<p>OK, I have been wondering about this, and maybe some of you can enlighten me. If some schools can manage to have really good food, why can't all? Not every school has the funds or the land to build brand new dorms, but why can't ANY school upgrade the food service, considering that parents pay for it and it is such an important draw? Do kitchens have to be totally reconfigured or something to offer the fresh wrap/stir fry stations or what not? Does different staff have to be employed at higher salaries? </p>
<p>This may sound naive on my part, but I really don't get it.</p>
<p>Yes, you need renovations, additional kitchen space, and more and better staff.</p>
<p>It is really, really hard to have fantastic food in a kitchen that’s serving 2000+ people per meal. Having more, smaller dining halls is better, but way more expensive to build and to operate. The food itself is more expensive, too.</p>
<p>Schools are in a bit of a bind when it comes to food cost. Do you offer both cheaper and more expensive dining options? Then everyone is able to buy what they can afford, but your dining service will promote economic segregation among students. Or do you force everyone to buy the same plan and eat together? That fosters college unity, but it’s a financial burden on the poorer kids who have to pay for the same luxury food the rich kids demand. A few well-endowed schools, like Harvard and Yale, can afford to subsidize all the students on fin aid, but most can’t afford to.</p>
<p>dbwes, I think in part some school choose to provide their own food service and others contract with outside vendors. Vendors will often agree to provide those perks (i.e., stir fry station, etc., even entire dining halls) simply to get the contract.</p>
<p>UW-Madison has had a pay for what you eat food service for many decades- now they no longer even require a minimum number of purchases (in my day they had 3 different numbers of $10 meal ticket plans and one could buy/sell the tickets). Anyone can eat in any of the Res Halls food service places- cafeterias/snack bars/convenience stores- and dorm residents pay a lot less than others. They have good food and hours and need/want to upgrade some terribly old food preparation services. Dorm students can get delivered pizza ($.50 delivery charge) which must be good or students would order from private pizza places more often. Res Halls doesn’t make a profit but does break even with enough for keeping up the buildings et al. They have figured a bit over $1000 (maybe $1200) is spent each school year by most students- there are plenty of off campus places to eat nearby. The price differential for dorm residents and cash prices has been 60% (not sure if less/more) as part of the dorm fee includes upkeep of dining facilities (so in a way every dorm resident does pay even if they don’t buy the food). There are made to order stations, salad bars and food can easily be taken away (dorms floors have spots to return dishes). I read a bit about how old and crowded one food prep area was, hence the need to renovate.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why many schools have such high costs for dorm residents, even accounting for regional food prices. The UW Residence Hall food service is entirely self supporting, no funds from the school or state. The “all you can eat” 3 times a day only system should be replaced. Too many are subsidizing the big eaters and the service hours are limiting. Those schools that outsource are giving a profit to the outside source. There may also be a savings in the huge size of the campus- UW has perhaps some 5000 dorm residents, but there will be faculty and staff who eat there as well.</p>
<p>There are just a lot more things schools need to be spending money on besides food. Sports for example are also a big draw, and cost a great deal of money. Research facilities, big-name professorships, study abroad, these are the really important things. Food is a nice luxury, but when a place is lookign to cut costs it’s not going to come out of the library funds first.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school actually has what I consider a great mix of eating options that all falls under the umbrella of her dining plan.</p>
<p>There are a couple of regular “all you can eat” cafeteria-type locations. These have a salad bar, an area for burgers/grilled cheese and fries, a stir-fry section that always includes vegetarian options and the ‘hot meal’ selection. I’m not sure what they serve for breakfast during the week, but I know they have a full cold-cereal section and on the weekends they do a nice brunch. These locations swipe one meal off your card and you can eat all you want.</p>
<p>Then there are “retail” locations. One or two diner-style locations, a pizza-place where whole pies as well as slices and sandwiches are offered, and a convenience store/deli right in the freshman dorm. These locations allow a student to swipe their card and use a meal by crediting them up to $5.25 worth of food. Anything over that price can be deducted with Dining Dollars that can also be placed on their meal ticket (they get a set amount at the start of each quarter, but we can add more if we want). One of my daughter’s favorite lunches is to grab the Flatbread of the Day at the pizza place for only $5 (so it uses one meal credit…no extra $$ required). She said its so big she eats half and saves the rest for a late night snack.</p>
<p>The convenience/deli right at the dorm is great for sandwiches both hot and cold, and they also sell microwaveable meals (daughter has a micro-fridge in her room). Again, she can get up to $5.25 without paying anything ‘extra’ with a meal swipe.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most flexible thing about her meal plan is that there are actually 6 meal periods per day…morning, mid-morning, lunch, mid-afternoon, dinner, late-night. They can use one meal swipe per meal period, so if kids get really hungry or want a late-night snack, they can troop over to the pizza place and use their meal ticket. Yes…they can conceivably use up 6 meals in one day…but I think at most many use up to three. My daughter started the quarter with 18 meals a week but she’s already told us that she isn’t using close to 18 and would rather have 14…which will give mer more Dining Dollar credit.</p>
<p>Every meal plan is the same price at her school…the only difference is the amount of Dining Dollar credit allotted. The fewer meals per week on your plan, the more Dining Dollar credit you get.</p>
<p>Food-service contractors need a certain volume to float their costs. At one level of participation, they can afford the contract, at a higher level they can provide additional options, at an even higher level, they can afford to offer a popular but unprofitable venue by having another more profitable one to balance it out, etc. Accordingly, at a school like UW-Madison, everything is optional and the options should be high-quality and diverse. At a smaller school, the board plan will be mandatory in order to create the critical mass of participation to just make a board plan feasible. In general, I feel that most aspects of the campus experience improve as size becomes smaller, but this is one area in which the opposite is true.</p>
<p>Plus, UW-Madison probably sells enough beer on the back patio of the Student Center to have lobster night once a week in all the dining halls. :)</p>
<p>I’m quite sure that my son’s dining hall on West Campus at Boston University fed well in excess of 2000 folks per meal. The food was terrific…many different stations at each meal and many different choices. The only peeve my kid had was that the variety ended after a while…but the quality of the food was mighty good.</p>
<p>DD’s school has only one dining hall (Santa Clara University). Again…great food, good stations…and it feeds everyone who resides on campus…my guess is that is about 2000 students. It is a pay for what you eat plan…not a certain number of meals plan. DD said the food was very good. She never had trouble finding something to eat that she liked.</p>
<p>LongPrime - I agree NONE of us should complain about food, BUT several times my DS’s school has served food that has made him sick. He is afraid to eat anything off the self-serve buffet. All we can figure is that there is poor food handling in the kitchen or the buffet is not set up to keep the food at the correct temperature. He is eating microwaveable food or fresh-made sandwiches from the cafeteria. Needless to say, the kid is tired of eating sandwiches. He does get take out food from local restaurants once a week, but can’t afford to do that on a daily basis. The food at his school has been a real disappointment. His freshman 15 has gone the wrong way, and he was thin to begin with.</p>
<p>Interesting, gadad. That fits with our experience. My son’s small LAC is amazing in every way… except the food. The students complain about it all the time. My kid, who is getting very generous FA there gets the hammer from me if he ever complains because it’s through the generosity of the school that he’s eating, period. So he does not complain… well, not to us at least. We give him the gratitude talk at regular intervals.</p>
<p>My daughter’s big State U. seems to do quite well on the food front. Various eating venues from a couple all-you-can-eat places to specialty kiosks, stir-fry, ethnic foods, coffee shops, smoothie and sandwich places. There’s a lot of variety there and she reports that quality is quite good.</p>
<p>Then how can they know that perhaps their food handling technique needs to be revamped? Perhaps they need to clean their hands or the sink after they work with raw meat. Food poisoning is serious business. I know people who’ve been hospitalized after eating contaminated food or food improperly handled. </p>
<p>DS has had his bowels completely empty on him five times over the past six weeks. Not good. Do you think this food should be given to the hungry homeless? I think this would be cruel. DS is not complaining about the lack of variety, only the quality/safety of the food.</p>
<p>I am not saying that kids should or should not complain about food, but I do know there are schools out there that have made changes and have gone from having what students consider bad food to very good food. It is up to the school to make that decision.</p>
<p>Food poisoning is serious. If your DS thinks he had food poisoning, there are probably others who also have food poisoning. He should report the incidents and monitor his foods so that he can isolate when, where, and what is causing him so much grief.</p>
<p>The problem is that each time he got sick he took a variety of foods from the buffet. He has no idea which food(s) made him sick. It’s not like kids share with each other the fact that they have digestive problems, so there’s no telling who else has gotten sick. All he’s been able to figure out is that he gets sick when he eats at the buffet. There’s really nothing to tell the food service folks because he can’t (or at this point won’t sacrifice his stomach to) isolate the source of the his troubles. Maybe if the food tastes bad the kids shouldn’t eat it - mine’s not a picky eater or complainer, and he paid the price for it.</p>