A lot of the students living on campus at California State University, Stanislaus (Stan State) are heated with Chartwells and the changes it made, including not being able to take their food back to their dorm from Main Dining.
Anonymously, a student wrote on the school’s confessional Facebook page complaining about the fact that he or she was not allowed to take food outside the building, and called out Housing for not doing anything.
“People have been complaining and you still do not care. Also, what’s up with the ‘no take-out deal’? You already expect us to walk all the way to main dining to get food, I shouldn’t have to stay to eat in there. I want to go back to my room!” the student said.
Director of Housing Jennifer Humphrey stressed the fact that the reason why residents were startled upon the fact that they were not allowed to take food outside of Main Dining was because Chartwells was doing a poor job in regards of advertising the “no take-out deal,” which was supposed to be known to residents since the beginning of the year.
On Thursday, Sept. 24, Humphrey concluded her weekly meeting with Chartwells and Auxiliary & Business Services (ABS). During that meeting, the Director of Housing brought up the idea of letting residents have the option of taking-out. Sure enough, everyone agreed with the idea and concluded that residents of Housing will now have the option of “Dine out-take out.”
Through this plan, residents who wish to not stay and eat in Main Dining, but take-out and eat elsewhere, will have to purchase a reusable, eco-friendly “clam shell” box for $5. The resident is allowed to get as much food as he or she wants, as long as the box is able to close. Also, every time a resident wants to take-out dinner, he or she will be required to switch the box for a clean one and Chartwells will sterilize the dirty ones before reusing them.
Residents will have this new “Dine out-take out” option after the first or second week of October, due to the fact that the new Interim Director has already ordered the “clam shell” boxes and are expected to arrive on campus late September/early October.
The Signal reached out to Chartwells, but they were not available for comment.
In past years, Housing had their weekday dinner hours from 5-8 p.m. in the Village Café, next to the dormitories. This was very convenient for residents, due to the fact that they did not have to walk outside of Housing for their dinner.
However, that drastically changed this year. Housing made arrangements with Chartwells to open new food stations and serve dinner from 5-8 p.m. on weekdays in Main Dining.
“We moved dinner from the Village Café to Main Dining. The reason that was done, was because in the Year End Resident Exit Surveys, basically said residents hated the Village Café: they did not like the variety available, the taste of the food, how the food was cooked. So, we decided to move dinner to Main Dining, because Main Dining has more servers, and it has a different level of equipment to cook the food better,” Humphrey said.