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On a Thursday afternoon after soccer practice, a couple of the freshmen and I headed to the cafeteria to grab some lunch. When we arrived at the cafeteria, we were upset by the few options given to us. They only had fried foods and unhealthy options at each station. When I reached down for a plate, my hands immediately became sticky and when I looked down, I saw syrup on the bottom of the plate. When the incident happened, I realized changes needed to be made in the cafeteria. Food can play a significant role in your everyday life especially when you’re in college. When you hear about the expensive meal plan, unhealthy options, and ridiculous hours that the cafeteria at Stephen F. Austin has, that can be a reason for you to look for somewhere to eat instead of the cafeteria. If Stephen F. Austin wants the current students to be happy with the food and also have the attention of incoming students, we need to make some changes to the cafeteria that can benefit everyone.
For example, Stephen F. Austin only gives their students four meal plan options that you can choose from and for some students that don’t have the expenses to pay for it, the options that they give you are expensive. With being a college student, you already have to pay for your education and a lot of money for food choices that aren’t too great. Here at Stephen F. Austin, it is required to have a meal plan for your freshman year. For most students, they do not have to get a meal plan once their freshman year is over, because the meals that they have for you aren’t that good. In my survey I conducted, 70 percent of people said they will not or did not get a meal plan after their first year, due to the food. There are two main reasons for this outcome, the first reason is that having a meal plan is too expensive when they could save their money by eating on their own. The second reason is that most upperclassmen will be living off campus with a full-size kitchen and it is more convenient to make their meals and be able to go grocery shopping and just cook their meals that way.
Another inconvenience with the cafeteria is the inconvenient hours that they have during the semesters. The cafeteria is open during different periods throughout the day. Breakfast opens from 7-10 am lunch opens at 12 and closes at 2 pm and dinner goes from 5-7:30 pm during the week. On Saturdays, it is closed all day, and on Sundays, they are open but only for a few hours. When a student has extra-curricular activities, practice, or class it can be difficult to eat at the cafeteria with the hours they have to allow you to eat. Many students have class during the whole lunch period, which means many students are forced to spend money using their dining dollars or have to spend their own money and have to eat off campus.
The third main issue at the cafeteria is the quality and variety. The same meals are being served consecutively each week. Students want some different options to choose from. During my interview with Ryka Shea, she mentioned: “Salads and sandwiches are the only healthy options they provide.” This shows that they have very few options for those who want to eat healthier. Having a university with students and also athletes the college needs to have options that are both healthy for athletes and also students.
Since I have addressed all of the problems that I have regarding the cafeteria at Stephen F. Austin, here are some solutions: Students want more food options, also including healthy options. We need to get rid of the original menu and change it up. The cafeteria has been serving the same thing every week for years. Finding new options and new ideas to cook would help. For every fried option that is served, there should be a grilled or healthier alternative. For example, if they have decided to serve fried fish; they should also have the option of grilled fish as well.
To fix the meal plan issues, I believe there could be some solutions. Either you can lower the cost of the four meal plans or you could create a fifth option that would be more affordable. The fifth option would consist of having fewer dining dollars and fewer meal swipes overall, because a lot of people do not use all of their swipes or dining dollars, because either they forget or they rarely go to the student center to use them, so it becomes a waste of money at the end of each semester. Students who come from off-campus living to campus just for a class will most likely only need one meal each day at the cafeteria or just none at all.
The final solution would be with the cafeteria hours they have. The cafeteria needs to be open on Saturdays for students who live on campus. Also, the hours during the week overall should be longer. Extending lunch hours to 4 pm and dinner to 9 pm would be a small change that would help many students including the athletes that get out of practice late. This will allow students who have class and other activities a better chance to eat at the Cafeteria that will go with their schedule.
Overall, these three issues with the cafeteria are easy to solve but, could create some money issues also. To fix the quality of food, the department that’s over the cafeteria will need to spend a little more money to buy higher quality and healthier food options. The cafeteria should be open on Saturday and also longer on weekdays, but with this change, the staff will need to be paid for those extra hours. However, having a meal plan option that is less expensive than the original options could lose Stephen F. Austin money as well. However, with the food tasting better, the hours at the cafeteria being longer, and the expenses being less, more students will want to have a meal plan after freshman year and maybe the years after that. Eating on campus is much easier for those students who are coming and going to class and don’t have time to go back to their rooms to eat or travel off campus to eat. By fixing these issues students will not have an excuse for not buying a meal plan.
In conclusion, once these issues have been looked at current students will be happier with the better options. Instead of the incoming students coming to campus and seeing the cafeteria as a negative, they’ll see it as a positive with changes being made. It has been a long time since changes have been made and that can end soon or in the upcoming years.
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