Student reactions point to successful food service
by Connie Yu, Managing Editor

   Two days after SE Campus kick started the first cafeteria opening in the district last Tuesday, nursing student Anne Galvin had already visited the cafeteria for the second time, and she said the Thursday lunch would not be her last at the SE facility.
  “The pricing is really good,” she said. “[The food quality] is kind of like Luby’s in a sense that it’s fresh and healthy. But I don’t really like Luby’s, so I would consider it better than Luby’s.”
   For $4.50, Galvin had a hamburger, a pasta salad, a cup of coffee and a brownie for dessert.
   She was not the only one pleased with the cafeteria’s new features.
   Two other nursing students, Pang Yang and Teresa Allen, ate at the cafeteria for the first time on Thursday and said they were pleasantly surprised.
   “It was the cheapest hamburger I have ever had,” Yang said, citing many amenities, such as bacon and cheese, which came with her burger.
   Allen agreed.
   “The prices are really affordable,” she said. “You’d spend $3 for a chicken sandwich at Chick-Fill-A, but here you get a combo for the same price.”
   Chick-Fill-A served on SE Campus during the two summer sessions after the college’s last cafeteria vendor went bankrupt.
   The two students said they were impressed by the freshness of the new service’s food, as well as a variety of food choices it offers.
   “I guess people are a lot happier now,” Allen said, “because they are able to get some good food with really good prices.”
   Allen was also content with the service from the cafeteria staff.
   “They seemed to be eager to serve,” she said. “It’s not like the old cafeteria ladies back in school, where they just slap your food on a napkin and give it to you.”
   Ernest Gines, chair of the computer science department, said he was happy to see some of the old vendor’s employees back to serve in the cafeteria.
   “Some of these people have been here since the campus was opened,” he said.
   Gines compared the cafeteria’s food quality to Brooklyn’s Pizza and said that the new vendor exceeds its predecessor in food quality. The more affordable prices only add to its appeal, he said.
   “Anytime you can get a lunch for $4,” he said, “it’s reasonable.”
   One of his lunch companions, Ruth Pietzsch, said the two new checkout lines implemented by the cafeteria also make the service more time efficient.
   “It takes you out of the food lines,” the architectural technology student said, “and it’s great.”
   After the grand opening on SE and NW campuses last week, NE Campus opened its cafeteria Monday followed by South Campus today.
   Trying to catch the evening crowds on campus, the new cafeteria vendor, Educational Catering, Inc., increased cafeteria hours to 7 p.m., Bob Choate, the company’s director of business development, said.
   The company also plans to launch an aggressive promotional campaign, including a districtwide grand opening celebration, in the coming weeks to gain the much-needed publicity, company officials said.
   Other amenities the cafeteria features include a dining card system, which allows customers to store money electronically to purchase food at each cafeteria. The service will be available in about two weeks.
   Meanwhile, SE cafeteria manager Kerry Wiggs said last week that he was still trying to get everything in place.
  “The most difficult part is to try to get everything organized,” the new manager said. “We’ve got some problems with not getting stuff in on time, but other than that, everything else has been going fine.”
   Wiggs said most of the community has responded positively to the new cafeteria services.
   “We’ve got a lot of business,” he said, “I’ll tell you that.”
  Early revenue figures show that the SE Cafeteria has done significantly better in its first two days of operation than the average daily income of the last vendor, and Wiggs
said he believes the cafeteria will increase its revenue even more in the coming weeks.
   “I think starting out, we have done better than expected,” he said. “But we can do more.”
   Wiggs said last week that the cafeteria still lacked the hardware support to take credit card payments.
   “We should be taking credit cards in the next couple of weeks,” he said, “and that’s going to help us tremendously.”
   Apart from the discomfort of no credit card service, some customers also complained about waiting too long for their food at the hot grill section where food are made upon orders.
   “Our goal is to try to cook everything fresh,” he said. “ We are trying to cook as fast as we can.”
   Some customers reportedly waited more than five minutes for their meals, but Galvin, who waited a while for her burger, said she can understand the delay.
   “It’s a little bit slow,” she said. “But they have just opened, so they are still trying to work out the pace.”
   Louis Camper, the new cafeteria manager on NW Campus, was unable to be reached at press time.
   But most NW students and staff interviewed by The Collegian said they welcome the features of the new cafeteria.
   “I think it looks really nice,” Aaron Loyd, an art student. said. “I like the decorations, and you can’t beat their coffee.”
   New cafeteria hours: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
   Reporter Frances Matteck also contributed to this article.