Sacramento County Investigating Galt Fundraiser After Reports Of Illnesses
MARCH 3 UPDATE: Public health says the East Texas Smoke BBQ Food Truck catered the baseball and softball fundraiser last weekend.
Ten people reported flu-like or foodborne illness symptoms to public health after attending the event for Sheldon High's sports teams.
The Elk Grove Unified School District says eight students were out of class on Monday after the event.
CBS13 has called the caterer several times over the past two days and has not heard back.
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ELK GROVE (CBS13) - Parents and students in Elk Grove are concerned about a possible food illness outbreak after a fundraiser in Galt over the weekend. Now Sacramento County Public Health Department is investigating and the school district is calling this an unusual situation.
"Everyone got sick, half of our team was gone by like the end of the week," said Sheldon High Junior Alfio Giuffrida.
Roughly 60 baseball and softball players from Sheldon High School and their 200 guests attended the gala at Estrellita Ballroom.
"A lot of family, a lot of friends, all the players were there just serving the food and stuff so it was a really good experience," Giuffrida said.
But after the event, some of the guests complained about feeling sick and wondered if the fundraiser food was to blame.
"I had no suspicions," Giuffrida said. "My parents thought the macaroni and cheese was a little off and they thought the chicken was a little weird, but that was pretty much it."
According to Elk Grove Unified School District, some people said they "experienced flu-like symptoms or foodborne illness symptoms." The teams' Booster Club took the complaints to the Sacramento County Environmental Management Department. CBS 13 reached out to the department too and the county sent the following statement:
"Sacramento County Division of Public Health is investigating a possible foodborne illness outbreak. Currently, 10 people have been reported to Public Health who may be linked to this. As part of the investigation, Public Health is working to identify the cause of the illness and anyone else who may have become ill."
According to Sacramento County Public Health, the event was catered by a food truck. We called the company several times throughout today to ask about the event, but no one has responded. We checked and found out the company's Facebook and Twitter pages, which were active earlier today, are now deleted.
"We don't know what to do, we don't have any food left so hopefully, we could find a situation where everybody gets out good," Giuffrida said.
The school district told CBS 13 fewer than eight students from the teams stayed home on Monday. But they will "continue to monitor the students to ensure that all are healthy and back to school."
The group catering an Elk Grove booster club fundraiser has deleted its Facebook and Twitter accounts as an investigation into a possible food illness outbreak continues.