Dining services on campuses throughout the country do their best to please their faculty and students with a variety of food choices. While some campuses have been successful with food choices, others have not. Dining Services at Virginia Commonwealth University have recently changed some of its food choices hoping for a better and healthy variety.
In order to please students, VCU Dining Services have offered a more variety in food selection. Recently, at the University Student Commons, Pizza Hut opened up replacing Alpine Bagel, which has been around since fall of 2005. VCU Dining Services determines to open up new food services by conducting student surveys gathering their feedback regarding their food and brand preferences.
Tamara Highsmith, Manager of the Sales and Services department, explained that when “we see sales begin to drop at a particular location, we do our best to find out why that is happening. Is it service? Product selection? A stale brand?”
A student survey indicated that Pizza Hut was preferred over many other pizza brands, and the space that Alpine Bagel was located in was set up in a way that was ideal for a Pizza Hut Express. However, students are still not pleased with the services. Jimmy Warraich, Junior at VCU says, “Currently I think the dining services are horrible! The new Pizza Hut sucks, the quality in their food is decreasing, the operating hours are horrible, there aren’t enough people working. I wish Alpine stayed, I like sandwiches, wraps and foods like that. Einstein Brothers Bagel needs to open now!”
There maybe some variety in the VCU Dining Services, but the quality of the food provided don’t seem to be pleasing the students. Nidhi Trivedi, Sophmore at VCU says, “Shafer used to be good last year when I was a freshman, they would have a variety of restaurants come in and cook and their menu was quite sufficient as well. But now it has died down. Shafer does not maintain the value it used to. I feel as if they put no effort into their food. Alpine was a great place for breakfast, I am looking forward to see how the new bagel place turns out, and the new Pizza Hut Express was a stupid idea.”
Surveys indicated that the bagel concept was very strong which is why they relocated a bigger and better bagel shop, Einstein Brothers Bagels in Shafer Dining Court. At the same time, students and faculty around campus are concerned about their health; therefore prefer to have some healthy choices. “The committee made their selection based on the best proposal which include full day-part offerings, previous experience serving the customer volume, a variety of price points and product that didn’t compete with the current VCU health System offerings,” explains Highsmith.
To many students and faculty, healthy eating is defined in many ways. Anips Mann, a Junior at VCU, says “it depends on your life style. Pizza Hut could actually be defined as ‘healthy,’ however overall, I personally believe that I will be able to find healthier alternatives at Einstein Bros. Bagels than I can at Pizza Hut. But who can resist a pizza every now and then?”
To other students, variety is not enough, Warraich and Trivedi both agree that although the “variety is okay, more healthier food would be nice.”
There are currently 23 dining options on campus, catering to different tastes and preferences. The VCU Dining Services hope that students will be able to find something that fits their dietary needs. Their goal is to have a “well-rounded portfolio of brands that cater to the needs of many different diets, nutritional standards and tastes.”
Sources:
Tamara Highsmith
Manager of Sales and Services
VCU Dining Services
tmhighsmith@vcu.edu
Anips Mann
Student: Junior at VCU
Jimmy Warraich
Student: Junior at VCU
warraichjs@vcu.edu
Nidhi Trivedi
Student: Sophomore at VCU
http://www.bsv.vcu.edu/vcufood
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