On Oct. 21, the Floyd campus cafe implemented a new policy. It no longer offers breakfast items, the salad bar or specials. The cafe now serves only food made on the grill, such as chicken sandwiches, quesadillas and burgers. The deli bar is still available.
Since the cafe no longer offers breakfast, it changed its hours. The cafe is now open from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The cafe’s discontinuation of these items, especially breakfast, concerns students. “I think breakfast should stay because a lot of students have to come in early for classes in the morning,” student Guadalupe Delgado said. “They might not have time or they don’t have anything to eat in the morning.”
“It’s kind of unfair to affect other people who relied on this as their breakfast option,” student David Chupp said.
“It’ll impact student’s academic abilities, since breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” student Emily Reyes added.
Chad Welborn, the food service director, said the change resulted from a lack of student participation and budgeting. “We had to figure out a way to keep the program running without raising prices to the point where it’s not feasible,” Welborn said.
While this means no healthy vegetable options are served upfront, Welborn says they are kept refrigerated in the back and can be ordered upon request. The given reason for this is temperature control. They believe it is better to keep the vegetables refrigerated until a student orders them rather than leave them sitting for hours.
While the reason for these changes is that students were not using the cafe enough, it seems that removing these items will only cause even fewer students to come in and purchase a meal.
The removal of breakfast options and the salad bar has already begun to affect students’ choices at the cafe.
“Honestly, it makes me less likely to get anything, because there’s not really an option that I want,” Skylar Gregson said.
Other students, like Campbell McKelvey, foresee a shift in their dining habits. “I’ll probably just stick to one of the same things, rather than venturing out and maybe trying something different,” McKelvey said.
Madison Fox worries that the changes could lead to even fewer students taking advantage of the cafe: “I probably feel like they wouldn’t take advantage of it. They probably wouldn’t use it if they’re taking it away.”
The cafe might need to find a different approach before it loses even more money.
