From new scanners to curly fries, changes in Campus Dining

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Branca Patio
Occidental College Branca Patio in Los Angeles, CA. Sept. 12, 2023. Amalia Rimmon/The Occidental

Starting this Fall, Campus Dining has implemented various changes in both the Marketplace and Cooler. These changes have been from top to bottom, ranging from menu changes to new infrastructure, according to Assistant Vice President of Hospitality and Auxiliary Service Erik Russell.

According to Associate Director of Campus Dining Robert Starec, the changes were made with the goal of greater efficiency and improved customer service.

Russell said the new cubicle next to the checkout lines at the Marketplace is a workspace for service managers and was implemented to allow them to engage with people on the floor more easily. Russell said that the design was inspired by the Writing Center.

“[The new office] gave us the consistent floor coverage that we needed so that we can be here to address customer needs, ask questions and lend support to the cashiers when things get busy,” Starec said.

Dining Changes
New cubicle in the Marketplace at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. Sept. 12, 2023. Amalia Rimmon/The Occidental

Eco-clamshells, reusable green containers, were also adopted as the only to-go option for Marketplace entrees to increase sustainable practices, Russell said.

“It was the right thing to do,” Russell said. “There is a cost savings component, but it’s less CO2 emissions and water saved.”

Russell also said that the Marketplace has replaced the screens at the cashier stations and updated their point-of-sale system to the newest model.

“We upgraded our cashier system, and the software came with some new hardware,” Russell said. “Think of it like a car. So we sold our old used car that had been with us for 20 years to a newer model.”

Jenny Mendoza, a cashier at the Marketplace, said the new system takes some time to adjust to. According to Mendoza food items on the old system were color coordinated based on different stations — such as grill, homestyle and chef’s corner — they are now organized based on alphabetical order.

“It’s kind of confusing,” Mendoza said.

Additionally, Russell said napkin dispensers were stripped from tables to manage unnecessary waste.

“The more you have available, the more you use,” Russell said. “It was our observation last year that when you have them on all the tables, you see people blindly just pulling them.”

According to both Russell and Starec, Dining Services managers have also removed the water option on the soda machine to reduce traffic in that area.

“People get stuck behind people filling a large Hydro Flask full of water,” Russell said. “In order to move traffic away from that area we put water in two different spots.”

Erik Russell
Assistant Vice President Erik Russell at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. Sept. 12, 2023. Amalia Rimmon/The Occidental

Students can now fill up their water bottles at the water coolers on either side of the condiment stations.

When it comes to menu changes, the new Service Manager of the Tiger Cooler Monica Jones said she has revamped the quality and options available to students. After becoming manager last May, she reviewed sales reports from the previous year and decided to shorten the menu dramatically.

“I sold maybe four steak sandwiches a day, maybe two turkey burgers a day,” Jones said. “That’s not sustainable.”

This semester, Jones said she has decided to concentrate on more popular food items like burgers, hot dogs and pizza, and acknowledges the importance of the right preparation.

“Season your burger really nicely — it makes a huge difference,” Jones said. “It brings out the charbroil in the meat when you put the shredded lettuce instead of the leafy lettuces… tomatoes, pickles, Thousand Island dressing.”

Jones said she has also been focusing on the quality of the burger buns, which has improved since she talked with the bread supplier.

“I need fresh buns every day,” she said. “I need to be able to taste the butter in the bread. This bread is already tasting old and hard and not good.”

The change is noticeable. Malachi Curtis (senior) said the burgers have improved and he has also noticed the Cooler switching up their fries.

Jones said students should expect other types of fries to come — she has more surprises in store.

“We started a french fry rotation,” Jones said. “This week we have waffle fries, next week it’s curly fries and we’ll just keep rotating so that there’s something to look forward to in the Cooler every week.”

According to Russell, more changes in the Marketplace are also to follow. For example, Russell said that he and his team have been talking about introducing scanners into the Marketplace in order to reduce the length of the lines.

“That would be cool,” Mendoza said. “It’ll be easier and I think it would help out a lot with the lines.”

Contact Michelle Teh at teh@oxy.edu

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