Sodexho halts student club fund raising
By: Andrea Noble
Issue date: 3/17/04 Section: News
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New restrictions are in place for student organizations that want to raise funds by selling food after the Marketing and Communications Club (MCC) violated the Webster University contract with Sodexho, the campus food service provider.
The MCC had been selling hot dogs in the lobby of Sverdrup on Monday evenings for three weeks in January and February when they were told that they might be violating Webster's contract with Sodexho and would have to shut down.
"We thought we were being very creative and entrepreneurial and we kind of got snuffed out," said MCC president Julie Fleischer.
John Ginsburg, director of student activities, said that the MCC was violating Sodexho and vending service's exclusivity contracts with the university.
"There are certain exceptions (to the contract) like a bake sale now and then, and if a group is selling food more regularly than that, then they are basically providing food for the campus, which Webster University said would not happen," Ginsburg said.
In addition to the violation of the Webster-Sodexho contract there was also concern about the food the MCC was selling. Ted Hoef, dean of students, said that he had a problem with temperature sensitive food being served by student groups because of the precautions that might be overlooked in cooking, serving or holding the food. If someone were to get sick from the food, Hoef said, the university would most likely be held liable.
"In lawsuits, people are going to look where the deep pockets are," Hoef said.
In the past, student groups didn't need approval to hold food sale fund raisers on campus. Now they will have to fill out a form stating what they plan to sell and where and when it will be sold. Sales will be limited to once a month and certain locations on campus will be off limits, including the cafeteria, library and third floor of Webster Hall when the snack cart is open.
Students selling food that requires cooking will have to make sure they go through certain procedures while making the food. The sale of temperature sensitive food will also be limited to special events, meaning that such goods could not be sold simply as a fund raiser, but would have to be in conjunction with another event.
