Swoope Scout camp takes steps to avoid food contamination

For Camp Shenandoah head cook Annette Bess, food safety vigilance is a constant, especially with a recent E. coli outbreak at a similar, but larger, camp near Goshen.
Though the 4,000-acre Goshen campsite has closed indefinitely due to the outbreak there that sent 17 scouts and one adult to the hospital, the 454-acre Swoope campsite hasn’t had any E. coli issues. Bess, along with Camp Director Eric Jones, say it has measures in place that should ensure it stays that way.
Before scouts at Camp Shenandoah enter the dining hall, they have access to hand sanitizer, which camp officials say is the same as what is used at Augusta Medical Center.
Bess, a food services supervisor in the Waynesboro Public School division, is one of eight people on the camp’s food service staff and has gone through numerous training seminars on food handling and safety practices. She outlined steps the camp takes to ensure proper food sanitation, saying that it is as much about common sense as anything else.
The preventative measures, she said, include cooking and holding foods to their proper temperatures, checking food with calibrated thermometers, taking food temperatures three times a day and following proper sanitation procedures.
“Every bit of food that is leftover here goes into the trash,” Bess said, “just to be on the safe side.”
Any sick staff member is not allowed to prepare food, she said.
In a tour of the camp kitchen, she pointed out different food handling measures, also noting how chemicals are kept separate from food items. Refrigerators and freezers have temperature logs taken throughout the day.
Jones, a biology professor at Mary Baldwin College, said Camp Shenandoah is less likely to have problems because it is smaller and has a dedicated staff. He said the camp has followed what has happened in Goshen, but says an E. coli outbreak at the rural, Augusta County campsite is unlikely.
“The only change to make is to tell them to keep doing what they’re doing,” Jones said of the food service staff, adding that “the bottom line is … the folks in our kitchen are doing things right.”
He outlined the camp’s food chain.
“If you can keep food colder or hotter than you or I ever would be, the bacteria are not going to grow in it. So what we do – food basically goes from the cooler, which is too cold for bacteria, into a convection oven, which is too hot for bacteria.
“And from the convection oven, it goes into a 140 degree warming cabinet, which is also too hot for bacteria, and then spends a matter of minutes before it ends up on the kids’ plates.”
Chances of an E. coli bacteria outbreak are further reduced, he said, with proper food handling.
Also, Jones said that because the camp has complete control of the area’s watershed, “we know that there is nothing wandering around upstream.”
The camp’s staff keeps a constant vigilance not because of the law, but because they care about the campers, Jones said. It’s a safe place for parents to send their kids, he said.
“It’s like a restaurant,” Bess said. “You want them to come back.”