Terminated employees of GW’s dining provider said the company and its management staff retaliated against employees who spoke out about health and safety concerns.
Five terminated employees of Chartwells Higher Education — GW’s dining partner since 2021 — said the company’s management told them not to speak out about unsafe and unsanitary conditions within GW’s dining hall kitchens, refrigerators and food preparation areas of GW Dining locations, and even occasionally retaliated against them for doing so. The employees said they have experienced persistent mold, unclean equipment and undercooked food in GW’s dining halls, which mirrors student complaints of food-borne illness and repeated safety violations in the University’s dining halls.
GW partnered with Chartwells Higher Education — owned by Compass Group USA — in 2021 to operate its dining halls as the University overhauled its dining facilities, bringing back all-you-care-to-eat, buffet style dining halls to Foggy Bottom that since then have been plagued by safety violations and student reports of food-borne illnesses.
Robert Bellamy, an employee who worked in both Thurston and Shenkman dining halls beginning in 2022 until his termination in 2025, said he was hospitalized because of symptoms related to mold he was exposed to in the Thurston dining hall.
Bellamy said he was terminated for missing work because of his hospitalization, and he routinely observed mold growing in Thurston Hall near the dishwasher, within the bathroom used by kitchen staff and near the base of the rotating machine students use to return dirty dishes. He said he also observed mold growing on the walls of the Shenkman dining hall kitchen.
Bellamy said an official working within Chartwells management told him in April 2024 that they were going to clean up the mold at Thurston but only sought to remedy the situation by providing Bellamy with a spray-on solution intended to get rid of the mold. Bellamy said he would spray the mold, and it would immediately grow back.
“Every day I would spray, I would spray, I would spray,” Bellamy said. “I had to get on my hands and knees, go under there, spray it down with the water.”
Bellamy said he attempted to point out the mold during a D.C. Health inspection of Thurston, but his manager instructed him to not raise the issue directly with the health inspector.
“I was like, ‘We got mold at the bottom,’ when we had the inspection,” Bellamy said. “But they was telling us to be quiet about it.”
A spokesperson for Chartwells said the company is not aware of any active mold or pest issues within any GW Dining Facilities the company operates, and Chartwells takes food safety and facility conditions seriously.
“Associates are expected and encouraged to raise concerns so they can be reviewed and addressed appropriately,” the spokesperson said in an email. “Multiple reporting channels are available to associates, and all concerns are thoroughly investigated.”
The spokesperson also said GW Dining has a full-time quality assurance manager who supervises food safety across all University dining facilities and said all Chartwells employees complete required food safety training. The spokesperson also said residential dining facilities at GW are subject to independent health and safety audits every two weeks conducted by a third party.
A University spokesperson said in November 2025 officials hired David Cox, a full-time quality assurance manager and Chartwells employee, in April 2024 to oversee food safety and sanitation across all University dining establishments in response to student reports of food-borne illnesses from dining halls.
The Chartwells spokesperson said the company does not comment on individual personnel matters, but they do listen to employee concerns and follow all collective bargaining and employment laws.
“We are committed to fostering a workplace where associates are treated with respect and feel comfortable speaking up, and we take concerns seriously when they are raised,” the spokesperson said in an email.
The spokesperson declined to comment on what steps officials take to remedy mold once it is discovered in dining facilities and declined to provide details on the termination process, including whether more senior levels of Chartwells management evaluate termination decisions.
University spokesperson Julia Garbitt said Chartwells is responsible for its own employees and practices, but GW Dining maintains communications with Chartwells management related to dining operations.
“GW Dining maintains an active, collaborative relationship with Chartwells and is in regular communication with its leadership and onsite management to support dining operations across campus,” Garbitt said in an email.
Garbitt said officials monitor food safety, sanitation, training and compliance in conjunction with Chartwells and said when GW Dining is made aware of concerns related to Chartwells operations, it shares them with the company.
Garbitt declined to comment on reports of Chartwells employees facing retaliation from management and directed questions about Chartwells management engaging in retaliatory behavior toward Chartwells employees to the company.
Garbitt also declined to comment on whether the University takes steps to ensure or evaluates whether Chartwells complies with labor standards.
Ronnetta O’Brien, who worked within Thurston Hall from around the time it opened in 2022 until her termination in April earlier this year over what she said management told her was an attendance issue, said she frequently informed Chartwells management of health issues within Thurston Hall. She said she often discovered mold in the ceiling, bugs around the lettuce, broken tables and undercooked chicken — issues that management did not address and instructed her to “‘be quiet’” about.
“Me as a concerned employee, because I have children myself, when they come to me with their concerns, I’m taking it straight to management,” O’Brien said. “I got told by management, ‘Be quiet, mind your business.’”
In 2024, a University spokesperson confirmed officials received reports of undercooked chicken in Thurston Hall, which left at least over a dozen students sick with stomach illnesses.
The Chartwells spokesperson pointed to a May D.C. Health inspection of Shenkman Dining Hall which found no priority violations — which pertain to factors directly relating to food safety and food-borne illness. However, the inspection cited officials for unclean cutting boards and grease under a cooking unit.
The inspection of Shenkman also cited officials for an inspection report which was improperly displayed and containers of food that were not properly labeled — both of which the inspection indicates officials fixed on site.
In an inspection of Thurston Hall on the same day, an inspector noted they observed unclean reach-in refrigerators, food being stored at improper temperatures, along with improperly labeled food and an improperly displayed inspection report. Two inspections of Shenkman Hall from last year found evidence of droppings near dry storage areas and cutting boards that were not properly sanitized.
O’Brien said management often swept her concerns “under the rug” and said her UNITE HERE Local 23 — the union that represents GW Dining Workers — union representative would tell her to stop “complaining” and “talking to management.”
Food service experts told The Hatchet in November 2025 that repeated safety violations within GW dining halls and student reports of food-borne illness potentially indicated Chartwells provided inadequate training and managerial support to the company’s employees at GW. The experts said the repeated violations and safety concerns may constitute a breach of Chartwells’ contract with GW.
Compass Group USA operates 28 specialized companies across the country, including Chartwells, which provides dining services to over 350 campuses across the country. GW paid Chartwells $31.4 million in fiscal year 2025, according to University tax forms.
Phyllis Douglas, a cook who worked in Thurston Hall starting in 2024 until her termination this past June, said she became a target of Chartwells management when she advocated on behalf of other terminated employees in the months prior to her own termination by documenting and recording their terminations.
Douglas, who said she was terminated for “negligence” after she accidentally cut herself with a kitchen knife, said she felt it was necessary to advocate on behalf of the other employees because UNITE HERE Local 23 and her union representative did not sufficiently advocate for terminated employees.
A spokesperson for the union said in an email 200 food service workers employed by Chartwells at GW are represented by the union, and the collective bargaining agreement for Chartwells employees at GW provides protections against unfair treatment and outlines the proper procedures for discipline.
Douglas said management would hastily have employees try to clean up mold growth within the dining hall shortly before inspectors would arrive. She said employees would clean up the mold before inspectors arrived and it would grow back after they left.
“When they see the inspection people come, it turns into a whole circus because the things that are supposed to have been done weren’t done and then it falls back on us as the employees,” Douglas said.
Douglas said there was often food spoiling inside of the refrigerator and that management would reprimand employees who spoke out about any of the health and safety issues. She said she would not want her own children to eat at Thurston Hall because of issues with food being undercooked.
“We don’t have enough people in the system, and it was just so much in Thurston and they treat people so badly,” Douglas said.
