The goal of this project is to create awareness about the realities of relying on the Cafeteria for nutrition and energy.
Here are some comments from Day 2.
President White has been posting to the President's blog, the link to that is here:
http://www.bethelks.edu/president/blogs/blog1.php
Day 3:
Breakfast: I came in for breakfast soon after 8am and made a two-egg omelet with sausage and cheese. It was very good and things seemed more clean than they have been in the food areas. I noticed we were out of clean bowls by the omelet bar but found one at the cereal area. I mentioned this to Aladdin staff and they immediately went to get clean bowls.
Lunch: For lunch I had a piece of the taco pizza, and made my own burrito (minus the tortilla) at the build-your-own-burrito bar. Both were very good, and I went back to get two more pieces of taco pizza! I enjoyed lunch quite a bit today. Some of the students I was eating with enjoyed the meal, but one student tried several things and was having a hard time finding something she liked.
Dinner: For supper I had the beef sandwich. The bread was very large, and I did not eat all of it. I probably could have asked for the meat without the bread, but I didn’t think about this at first. On my second bite into my sandwich I bit into something harder than meat. I’m not sure what it was…a small bone or grissle…and I didn’t look at it as I sneakily covered my mouth with a napkin and tucked it away in there. I finished most of the sandwich, and it was okay. I had the cooked vegetables, which were the same mix as what we had on Monday evening. They were good. I heard the cake was great, but I don’t really eat a lot of cake and had just had some a couple hours before supper (strange enough!).
I’m noticing some difference between the lunch meal and the evening meal, in that I’ve been more consistently pleased with lunches. Maybe it’s the additional option at the show-time station. This is something I had heard from students…that the evening and weekend meals are not as good as the lunch meals, on average.
It is also important to note that in my conversations with students this week, a theme seems to be developing. This theme is related to customer service. Multiple students have given independent reports about times when they felt they were an inconvenience to food service staff. This seems to occur most frequently at high-traffic times before the end of an hour. For example, I have heard concerning reports about the food on the line being low at 10-til the hour several times in the morning and again late in the cafeteria’s open hours. In addition to the food lines not being well-stocked, students express seeing the staff act visibly upset, complaining and asking the students how many are coming, etc. In the last two days I have received reports of this happening at 10-til 8am and 9am, and Tuesday evening. The report about Tuesday evening was that a large group of student-athletes came at the same time soon before 7pm. The students did not feel like the staff was ready for this group and were upset about the group coming in so late.
I have also received concerning reports from food service staff about how students are treating them, and I have been following up with these students.
Customer service is extremely important in the cafeteria, and was a point of emphasis last year. I hope that this part of the experience can improve for everyone involved, as the food service company is here to serve the students well…and I hope our community responds favorably and respectfully even when things don’t go as well as hoped. The students are the focus of the service here, and I hope efforts can be made by Aladdin to help them feel more welcome and not like an inconvenience. For the relationship between food service staff and the students to improve, I believe customer service will need to be a top priority.
