Food and Drinks

Food and Drinks in Venues w/ Written Approvals

MMS Guidelines for Official Functions

  1. Food and/or Drinks are allowed in MMS event locations.  The Executive Conference Center, MSB G.100, and the computer classroom, MSB B.410, requires approval by the Executive Director, Management Services-MS, Jamie Spencer, prior to each event requesting food/drinks to be served.
  2. Request for exceptions must be in writing. Submit requests for exceptions to any of the food and drink policies/procedures including requests to have food/drinks in MSB B.410 and MSB G.100 to the Executive Director, Management Services-MS, Jamie Spencer, at least one week in advance of the event date.  Buffet style food lines may be available in MSB 5.001 – Fifth Floor Gallery and SRB 107 – Atrium with prior approval from Jamie Spencer.  Examples of food and services requiring prior approval include open flame heating, food served in trays requiring ladles or tongs for self-serve, condiments served in a large tub instead of individual sized packets or containers.
  3. Leave the room in the same or better condition as found on arrival.
  4. Use HUB vendors! McGovern Medical School strongly encourages that food purchased with university funding use a HUB vendor. Visit here for HUB information.
  5. Acceptable Food Options. Box lunches packaged in cardboard or foam are the preferred food items to use in conference rooms, classrooms, lecture halls, and other shared spaces to provide an individual’s food selection as a grab and go item.   Uncut fruit or individual fruit cups or pasta salads with lids in a box lunch are acceptable.  Pizza will be allowed in individual boxes per slice or pan pizza.  Providing large pizza boxes with multiple slices will be approved if the department provides someone to serve the pizza while wearing serving gloves and using serving utensils.
  6. Examples of Unacceptable Food Options.  No shared boxes or trays of food where multiple people serve themselves are allowed in the conference rooms. classrooms, and lecture halls.  This includes open fruit/cheese trays, green salads with dressings, open containers of pasta salads/entrees, opened boxes of sliced pizza for self-serve, etc.  When in doubt if the food option is acceptable or unacceptable, please send your inquiry to ms.deancops@uth.tmc.edu.
  7. Use of Caterer & Food Delivery. When using a caterer to deliver food, please clearly identify the department/group/meeting for which the food is intended by placing a sign on or near the food delivered. Please remind the caterer to clearly identify the recipient of an invoice.  Departments should assign someone to be at room to accept the food and invoice.
  8. Trash Disposal. Meeting leaders are requested to remind participants to deposit trash in receptacles with sufficient room to accommodate trash.  Do not place trash in an already overflowing trash receptacle. Additional trash receptacle(s) can be requested by emailing detailed request(s) to FIXIT@uth.tmc.edu.  If large pizzas are provided, contact housekeeping to schedule immediate removal of pizza boxes before confirmed room reservation time expires.
  9. Housekeeping. Events with food must schedule housekeeping to remove trash and clean the room prior to the next event by emailing a detailed request to FIXIT@uth.tmc.edu.  It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure the scheduled cleanup time is included in the reservation request and that housekeeping has completed cleanup during the room reservation times.
  10. No food allowed in Student Labs (MSB 2.105, 2.107, 2.129, 2.131) or SRB (IMM) 104 Beth Robertson Auditorium.