In the past month Pyle Inn, Kosher Co-op, and Fairchild Co-op have all been temporarily closed by OSCA inspectors. These shutdowns occurred after threats from the Lorain County health inspector prompted OSCA to adopt stricter standards.

In 2002 Ohio changed its food code. The biggest change was a new requirement mandating that there be an official “person in charge” at each meal. The food code dictates that the person in charge “needs to know the basics of proper food handling within the operation.” This entails knowing the food code and enforcing it as well as knowing who is in the kitchen and what they are doing.

“A lot of restaurants in the county had some trouble adopting to the new rules,” OSCA treasurer Adam Sorkin said. “But it had been about two years [since the new food code took effect] and the health inspector hadn’t seen much improvement, so she got angry and said, ‘If you guys don’t shape up, I’ll take drastic measures.’ That sparked newfound vigilance.”

OSCA members have spent the past two weeks conducting their own inspections of the co-ops and retraining members to follow the food code. According to Sorkin, approximately one hundred co-opers have been trained to be ‘’people in charge.” These include the head cooks for all of the meals as well as one member from each clean-up crew.

The co-ops have instituted new rules to ensure that they will meet the state’s food safety code, and old rules are being enforced. The co-ops no longer save leftovers for members who missed the meal, unless the leftovers were uncooked or had not been served as part of a meal.

Furthermore, no one is allowed in the kitchen who is not cooking or cleaning, and people in the kitchen must wear hairnets and closed-toe shoes. Cooks must wear gloves, and people serving themselves bread or dessert have to use wax paper or paper towels to remove the food from its container.

Oberlin’s co-ops had not been fully strictly following the state’s health code, or as one Pyle Inn member stated, “OSCA has really only been superficially compliant until now.”

Sorkin agreed, “There were a lot of things that OSCA as an organization let slide a little bit, like if someone wasn’t wearing close-toed shoes in the kitchen we’d pretend not to notice.”

This year the health inspector reminded the co-ops that she could shut down all of OSCA if she so chose, and threatened to bring OSCA before the County Health Hearing Board if any of the kitchens were less than perfect.

“I don’t know what that is,” Sorkin said, “but it sounds scary and official.”

Senior Anna Carollo, a member of Pyle Inn, called all-OSCA’s attempts to reform the co-ops dining rules “overhauling co-op culture.” One member of Harkness Co-op concurred. “We used to eat like we were in a family kitchen,” he said. “I sort of wish we could keep on doing the way we were doing.” However, both agreed that the overhaul was necessary.

“This is an example of the responsibility of the co-ops to be clean,” Corollo said. “We have a responsibility to other co-opers to provide a healthy, safe environment.”
Sorkin anticipates that the changes that OSCA has recently implemented will become part of the way the co-ops operate on a daily basis.

“Starting next year [teaching members about the food code and about how to be a person in charge] will be part of our training,” Sorkin said. “New students will know from the beginning that we need to follow county regulations to the letter.”

“I think that if people make an effort to know the rules and follow them, the inspector will be happy and osca and the individual co-ops will be fine,” said a Pyle Inn member. “If people choose not to follow the rules, which are actually laws, then everyone will be in trouble.”

When asked how the changes in procedure would affect Harkness’ legendary naked crew, Harkness member senior Thomas Harris, said “I haven’t seen naked crew in a few years.”