RFoC ranks most visited restaurant on campus; Fresh Food Company to open weekends in fall 2012

• Tweet
• 

Real Food on Campus takes the cake as the most popular residential restaurant location at Central Michigan University.

“RFoC in the Towers is the residential restaurant that sees the most traffic, simply because it is the neighborhood with the most residents on campus,” said Aramark Marketing Manager Nikki Smith. “Traffic in all residential restaurants changes year by year based on total number of residents in each of the living areas.”

The other three locations, Fresh Food Company (east campus), Merrill Residential Restaurant (south campus) and Robinson Residential Restaurant (north campus), follow in popularity.

“The other locations do seem to not leave food sitting out as long as Robinson, but I think that’s because there are more people eating there, allowing them to constantly put out fresh food,” said Nick Goike, Robinson Residential employee.

The Milford sophomore said Robinson Residential has a “friendlier environment than the other cafeterias on campus, though it’s the least visited.”

CMU students are given the opportunity to choose from four different meal plans, ranging from unlimited meals per week to a plan of 100 meals per semester.

Brenda Marquardt, residential dining director, said on-campus students most commonly purchase the 14 meals per week plan, while off-campus students and faculty members are more likely to select the $200 All Flex plan.

Payment for student meal plans ties into their room and board payment each year and is spent on food and improvements to the dining locations on campus.

Last year, CMU spent 10 percent of its overall room and board budget — roughly $4 million — on food purchases, Marquardt said.

“Typically equipment utilizes about .5 percent of the overall room and board budget,” Marquardt said. “This varies greatly year-to-year based on current age of the equipment, deferred maintenance and planned projects.”

The four main residential restaurants on campus are continuously being upgraded to satisfy the needs of CMU’s student population.

In 2010, Merrill Residential Restaurant introduced its Southside Deli, which allows customers to choose the meats, cheeses and vegetables that will create their sandwich, as well as whether or not to have it toasted or served cold. The station also includes options of soup and chips as sides.

“Restaurants on campus serve the same food repeatedly, which is why (Merrill) is nicer,” said Clinton Township sophomore Joshua Pierson. “The sandwich station is always a good backup, though there should be a better selection of vegetarian options.”

Robinson Residential followed suit in 2011 with the addition of a juice bar, though it was removed because of lack of popularity.

Smith said to replace the juice bar, the Robinson residential staff has plans to revamp its deli station in the near future.

RFoC and FFCo each have plans to add unique areas to their restaurants for the 2012-13 academic year to keep the traffic spread out across all four locations, while still keeping each unique in its experience.

In addition to the upgrades, the fall 2012 semester will also increase weekend meal options for students by opening FFCo for service on the weekends.

The east campus restaurant will join RFoC and Robinson Residential as locations available on the weekends.

“I would rate the RFoC as the busiest location due to the weekends being open and the late-night availability during the weekdays,” said RFoC employee and Macomb junior Kyle Megie. “(Working there) is good in learning the ways of the culinary industry and how to prepare many kinds of foods.”

Campus dining is the largest student employer at CMU, hiring 158 employees across campus, on top of another 1,100 student employees.

“I really like that the cafeterias hire students as employees,” Goike said. “I know that I needed a job to be able to afford school, and although there is a lot of wait time for only a chance to get hired at a café, it seems to be better odds than other places on campus.”

Report card

CMU’s campus dining program earned a B+, according to College Prowler — a site that has graded 706 universities nationwide on their campus-dining programs.

Around the rest of the state, the University of Michigan and Grand Valley State University also earned B+. Michigan State University earned an A-, Western Michigan University earned a B and Eastern Michigan University earned a C+.

The grading system was based on student ratings of availability, value, ethnic options, late-night options, quality and variety, as well as vegetarian, vegan and organic options.

One of the most common complaints against Campus Dining at CMU is the variety of food. Each of CMU’s locations follows a three-week cycle of meal options.

“I feel like the locations are all about the same quality in food and while most people think FFoC is better, I think it’s just because of its design,” Megie said. “I have to tip my hat to Fresh Food for its stylish design.”

Aside from the usual cycling menu, Campus Dining schedules events each year to shake the schedule up. Some of these events include Be a Kid Again night, Harvest Dinner and the Winter Gala.

Smith said these special events are planned based on students’ feedback of what they’d like to see.