By Alexandra Carrillo
Clubs and groups at East Los Angeles College frequently hold bake sales or other types of food sales in order to raise money.
It is admirable that students put hard work and effort into raising funds for the clubs they are members of, but they should be doing it in a sanitary way if they are dealing with food.
A couple of days ago, I was walking around campus trying to figure out what I should eat.
Coming across building E7, I saw that a club was holding a bake sale so I approached it. They were selling crepes, muffins, cupcakes and brownies. The treats looked delicious.
I was looking forward to buying a crepe when I realized that the club members serving the treats weren’t wearing gloves.
One student was preparing the crepes with his bare hands. He was stuffing the crepes with whipped crème and topping them with strawberries and powdered sugar.
I was shocked. I did not know if whether I should recommend that they put gloves on or just walk away as if I saw nothing. I walked away. I hesitated in saying anything because there were a couple other people already buying these baked goodies.
I thought to myself, “Hey if I noticed, chances are others saw too but did not care.” After asking a couple of friends what they thought about this disgusting scenario they all seemed shocked and grossed out.
They even suggested that I should have confronted them about it. Maybe the people buying the food really did not notice. I would like to think that I am not the only one on campus who cares about hygiene.
Perhaps, the club members holding the sale forgot to buy gloves or maybe they did not think it was necessary to wear them. I’m sure they do not intend to get any customer sick.
There are just so many problems with serving food without gloves and hair nets. Although, many people do not find that wearing a hair net is important, it is.
It is very unpleasant to find a stranger’s hair chillin’ in your food right before you take a bite out of it. No customer looks forward to finding a hair in their food or getting sick from dirty hands touching the food.
According to website livestrong.com, not washing hands before dealing with food can lead to diseases such as salmonella, giardiasus, commonly called “beaver fever” and other bacteria-borne diseases.
It is important that everyone, especially if dealing with food, washes their hands often because it is an easy way to prevent a dangerous infection.
I do not want to bash the club that made this mistake because I do not want to ruin future sales they might hold. However, I am warning students to be more aware and notice things like this.
Yes, as students, we do get hungry and will buy whatever we come across that is affordable but we should be a tad more cautious of what we purchase.
Being hungry should not be an excuse to buy food from sellers who have an unsanitary workspace. Next time you see a stand in campus selling food, do not hesitate in recommending they wear gloves or hair nets, if they aren’t already.
It might sound somewhat blunt but it truly should be seen as a nice gesture that can prevent you from getting sick.