| October DSAC Meeting Notes
Dining Services Advisory Committee (DSAC)
Notes from October 1
Attendance:
Chartwells Management: 5
Faculty and Staff: 4
Students: 3
Discussion:
The President’s Brunch was well received by
students and Chartwells agreed to keep a similar Café Court set up
in the future.
Faculty Fridays, which encourages faculty members
to dine at Towers Café on Fridays during lunch, has been a huge
success and more than 50 faculty members have been using this
service.
DSAC discussed the proposed new student housing
development. This process is in the early stages and DSAC debated a
vision for dining possibilities. This discussion included menu
options, students targeted for services and seating capacity. A
timeline is being developed, but we expect for this project to move
rather quickly.
The future direction DSAC was discussed to some
length. We have limited input from students and we are trying to
encourage more student participation. We will be seeking additional
help from Student Government and RHA.
Issues:
1. The Beanery seems to be short staffed later in the afternoon.
Resolution: We will study the problem and make
sure we have adequate coverage for service times.
2. I do not like the new UC! It takes too much
time.
Resolution: The UC is probably running at the
highest efficiency. We are sometimes twice as busy in the UC then we
were last year. This might not seem so because of the new design and
layout allows for faster service. We nearly doubled the capacity of
Café Court and moving all the registers to the front has really
streamlined the checkout process.
Unfortunately, during our lunch rushes we do get
very busy. We have a number of express items including the chutes at
the grill, Acentos Latino and Chic-Fil-A to help speed up service.
Our staff does an excellent job serving the masses in a timely
manner. During some days at lunch, it is not that uncommon to serve
over 700 guests in one hour. Usually this occurs, we can accommodate
a guest every 3.1 seconds.
3. Napkin dispensers are no longer on the
tables. It was easier when they were on the tables and by the food.
Resolution: We removed the napkin dispensers off
the tables to improve the image of the dining area. The dispensers
cluttered up the tables, some were stolen and many napkins would
simply be left on the table or ended up on the floor. Since making
this change, the dining area has appeared much cleaner.
We figured there would be an adjustment period for
customers to get used to the new napkin locations. If we continue to
receive comments about this issue, we may review our policy next
semester.
4. Chartwells is not following the on-line menu
and they offer little change. They have served the same soups for
nearly a month.
Resolution: Unfortunately some menu changes are
inevitable and we may not be able to make the change online in time.
We recently updated some of our server hardware, which should help
speed up the website process.
In our retail locations, we have some concepts
that do not make any changes, which is by design. Part of a well
functioning retail location is consistency and that is what we
strive for. In café court, we do offer a rotating entrée selection
everyday at Bamboo Asian, a weekly feature at Acentos Latino, a
weekly feature 1/3 pound burger at Players grill and different daily
options at Hearth Stone Ovens, as well as periodical Limited Time
Offers.
Our Au Bon Pain soup rotation is a bit different
than other venues. Each daily we offer 2 different soups and chili.
One of these soups is a changing daily selection and the other is
featured on weekly basis and is always vegetarian. This year we have
been limited on our vegetarian offerings. When using a vendor like
Au Bon Pain for our soups, the benefit of course is getting
excellent tasting soups. The downside however is that they have very
strict quality control standards and late summer, fall and winter is
a difficult time to get quality fresh ingredients and vegetables.
This impacts the soups they make available for ordering, which is
most obvious in the vegetarian soups. This is the same reason we
were unable to offer broccoli and cheese soup for a limited time
last year. However, we will work closely with our distributor to
possibly identify other vegetarian soups to substitute in place of
our regularly scheduled soups.
Issues brought forth during
September meeting:
1. A description of what is available, by
retail venue, at the value exchange rate.
Resolution: We have received a number of comments
about meals not fitting into meal plans. With the value exchange
options, Southeast Students currently have the lowest price meal
plan in Missouri. For students that are on the 15 meals plan, that
equates to a cost-per-meal rate of $4.17 ($3.88 with flex dollars
factored out). However, students receive a $5.00 value for their
meal exchange. Therefore, it is not financially feasible to raise
the meal exchange rate.
In addition, we use a competitive analysis to determine out pricing
structure. This is based on local restaurants in Cape Girardeau. For
instance, our quarter pound cheese burger is $2.99. This same item
would cost you $2.90 at McDonalds, $2.99 at Burger King and $3.49 at
Dairy Queen. We do this for every item on our menu.
Menu items in our retail locations are actually designed to fit into
meal plans. We are contractually obligated to provide at least 3
meals at each location and in most places we exceed that. To help
meet this obligation, we even offer a value exchange rate lower than
menu price at Hearth Stone Ovens, Sandwich Central and Bamboo Asian.
To help students stay in their meal plan, we developed a list of
meals that will fit and will produce these and distribute them in
café court.
This listing provides suggestions that will fit into the value
exchange. This is not even an exhaustive list as all suggestions are
simply limited to each location. More options are available if
students wish to visit more than one location.
Player’s Grill And Rowdy’s
2 Corndog Combo (fries and medium beverage)
Grilled Cheese Combo (fries and medium beverage)
Quarter Pound Burger Combo (fries and medium beverage)
Deli Grill with chips or fruit and small beverage
Wild Greens
Regular Salad and small Soda (4 options)
Hearth Stone Ovens
Rotisserie chicken, 2 sides, roll and medium beverage
Vegetarian entrée, 2 sides, roll and medium beverage
Regular entrée, 2 sides, roll and medium beverage (2 options)
Acentos Latino
2 beef tacos with beans or rice and medium beverage
Beef and cheese with burrito or rice and medium beverage
Acentos taco with rice or beans and medium beverage
Cheese quesadilla with rice or beans and medium beverage
Chicken and cheese burrito with rice/beans and medium beverage
Chicken soft taco with rice/beans and medium beverage
2 orders of nachos with rice/beans and medium beverage
Acentos beef nachos with small beverage
Bamboo Asian
Any of the core 4 entrees with medium fountain beverage. This
includes rice and fortune cookie (4 options).
Fried rice, egg roll and medium fountain beverage
Mamma Leone’s
Any slice of pizza and medium fountain beverage (5 options).
Au Bon Pain
Regular size soup, fruit and medium fountain beverage (3 options)
Skylight Terrace and Rowdy’s
Ham/Veggie/Turkey Sandwich, fruit/chips, medium fountain beverage (3
options)
Beanery Café
Half sandwich, chips, pickle and small fountain beverage (6 options)
Quiche, bread and medium fountain beverage (2 options)
2. A description of the Wheat
Street Deli Concept, including the menu and proposed pricing.
Resolution: (Provided and discussed during October
meeting)
3. Update on the Cereal Lab
Resolution: We have reviewed and adjusted the
rotation of the items we make available for the cereal lab. These
changes have already been implemented and made available to
students.
4. Update on quality control at Acentos
Resolution: At the beginning of the year we had
staffing shortages, which have since been corrected. In addition, we
slightly tweaked the menu and will be incorporating those changes
very soon. We hope these changes will address many of the concerns
students have had.
5. Breakfast at Rowdy's. Is it a possibility?
Resolution: At this time we will not be able to
serve breakfast at Rowdy’s. The offering of Towers-To-Go has
provided an opportunity for students seeking a convient option for
breakfast service..
6. Can we get unsweet tea in a dispenser in the
UC?
Resolution: Unsweet tea has been added in addition
to Unsweet tea. Unsweet tea was originally removed because it was
the least popular option of all dispensed fountain beverages and
fresh tea is brewed in the Beanery each day. To accommodate, we now
offer 2 less 7up fountains. |
