So you’re hungry, but you want variety in your dining experience. I bet you feel like Barone can’t ever get any better, and that the cafeteria food makes Ronald McDonald look like Wolfgang Puck.
But if you followed your tummy’s rumble to the Barone Campus Center on Feb. 28 to the Food Show, you realized that all those suggestions that you stuck on the “comments” board are beginning to be answered.
Students were given an early Spring Break treat two weeks ago when Fairfield University and Sodexho sponsored a campus cafeteria food show. Barone was transformed into a glutton’s delight as chefs from different companies affiliated with Sodexho prepared a plethora of tasty treats for the university community.
From crab cakes to veggie burgers, Southwestern egg rolls to apple pie, a variety of different delectable delights satisfied the pallets of Fairfield students. Students were given free entrance into Barone, as well as popcorn when they walked in.
“I was so confused when I entered the cafeteria. They didn’t really advertise the food show, but it was good to have different food for once,” said Lindsay Marx, ’04.
Students were asked to fill out surveys as they ate, rating any or all of the food that they sampled. The purpose of this particular food show was to get an idea of what the students of Fairfield University like. The whole concept revolves around purveyors associated with the Sodexho Company.
By sampling the fare that these various companies have to offer, the cafeteria staff can then take the completed surveys and get a better idea of what students are looking for, thus enabling the menu to be altered for the 2002-2003 school year.
“The food show went over well. Once we finish reading over the feedback from the students, we can then go over the menu for next year,” said Scott Commings, general manager of Sodexho.
In the summer the menu is then determined, the process beginning in May. Many of the products sampled on Feb. 28 will be perfect fits for the Stag and Barone cafeteria.
“When we go over the menu, we think to ourselves, how can we fit this in?” Commings said.
About eighty percent of Fairfield University students respond favorably to the meal program in Barone, adding suggestions that are feasible for the cafeteria to incorporate into the menu. The other twenty percent are usually negative.
“How can we respond to students who simply tell us, in not so many words, that the food isn’t good? We need more feedback,” said Commings.
“The food is okay. I mean, it’s definitely not home cooking, but what can you do? Take out is too expensive every night,” said Jenn Mochi, ’04.
Katie Termine, ’04, agrees. “Barone has the same things over and over. Hopefully the food will be better next semester with more variety or something.”
The Fairfield community will just have to wait until the next academic year to taste the changes made in the menu.
Any suggestions or comments regarding the cafeteria can be posted on a board by the entrance into the cafeteria.
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