Chiptole's Troubles

Chipotle has been recently recurring in the news cycle because of repeated food-born illnesses affecting swathes of customers from locations all over the map. They're soon to close every shop for a morning to institute some new rules about food safety, which is about as loud as you can get in the media to say, "Yes, we are doing something." This is not really surprising, as their sales figures and stock prices are tanking rapidly, partially due to the Feds starting up an investigation into just what the hell is going on with all the people puking, pooping and some even nearly dying because of their burritos.

It's tempting to regard this as a symptom of a lack of social and economic justice -- I've spent some time in restaurants as an adult. There was an incident where I visited a friend in a hospital, it was sudden and the reasons a little mysterious, but it all turned out fine and no big deal. However, a few days later I got a call from the local Center for Disease Control, that while I was in the room where my friend was, there was an recently immigrated African patient who turned out to have a very dangerous, air-borne communicable disease that could be fatal to kids, oldies, etc. They strongly recommended I quarantine myself for 2 weeks - I realized quickly no work for 2 weeks is no pay for 2 weeks, and the CDC wasn't going to cover my bills. I called up the owner of the restaurant and told him exactly the situation -- it was unlikely I was infected, but if I was, the restaurant could potentially become Ground Zero for a plague. Did he want me to stay home or (chortle) offer to pay me to stay 2 weeks at home? I was at work that day, fortunately no one got sick.

The outbreaks at Chipotle could potentially be from a sick or sloppy poppy-handed employee, but it's not certain. However, Chipotle covered those bases in the media this past June, before it could be ascribed to a reaction to the sickenings:

 Though Chipotle has always shown more of an interest in employee retention than many of its competitors (by their own metrics, 95% of all managers are promoted from within), much of their talk of treating their employees well has been more buzzword than actual fact. In moving to allow part-time hourly employees to accrue sick days and paid leave, they appear to be taking a tangible step in the direction of actually backing up their talk.

I guess that's a result of a conflict of their model and the model of the food producers at large -- Chipotle aims to deliver less processed food stuffs more directly from the farm's dirt to the customer's mouth, and our food chain supply system has learned to depend on processing to keep food safe, unspoiled through longer channels and cheap.

Real talk: Chipotle is fast food working in a capitalist system whose marketing works harder than anyone else's to convince you it values YOU equally or more than it's profits. Don't believe it, the only people who value you more than money is yourself. (And maybe your parents and kids, if they're not complete a-holes.)

WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2744

An ok eat week, getting a little better, hopefully I can keep pushing in this direction slowly without evoking a counter reaction in my cravings and appetite.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2120

SLEPT: 10:30pm - 7am, 8.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced black tea

BREAKFAST 1 : 11am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

LUNCH: 2:30pm, beef patty, pickle, split pea soup, health salad, momma salad, pickle 640 cal

DINNER: 5:30pm, lemon sole, asparagus, poppa salad with dressing, 750 cal

EVENING SNACK: 6:30pm, pocky,  570 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 3330

SLEPT: 9pm-6:30am,  9.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:45am,  iced black tea

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: noon, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

PM SNACK: 12:45pm, momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 3pm, steamed string beans, mushroom curry, chicken meatballs, pickle,  630 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, veggie straws, 130 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, French bread pizzas, poppa salad with dressing, 1060 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8-11pm, kind bar, popcorn, special k and milk, +/-800 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2480

SLEPT: 11pm-5:30am, 6.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced black tea

AM SNACK: 8:30am, 2 turkey sausage patties, 1 small whole wheat pancake, +/- 200 cal

BREAKFAST 1: 11am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 12:15, Greek yogurt with honey, almonds, vanilla,  450 cal

LUNCH: 3pm, bacon, poppa salad with dressing,  400 cal

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, momma salad, pirate booty, 170 cal

PM SNACK: 6:15pm, streetza, +/- 300 cal

DINNER: 7:45pm, ramen, pork meatballs, +/- 800 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 3080

SLEPT: 10pm-6:30am, 8.5hrs

AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced black tea

BREAKFAST 1: 10:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, fishball hand pulled noodle soup, vegetable dumplings, +/- 500 cal

PM SNACK: 2:45pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, poppa salad with dressing, veggie straws, 370 cal

DINNER: 8pm, skirt steak, mashed potato, string beans, potato pancake, bread, chicken & hummus, chocolate bread pudding, +/- 1,200 cal

EVENING SNACKS: 10pm, nutella, 540cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 575 cal
FRIDAY COUNT: 2710

SLEPT: 12am-5:15am, 5.25hrs

AM SNACK: 5:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BIKE SNACK: 11:30am, homemade granola bar365 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 1:15pm, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, kind bar, 200 cal

DINNER: 5:15pm, chicken cutlet with mashed potatoes and mushrooms, +/- 900 cal

EVENING SNACKS: 6-8pm, M&Ms, 2 slices streetza, handful of animal crackers, +/- 900 cal