New Harvard Dining Services (HDS) safety regulations for donated food have left an area homeless shelter without meat.

HDS workers will soon begin training kitchen staff at two Harvard-affiliated homeless shelters in food safety procedures, administrators said. But the new procedures have also left the shelter at the First Church of Cambridge, which has no Harvard affiliation but had been receiving donations from HDS for 12 years, without further gifts of food from the University.

On Friday, administration from Harvard Dining Services (HDS), Greater Boston Food Bank and Philips Broods House Association's Food Salvage program met to discuss a new food safety protocol in the delivery of leftover dining hall food to shelters and soup kitchens.

No specific event precipitated this move, according to Ari M. Lipman '00, who attended the meeting as a representative of two student-run shelters, the University Lutheran Shelter and the St. James Shelter.

"We have never had any problems with food poisoning at the shelter that have been brought to our attention by the guests, but the possibility is there and HDS does not want to risk the liability," Lipman wrote in an e-mail message.

The protocol for safe handling of food includes temperature control and preparation within a certain amount of time, according to Alison J. McGuire, marketing associate for the Greater Boston Food Bank. The plan is to "parallel the Greater Boston Food Bank guidelines," said Alex E. McNitt, project manager for HDS.

"It's a model we can use," McNitt said. "We're not reinventing the wheel here. We're building on something already developed."

As part of this new protocol, HDS Executive Chef Michael Miller and Pam Diamond from the Food Bank will train the workers at University Lutheran Shelter in proper food preparation and sanitary kitchen procedures.

"We have to make sure that the food they're getting is 100 percent safe," said McGuire.

Out Of The Blue

It's unclear when these programs will becompletely in place. To James R. Stewart and theFirst Church of Cambridge shelter, however, thechange in policy came as a total--andunwelcome--surprise.

Stewart said when he arrived in the Quad Fridayevening to pick up leftovers for the shelter, HDSstaff members told him John M. Aiken, HDS managerfor the Quad Houses, had instructed them to stopfood distribution to the First Church.

Stewart was given no explanation as to why HDSwas cutting off the shelter. He had no knowledgeof the Friday meeting concerning Food Salvage orthat donation to the shelter had been temporarilyhalted, he said. "This is right out of the blue,"Stewart said.

HDS blames miscommunication for the error. "Itdidn't get communicated well at all," McNitt said."Apparently [Stewart's] a part of the church andthere's no PBHA affiliation.... We're trying tofigure out all the avenues involved."

But others questioned the University's actionstoward the shelter.

"It is unclear to me why HDS would not extendthe same level of mutual respect to First Churchas it did to the Harvard-run shelters," Lipmansaid. "It was not appropriate for them to cut offthat shelter's food supply without first sittingdown with the shelter's director to make sure thatalternative arrangements could be made."

The loss of Quad leftovers could cause seriousproblems for the shelter, Stewart said. Harvard'sdonations of chicken, ham and fish--saving theFirst Church more than $100 a week off theirbudget--were "the major source of protein" for theshelter, according to Stewart. "We can get plentyof day-old produce from supermarkets and day-oldpastries and bread from Au Bon Pain, but you can'treally provide a balanced meal with just that,"Stewart said.

He also said that the Food Bank agreed todistribute salvaged food to the First Churchshelter. However, the Food Bank has yet to followthrough on that promise, according to Stewart."We're not getting food from the Quad Houses anymore or from the Food Bank....We feel like we gotthe worst possible deal," Stewart said.

--Andrew K. Mandel contributed to thereporting of this story.