Q
I really enjoy
the menu at Olive's. Today the salad/out takes section was not well
stocked but I think it may have been a delivery issue as it seemed
most things were not stocked in the outtakes area.Several
students and RAs have expressed they are unhappy about the switch in
bread for the paninis. They have been told it was a switch made by
the vendor but the students feel like they are not getting a good
value with the new/temporary bread. They did not mind paying the
price for the previous bread because they liked the amount of food
they received for the price.
I have also heard several comments that it would be nice to have
a sign for ordering and a sign for pickup for made to order items.
Students get confused where to stand when ordering and picking up
items.
On a positive note: everyone loves the employees at Olive's. They
are all very friendly and professional!
A
I am not sure
why there was a limited Outtakes selection. Delivery should not be
an issue as we have begun making the items down there instead of
delivering them. I will follow-up and make sure it is corrected.
As for the bread, we already switched back to the regular bread.
Unfortunately, the overwhelming success of Olive's (and specifically
the Panini's) depleted not only our Panini bread stock, but the
stock of the supplier. Any bread served was only a temporary
solution until our supplier could adjust their inventory
accordingly.
As far as signage for ordering, there are already some in place.
I will speak with Michael and Lydia about clarifying the ordering
process.
Thanks for your input.
____________
Q
I am a student here at Southeast. I
have a few questions that I have about dinner dining.
I have asked students what their views are on these places being
closed for dinner time, and they have said, "I usually eat at Wild
Greens. I enjoy eating tasty salads for dinner, but now I have to
eat Chic Fil'A or a hamburger. I'm going to gain weight if this
keeps up!"
I am just concerned about
everyone's health while living here on campus. The places that were
the healthiest for the students are closed in the University Center
after 1:30 PM, and the places I am alluding to are Hearth Stone,
Wild Greens, and Skylight. I understand that their sales may be a
bit more minimum than that of the pizza place, the taco stand, The
Grill, and Chic-Fil-A, but those places are not as healthy as the
places that were so suddenly taken away from us students.
I have heard that Chartwells
expects that we students would eat more often at Olive's, but if
that were the case why is Olive's so expensive. When I eat out at a
restaurant I have enough money for a drink and perhaps an apple or
chips, because it is cash, but when I am dining at the university I
am not able to do that at Olive's with one meal plan. A sandwich
there costs a minimum of $5.49. How am I supposed to stay healthy
with fruit even? I would like to buy an apple, but my entire meal
plan is taken up by just one sandwich.
Of course there is the Beanery, but
the lines are far too long because nothing better is open. I think
that it is putting a lot of pressure on Chartwells's workers if you
ask me. Sure, the workers that are employed are predominately Union
workers, and they are getting paid a hefty wage, but it is unfair to
we students because of who runs our food services. One student said,
"It's not about us anymore." We would like to eat things that we
like and it be of good healthy quality and taste. We do not have
money to go out and buy things to cook, and that is why we have meal
plans. Our mothers are not right down the street from where we go to
school anymore. We need good things to eat, and if students choose
to eat unhealthily by going to Chic-Fil-A and The Grill that is
their own fault, but for those of us who choose to eat healthily we
would need a place that offers that at dinner time. I hope
that this letter finds a medium in the realm of this issue. Thank
you for taking your time to read this letter.
A
Thank you for
your input. We discussed your email in our managers meeting.
You are
correct in that the sales data helps dictates the hours of each
concept, along with considerable input from the Dinning Services
Advisory Committee (DSAC). With the opening of Olive’s and its
use as a late night option, we did have to scale back some
concepts inside the University Center. This included the
specific concepts you mentioned.
As always, the
hours of operation we start out with may not be the same by the
end of the year. We are always open to student and University
input regarding hours of service and encourage you to attend the
next DSAC meeting to share your thoughts and concerns. Part of
the reason we made this switch was out of the desire for a late
night option on the south side of campus. It is still unclear as
to how this change meets the needs of the students and we are
not sure at this point if it will be a permanent change. We are
also open to suggestions. I encouraged you to share your
thoughts on which stations you want to see open and which should
be closed.
DSAC Schedule:
September 21 at the UC
October 19 at Towers
November 16 at the UC
January 25 at the UC
February 15 at Towers
March 15 at the UC
April 19 at Towers
We applaud
your efforts to eat healthier on campus, and I suggest you also
reach out to Candice Duncan
nutrition@semo.edu. She is our staff dietitian
and has plenty of suggestions on eating healthy. However I am a
bit confused by your comments about Olive’s. The sandwich you
mention, the (Panini or wrap), are the most expensive and the
most unhealthy items we carry down there. The folds and
flatbreads are a much healthier option and will fit into your
meal plan.
In the mean
time, we will be preparing extra Wild Green Salads and
HearthStone meals and placing them in the Outtakes Cooler to
help provide additional selections. I will also be working with
Candice to provide nutritional info on our weekly features and
maybe designing some new items for Accentos that are healthier.
We tried to provide some HearthStone side items at the grill in
the evening, but there was not a lot of interest (at least sales
wise) for these items.
Thank you once
again for making your concerns know to us and I hope you will be
in attendance at the next DSAC meeting.
