Students not happy with food services, survey says

By John Moodie

Students are dissatisfied with food services at Loyalist College says a KPI student satisfactory survey released in April.

“The food is nothing to rave about, the prices are too high, there are no deals, and nowhere else to go, but the staff is fantastic,” says Matty Alex, third-year student of television, film and new media. Students of Loyalist College are concerned about the price of food, hours services are made available and wait times.

The Key Performance Indicator survey is mandated by the Ontario Government every year to gauge the performance of Ontario colleges. The survey is taken by independent company, CCI Research.

The KPI survey includes 24 colleges across Ontario and college funding is determined through the results of the survey.

According to the report 60 per cent out of 385 people surveyed at Loyalist are dissatisfied with food services. This is an increase of 25 percentage points since last year.

This September marked a year since Aramark Canada began providing food services at Loyalist College. Chartwell held the food services contract until last year.

The KPI report says food services scored lowest of all services at Loyalist College. The KPI report has identified food services at Loyalist College as a priority for improvement.

The food services contract is managed by Audrey Mitchell of procurement services for Loyalist College. Aramark reports directly to her and she is responsible for making sure Aramark meets their contractual obligations.

Pierre Overvelde, Aramark’s director of food services at Loyalist, declined to comment on the survey results.

“The college is aware that satisfaction of food services has decreased and a food service advisory committee has been set up to address these concerns,” said Dianne Spencer, executive director of college advancement.

Fred Pollitt, director of student life at Loyalist College, is heading up the food service advisory committee.

The food advisory committee plans to meet this month to address the dissatisfaction towards food services at Loyalist College.

“The support staff strike at the beginning of the semester last year may have had a real impact on the students’ responses to the KPI survey, but it is difficult to determine,” said Pollitt.

Last September support staff for colleges across Ontario went on strike. All college services had been significantly limited by the strike, food services included.

“There is no place to eat on campus on the weekend except Subway and you get sick of that after a while,” says Josh Edwards, 2nd year student of architecture.

Spencer went on to point out that the school has made some efforts to address concerns regarding food services.

A third cashier has been added to Tim Horton’s to speed up service, there are now value meals for people on budgets. Cafeteria hours have been extended from 3pm to 6:30pm and Subway is now open until 8 p.m.

Many of these changes were made in December, 2011. Months before the KPI report came out.

Though changes have been made, “the food is over-priced so I usually eat at home,” says Brett Weldon, 2nd year Customs and Borders student at Loyalist College.

“The KPI survey is only one way of determining satisfaction…Improvement of food services is a continuous process,” said Spencer. “You cannot promise that everything can be changed at a particular time.”