When the first posts by Berkeley Food Review surfaced on social media platforms, they appeared random, haphazard, and simply unbelievable that students at UC Berkeley were experiencing this in their dining halls. The posts have now become more frequent, and have caused quite a stir within the Cal Berkeley student community.

Frequent complaints by students on Reddit read that UC Berkeley has increased its student intake, building new dorms to accommodate the influx of students, yet they have failed to build more dining halls to accommodate the growing student population. During peak hours, it takes 30 minutes of waiting in line, to just enter the dining hall. Capacity is out of control, and food is rushed out in large quantities, the kitchen staff is overwhelmed, and the quality of food is compromised. Online complaints on Reddit, echo the pictures posted on the Berkeley Dining Review Instagram account. Students have posted pictures of food being served at Crossroads Dining Hall with bugs in their food, pieces of cardboard or metal in their food, curdled milk in coffee, molded bread buns, undercooked meats, and most disgusting maggot-infested fruits. Students also complained about the food being greasy, and not having nutritional information posted on the foods being served. Often times students found discrepancies between the food that was actually being served, as opposed to the food menu that was on the online menu.

What is baffling and hard to comprehend, is that nothing has been done to remedy these unsanitary issues. Students are paying an average of $12 for lunch, and $15 for dinner per meal. How can such an esteemed institution situated in a city that has a burgeoning chefs community, turn the other cheek to such unacceptable standards? How come nothing has been reported, and lawsuits have not been filed against UC Berkeley? It will only take several students calling the California Department of Public Health, and submitting pictures, to get this ball rolling.