04/17/2018
As leadership of the Binghamton University Food Co-op, we would like to recognize the recent Pipe Dream article about our closing due to sanitation and health regulations. While it is in fact true that we recently had health inspections and did temporarily close for the week following, it is important to note that the inspection was definitely passed and any health code discrepancies were minor and fixed immediately. Our temporary closing was a choice we made with the SA, not legally mandated by the Department of Agriculture. For those who know about the co-op’s history on campus, have seen our facilities and understand or role on campus as an SA Business, it is clear that our kitchen space needed updating and we chose to utilize this time to review our kitchen in order to maximize the same space that has been passed down for over a decade. Furthermore, the co-op takes great pride in our position as the only entirely student run source of food on campus, and our establishment as an intersection of social and environmental passion on campus.
That being said, we unfortunately have to express our disappointment in the article published by Pipe Dream regarding our state of affairs. Not only did we find that it was not entirely informed, but also quite one-sided in that the article omitted the fact that the health inspection was passed after we made sure to communicate this to the writer of the article. We have put a lot of effort into examining our space and in doing so we’re able to find that some citations on our health inspection were minor and ultimately did state that we could continue operations. Based on what was chosen to be published by Pipe Dream, it has become clear that those writing the article were not interested in looking at the Food Co-op as the crucial entity that is on campus, and chose to take an aggressive stance that lacked the heart of student organizational support by neglecting to include facts we readily provided.
We will be opening shortly and are very excited to work in our newly organized kitchen space. As always the co-op hopes to be figure of student independence on campus and a comfortable social setting for anyone and everyone.
Sincerely,
The Food Co-op
