On Wednesday, November 11, the
Frostburg State University Student Government Association (SGA) hosted a campus-dining forum with FSU
caterer Chartwells, entitled “Closed Mouths Don’t Get Fed.” The event, held at
7 p.m. in the Gira Center, provided students with the opportunity to ask
questions concerning both the Appalachian Station in the Lane Center and
Chesapeake Dining Hall.
SGA’s
Student Affairs Committee prompted the question and answer session, with
Chartwells Director of Dining Services David Glenn representing dining
services. Chartwells belongs to Compass Group, a parent British company that is
currently the largest food caterer in the world.
Student
concerns at the forum focused on customer service, food quality, and company
operations. When discussing Chesapeake Dining Hall, students requested a
permanent breakfast option, stating the current cutoff at 10:30 a.m. doesn’t
allow students who get out of class at 10 a.m. sufficient time to eat
breakfast. Glenn defended the current schedule, rationalizing that the staff
needs sufficient time to prepare and present lunch, which is served at 11 p.m.
He noted that omelets are already available to students all day long.
Glenn, who
explained the batch process present in the cafeteria, addressed complaints of
undercooked food. All food, he stated, that is cooked in Chesapeake dining hall
is cooked about “fifty portions at a time.” Hence, slight variations in temperature
are to be expected with fresh batches. In the event that food is overly
undercooked, Glenn advises students to “let the manager know.”
Vegetarian
options were discussed, with one vegetarian complaining that she “kind of feels
ridiculous, to eat the same thing over and over again.” In response, Glenn
stated that Chartwells “understands that vegetarians and vegans can’t eat salad
every night. And we don’t expect you to.” It was revealed that Chartwells
always has at least one vegetarian option in addition to salad available. While
they may not always be marketed as a vegetarian dish, meatless options are
readily available: “Moes has beans and tofu,” Glenn stated. The lack of student knowledge of dishes is a
recurring problem for Chartwells. “We do a lot of things,” Glenn stated, “and
people may not know where they are… it’s
an overwhelming theme.”
Moving on
to discuss the Appalachian Station in the Lane University Center (LUC), one
student suggested increasing the hours of operation of Moe’s, the Mexican
cuisine installation in LUC. Richard Repac, FSU Assistant Vice President of
Finance and Comptroller, stated that this would involve “a give and take. We’d
have to give up something to bring it back to 11 a.m. I’d hate to make meal
plans more expensive.”
Glenn
announced at the forum that the Chick-fil-A station in LUC is “due for a
facelift in the next 18 months.” In preparation, Glenn has investigated the
possibility of both adding an additional fryer for spicy chicken sandwiches and
providing Chick-fil-A lemonade and iced tea. “It will be apart of what we look
into. We have a new business consultant [at the Country Club Mall] so we may
try to see if we can do that sooner rather than later,” Glenn stated.
Concerns
were raised by multiple students about the current salad station. It was widely
expressed that the former salad station under Aramark was preferred for its toppings
variety and warmed meat option. Glenn stated that he is “very familiar with
that station.”
The forum
ended with Glenn explaining the feedback mechanisms for campus dining,
including Twitter, which Chartwells hopes to grow usage of. “The more
communication we get from the students, the better,” Glenn stated. “Tell us
what you want.”
For more information on campus dining and how students can provide feedback, visit http://www.dineoncampus.com/frostburg/.
No comments:
Post a Comment