about Limited Food Availability (5 fall/3 spring)
• 5 Complimentary Comments (0 fall/ 5 spring)

After further investigation, Media Milwaukee was later able to obtain open records from the UWM Dining. In the open records document, Media Milwaukee found more complaints from parents and students.

One student stated in the open records that the food is so bad in Cambridge Commons that they’d rather eat “chicken bones.”

Several other students stated that the cafeteria is constantly out of food at dinnertime, which starts at 7:30 pm.

Media Milwaukee received a document from Catherine Booth, a freshman, and resident of Riverview Hall. The document indicated that some students reported getting sick after eating in the dining halls.

“I got food poisoning three days ago directly after eating dining food,” said the anonymous student. “I became sick and have felt nauseous and have had a lack of appetite for a couple of days.”

Another student stated in the document that they had allegedly developed a rash on their face and neck after consistently eating at the dining hall.

Not only have students complained about the quality of food in the residence halls, but so have some parents.

Leah Weber currently has a daughter who is a freshman and stays in the Sandburg Residence Hall.

Weber stated to Media Milwaukee that she and her husband spend roughly $80 worth of food on their daughter because she doesn’t like the food in the dining hall.

Upon viewing Sandburg and Cambridge’s official dining pages, Media Milwaukee noted that both facilities offer 15 food stations for students. Riverview food stations are also the same number but offered in smaller quantities.

As of June 2023, Media Milwaukee got a behind-the-scenes look at how dining stores their food.

In response to student and parent concerns, dining has newly implemented techniques for food before it is served.

Some of these techniques include conducting regular food quality and temperature checks.

Dining also informed Media Milwaukee that they were forced to limit what was served to students due to food shortages.

Dining also told Media Milwaukee that when items were out, they would give students an estimate of when they would return.

So, will dining improve for the Fall semester of 2023?

We’ll let the students decide.