"Food On South Falls Short, Students Say"

In response to a recent wave of complaints from students alleging that dining facilities on South Campus aren't up to par with facilities on North Campus, UB officials said they're looking into the problem.

Students have expressed dissatisfaction with the meals served in Goodyear as well as the physical appearance and cleanliness of the facilities.

"The food on North is much better," said freshman Ilyssa Mark, who lives on South Campus. "The food quality on South is generally poor and there are little to no vegetarian options. Sure, there's vegetarian food on North, but it's really inconvenient to take the time out of my day to get to North just to eat."

Ian Shub, a freshman who lives on South, echoed Mark's concerns.

"I get fourteen meals per week with my meal plan and I don't ever use them," Shub said. "They don't serve food in the dining halls when I'm hungry and it's not food that I'd want to eat all the time."

Other students, like Jennifer Justice, a freshman who lives on South, were unfazed by the dining hall food.

"It's really not that bad. Some things aren't good, but I just don't eat them. Sometimes I'll take the food but I won't eat it," Justice said. "I mean, there's always pizza. It's food, isn't it?"

Unhappy with the choices available to students, Mark took her concerns to Jeff Brady, the assistant food director for FSA, who responded immediately.

"I was happy that she came to me, because we don't know if students are dissatisfied unless they tell us. Often times, they don't make the effort to voice this dissatisfaction," Brady said. "Ilyssa had some very valid concerns, which I made a note of. (Goodyear) needs to be on the same level as the other dining halls."

Brady explained that all of the food used in the dining halls is bought from U.S. Foods, a national food-supply company, and that all of the produce is supplied by Desiderio's, so there should be consistency in the quality of the food that's served. He also said that all the dining halls use the same computer-generated recipes in preparing the food.

"We conduct quality-assurance taste-tests to make sure the food is consistently good," Brady said. "There's sometimes human error, but we try our best to control that."

In addition to criticizing the quality of the food served in Goodyear, Mark also questioned the cleanliness of the facilities.

"There were tons of fruit flies in Goodyear," Mark said. "They'd be all around you when you're trying to eat, and that makes you wonder how clean that place really is."

Brady acknowledged the fact that there were fruit flies in the dining halls but said they have been eradicated.

"We had some issues with that, but we finally nipped the problem in the bud," Brady said. "If you go into Goodyear now, you won't see one fruit fly."

Brady said the majority of students' concerns were minor details, but assured they will all be addressed eventually.

"I went through a walk-through from Goodyear to Red Jacket and we compared everything. If there are raisins in Governors, Red Jacket and Richmond, there will be raisins in Goodyear," Brady said. "My intention is to bring Goodyear up to the level the other residence halls are operating at."

Mark said that she was really happy to see that changes were being made so quickly.

"I was really surprised that he was so happy to hear my feedback," Mark said. "I thought I'd have to push to get changes and that I'd have to deal with people who didn't care, but I'm really happy and confident that I'll see some positive changes."

Shub also said he was encouraged by these developments.

"If they made the dining hall food better, I would definitely make a point to be hungry around 5 p.m. more often," he said. "I'm usually not at all, but if it was decent food, I'd make a concession."

Brady stressed that changes cannot be made without student input.

"We are constantly having floor meetings and encourage students to attend and voice their concerns," he said. "We have to strive for consistency here. Our job is to exceed the expectations of students."