To our MCA Family,
As many of you know, we had many of our members fall ill after eating at our tailgate party. We are
extremely sorry that this has happened to members that participated in homecoming this year. We do
hope that most, if not all that were affected are starting to feel better or have fully recovered from their
symptoms.
We are taking steps to ensure that this does not happen to us again.
We appreciate your patience and support as the investigation continues. To be as transparent as
possible with everyone, we want to give an update on the tailgate food poisoning that occurred on
10/21/2023.
It was brought to our attention Sunday morning (10/22) that several individuals had fallen ill later in the
evening/overnight. More reports trickled in stating that some of the meat had various odors – “smelled
off”, “like fish”, etc.
As it was obvious that this was more than an isolated case, Shanna Miller put together a quick survey
that was sent to all of our registered attendees, asking some questions about what food and drink they
consumed at our tailgate. This survey quickly had 50 respondents stating that they were also
experiencing symptoms of food poisoning.
As the reports of illness increased, we did the following:
- Reached out to the caterer to see if they had heard anything related to the leftover food
donated to a local homeless shelter. We asked that he inform them of the issues reported by
our group and have the food pulled so no more people were impacted - Created and shared a food and drink survey and sent to registered attendees, and asked that
they forward to any guests that they may have had attend with them - We reached out to the Leon County Department of Health (DOH) to report the incident on
Monday morning, 10/23 - The DOH asked additional questions and found that our quick survey to be very useful
data for their investigation. - Data shared with DOH was encrypted before it was transmitted and the
password was given directly to the DOH case manager - They created their own survey using CDC software and asked our assistance in sharing it
with the attendees - They advised that it asked for stool samples from those still experiencing symptoms and
have sought medical assistance - The DOH contacted Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), and these
agencies are now conducting a joint investigation into the event and caterer - We have reached out to FSU, informed them that this has happened and are awaiting response
as to next steps - To date, we have had 3 reports of testing positive for Salmonella
As the investigation continues, we want to let everyone know that we will not be sharing any of the
survey information outside of the DOH.
On 10/27/2023, Shanna received the update below from the DOH:
A typical investigation of this kind would involve surveys, specimen collection, a joint investigation with
the Department of Professional Regulation and data analysis. Measures are also instituted to mitigate
further risk to the community.
It can be a lengthy process but when everything is complete, a final report is produced.
I will notify you when that occurs so that you can obtain a copy, if desired, through a public records
request. All you would need to do is send your request for the outbreak report to
PublicRecordsRequest@flhealth.gov.
Outside of the food poisoning, we hope that everyone enjoyed our other homecoming activities. We
had 2 excellent performances and a great football game in between to keep us entertained.
Please feel free to reach out to us with further questions or concerns about this unfortunate event.
Thank you,
Your MCA Executive Committee
Michael Staden, Executive Director
Shanna Miller, Associate Director for Activities
Lucas Bhuvasorakul, Associate Director for Administration
Bonna Larson, Chair of MCA the Board of Directors
