Photo by Mariam Keita ‘24.
By Paige Comeau ’26
Staff Writer
“Have you ever gotten food poisoning from Blanch before?” This question was written in dry-erase marker on the top of the popular Information Commons message board on the fourth floor of Williston Memorial Library.
In a tallied poll below the question, six students voted that they had, while 10 expressed experience with milder bowel illness, such as diarrhea. Several students commented on their concern with dining hall food overall. One comment asked, “When do you not get food poisoning from Blanch?”
This poll is a small part of the larger conversation currently occurring throughout campus on the quality of the food served at Mount Holyoke College’s Dining Commons. In an attempt to understand the broader implications of this discussion, Mount Holyoke News spoke with several members of the community to gain insight into the student dining experience.
Anoushka Yashavant ’25 first experienced food poisoning her freshman year with a vegan chicken burrito she got from Kosher. In an interview with Mount Holyoke News, Yashavant explained that she ate dinner at 6 p.m. and began to feel sick later that night. By midnight, she was vomiting. “I went to the ER. It was like really bad, and it lasted until like 6 a.m. It was really tough.” Yashavant stated, recalling that after the poisoning let up and she went home, she “was just feeling so tired and so sore.”
She was later told that she had food poisoning by hospital staff.
Yashavant claims that, aside from her more aggressive food poisoning from freshman year, she has had multiple instances of sickness or discomfort from dining hall food. Notably, she does admit that there are instances where the food may not be at fault. For instance, she once got sick the morning after eating late night food, but explained this instance as her “stomach being sensitive.”
Another student, Coco Athas ’26, has had similar experiences.
Athas, a student-athlete with gastroparesis, a muscular condition that affects the digestive process, has visited the hospital more than once over food poisoning and food-related illness. The first and most severe time, notably before many of her stomach issues began, was spring 2023.
Athas reported that, on a Monday afternoon, she went to the Dining Commons for lunch and ate some pre-prepared salmon sushi. By the end of her afternoon class, she felt sick. After visiting the Health Center, where the staff suggested taking anti-nausea medication, she began to vomit. She continued to be sick throughout the night, vomiting upwards of a dozen times. When she was too sick to walk on her own, her friends advised her to call 911, which she did.
“I remember I was vomiting so hard in the ambulance, but nothing was coming up like I was dry heaving.” Athas explained, “So they gave me medication. And I woke up, and I was in the ER.”
After a five-hour-long visit to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with bacterial food poisoning, Athas returned to her dorm. She spent the next several days recovering, unfortunately infecting her girlfriend, Eliza Williams-Derry ’26, since bacterial food poisoning can become contagious.
Currently, Athas continues to get sick from the dining hall food regularly, partially due to her chronic stomach issues. There are several foods she avoids on the daily. In particular, she advised against eating any fish, which has she believes has sent her to the hospital more than once. When asked to comment on a more recent trip, she simply stated, “Tuna melts. That put me in the ER.”
Athas admittedly did not report any of these incidents to Dining Services, although she did take her issues to Health Services, who advised that the issues were likely food-related. When asked about the procedures regarding food-borne illnesses, Health Services’ Medical Director Cheryl Flynn explained that they do explore possible exposure risks when a student reports vomiting or diarrhea.
Moreover, with some food-borne illnesses, such as Norovirus, the Health Center is required by Massachusetts state laws to report outbreaks. Due to HIPAA laws, the Health Center cannot and does not report specific health concerns of students to Dining Services.
However, Dining Services does have specific procedures in place for food-borne illnesses. Peter Haas, associate director of operations for Dining Services, explained these policies thoroughly in a written statement to Mount Holyoke News.
Some of the precautions taken include washing produce in a vegetable sanitizing solution, continuously taking temperatures, taking food samples of potentially hazardous dishes and getting staff certified with various safety programs such as ServSafe or TIPS. These procedures are so thorough and effective, Haas told MHN, that they have received praise from those off campus.
In his written statement, Haas even stated that,“the South Hadley Board of Health has mentioned to us that this is the one location they look forward to visiting throughout the year. They refer to us as the gold standard and wish they could use our operations for training and as a showroom for how it should be done.”
In email correspondences with the Mount Holyoke News, both Health Services and Dining Services denied cases of food poisoning. Flynn reminded MHN that not all gastrointestinal illnesses are food-borne, while Haas remarked that Dining Services has not “had any food poisoning confirmed cases to date.”
Nevertheless, students have been getting sick. One Mount Holyoke College alum, Saadia El Karfi Azzarone ’17, explained how different her dining experience was from that of current students, praising the quality of dining before centralization. “It was amazing, we always had fresh options. … We had salmon every other day. ... It was really good,” the alum said.
When asked about any experience with sickness, she seemed confused. “That was not a concern. People really liked it. … The food was excellent. Is it not anymore?”
Azzarone went to Mount Holyoke when dining halls were still present in several residence halls before the Dining Commons was built. When MHN informed the alum of the concerns current students had raised about food quality, Azzarone expressed the belief that food poisoning is an issue pertaining to the centralization of Dining Services at the College and the stress dining workers feel to provide as much food as possible as quickly as possible.
Azzarone also explained that the centralization of dining removes an important social aspect from the Mount Holyoke experience. “How are you supposed to build an experience with like 2500 people all at once?” She asked. “It just sounds a little bit more like a corporation.”