Texas A&M Galveston students take cafeteria lunch complaints to social media

GALVESTON, TX (KTRK) -- Class is out, you're starving, and after waiting in line, imagine eating what these students snapped a picture of: pink chicken and rotten ranch.

"I was getting coffee one morning and pouring creamer and chunks came out of the creamer and it obviously was rotten, like you could smell it," freshman Alexis Kuecker said.

Fed up with the food, students at Texas A&M's Galveston campus are sharing their experiences on Facebook, like the case of the hardened mashed potatoes.

"She was, like, putting the plate upside down. And shaking it and it wouldn't fall and we were like that's not good. That's not how normal mashed potatoes should be," said student Randall Andress.

Texas A&M at Galveston contracts out their food operations to Chartwells Dining Services. Chartwells runs the entire dining hall with their own company workers on campus. We started looking into these claims just Wednesday morning, and since then, Texas A&m in Galveston has had a surprise inspection by the county. That's two in just three days. They came up with zero violations, but some students still aren't satisfied with that.

Students aren't so upset at the university as they are at Chartwells. University officials say they are holding Chartwells accountable.

"We have heard of some issues that the students have had with Chartwells, and the campus takes them very seriously, so our interest is to get them addressed as quickly as we can and to hold Chartwells responsible for the things that need to be corrected," said Grant Shallenberger, associate vice president at the Texas A&M Galveston campus.

Chartwells issued the following statement in response to the allegations:

"We have launched Quality Assurance audits in response to these claims. Our county health inspection on Monday of this week showed zero violations."

And it's true. Officials at Galveston county Health District say it was a clean inspection just two days ago. However, according to county records, Chartwells does have past violations, including one for evidence of insect contamination last year.

Another reason students are upset? Mandatory meal plans if you live on campus.

"It's just a lot of money. It's like $1,700 a semeste r and we all have to inspect the food before we eat it," sophomore Megan Ferguson said.

And this food fight isn't only local. Students at a Connecticut high school have organized a against eating their cafeteria food, which is also provided by Chartwells.