Students getting food inside of the newly formatted Charger Cafe Wednesday, February 7, 2024.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JONAS CORLISS, STAFF WRITER
The food program at Cypress College has received criticism from students, staff, and faculty resulting in many new changes this semester, including the food pass and new hot food vending machines on campus.
Last semester, the Charger Food Pass was created as a way to help students with food insecurity, giving them $12 to use daily. However, the way that the pass worked was heavily criticized by students, mainly regarding the unnecessarily large amount of time, sometimes reaching 55 minutes, required to get food.
This semester, the program has been altered in an attempt to eliminate the problems that students were encountering with the wait times.
The main issue for students was having to obtain a new gift card every single day, forcing students to go into two separate lines which created a major time investment on the student’s behalf. Now, students are given a single gift card to keep all semester, which is reloaded every day with $12 to use at the Charger Cafe.
This change has allowed for a much smoother experience for students to navigate when getting their food for the day. The elimination of getting in two different lines has increased the appeal of the cafe, which has noticeably increased daily sales, reaching 1900 transactions on Feb. 1 according to the Vice President of Administrative Services, Stephen Schoonmaker.
Sean Macdonald, a political science major said, “I greatly prefer it because I only have to wait in one line rather than two.”
The other issue that students had with the food program was the hours of operation. Many students have late-night classes but the Cafe closes at 3 p.m. so they have to resort to unhealthy vending machine choices. This is one complaint that has not been solved yet. According to Schoonmaker, the limits of the current food service team force the Charger Cafe to close early, 3 pm Monday-Thursday and 2 pm on Fridays.
To combat the early closing times, Schoonmaker confirmed the implementation proposed last semester would begin the week of Feb. 12. The introduction of two new hot food vending machines, expected by the college complex on the first floor and the health health science building on the second floor.
The Foodture vending machines will allow students to spend $7-$10 for hot food. Schoonmaker described the process as follows; selecting what food option you want and waiting three minutes for your food to be served hot and fresh. As of now, the food pass gift card will not work with the machines, but Schoonmaker said that he wants them to be connected soon.
Upon learning about the new machines, Sam Comer stated, “It’s convenient for people who have night classes like me, because then we aren’t limited to snack items.”
A first look at the Foodture vending machines to be put on campus this semester. Photo by Jonas Corliss.
While this is an improvement, it still isn’t at the level of Cypress’s sister school, Fullerton College where the food pass is tied directly to the student ID card. Previously, the issue with having this at Cypress has been because of technology issues, Schoonmaker said that this remains the issue, but there are plans underway to match Fullerton’s system by the Fall semester of this year.
This is something that Schoonmaker wants to change, stating the reason for not having the system is the current card readers, “By next semester card readers should be ready for new ID cards, so the extra card won’t be needed.”
Noted in the Educational and Facilities Master Plan, a document describing hopeful changes to campus between the year 2021-2030, is a coffee shop on campus that would occupy the space next to the bookstore. Unfortunately, due to the limits of the current food service team, there is no current timeline for the shop to open.
“I really wanted it open this semester, but I’m less optimistic now,” stated Schoonmaker.
Overall students have been responding very well to the changes so far. With these changes, the food program is more appealing to students and shows promising possibilities to continue improving.
The outside of where the coffee shop would be located Wednesday, February 7, 2024.
