Golden Pears closed due to health code violations

The Golden Pear Kitchens, located in 1837, North Mandelle, Mead, Creighton Hall, Porter and Wilder Halls, have been closed this year due to sanitary concerns. They will continue to be open during Thanksgiving, Winter and Spring Break when there are no dining services. Students registered with Accessibility Services  for certain accommodations will  also still have access.

In a campus-wide e-mail, Dean Rene Davis stated that the closing of the Golden Pear Kitchens was not a Residential Life decision; instead they were closed because they did not pass health inspections.

“It is important to note that we are not asking for sterilization as a standard of cleanliness.  The problem at hand is rotting food in the refrigerator, mishandling of poultry and other meats and  rotting food left in sinks. We have also encountered spills on the floors,  walls and counters that have not been cleaned.”

Recognizing that if action was not taken, health codes could prevent  Mount Holyoke from using the kitchens to serve continental breakfast and Milk and Cookies, the College  decided to close the kitchens. “The closing is the final step in a long line of attempts to maintain a minimum level of cleanliness.  The cleanliness issues with the Golden Pears is not new; which is …. why the Board of Health is vocal with their concern,” Davis said.   “The staff of Residential Life brought the cleanliness concerns to SGA three semesters ago asking for support and possible solutions.  The only identified strategy is to hire someone to clean the space.  We have tried this approach previously.  Hiring a student to clean the kitchen worsened the problem,” Davis said.

In addition to creating various positions responsible for monitoring the kitchens, the administration has also tried installing card readers in some of the Golden Pears to track student use.  None of the  attempts have worked.

Huda Alawa ’15, who started a petition to reopen the Golden Pears, claimed the Golden Pears are important to students because they allow students to be more independent and offer them more options. “For those who have health issues, the [Golden Pear] kitchens provide another outlet for students to make accommodated food on campus,” Alawa said. She also felt that those who have religious restrictions, vegetarian students and students who wished to have a meal from their own culture would have a need for the kitchen. She also expressed that some students do not have a cultural house they can go to when they want a home cooked meal.

Despite the previous attempts to reach out to SGA, many students felt that   they were not included in the process, or that they were not  sufficiently included.  “Mount Holyoke students, we are told to make a voice, and to push to make change happen. However, if the school itself is not fostering an environment for us to do that, how are we supposed to initiate change in the greater society?” Alawa asked. She acknowledged that the kitchens were “straight up disgusting,” but “the way Mount Holyoke responded was drastic; I genuinely do believe that there is a way to initiate rules and have a clean kitchen without completely shutting it down. To simply tell the students that kitchens are being shut down is like slapping a misbehaving child on the hand; it isn’t solving any problems, and we aren’t really learning how to improve our living habits through this.”

Alawa said the students could help Residential Life to think of ways to ensure that the kitchens are clean: “Some people suggest giving keys to the CAs or SCA and keeping track of the kitchen usage that way, others have brought up the idea of having more funding for dorm kitchens, or even having the housekeeper do a weekly sweep of the kitchen ‑ maybe instead of cleaning the bathrooms one day. We could even have a check in sheet.”  Students also expressed that the College should have notified them of their decision sooner.

Though Alawa, the 265 individuals who signed the petition and many others disagree with the decision, others support it or understand it.  Umema Aimen ’14, an international student, said that she used the kitchens a lot, but the administration is “right that we weren’t very responsible, which a shame because we’re all intelligent, confident women. We should be able to clean up after [our]selves. So I don’t blame them. If we don’t hold up our end of the deal, we can’t expect them to [keep them open]. But I’m sad to see them go.”