Does Sodexo even care about the student's who pay them?

Dear Sodexho Management,
As a current student at the University of Denver living in the Centennial Halls residence building, I have the pleasure of dining in the Centennial Halls Dining Hall‒that is, if it’s open. On the University of Denver Dining Services homepage, the mission statement quote states that, “Sodexho makes every day a better day and every tomorrow a better tomorrow.” I tend to disagree when a student is unable to eat due to lack of operational hours of the dining hall. While there must be valid reasons as to the current schedule employed by the Centennial Halls Dining Hall, it is very difficult for a working student involved in extracurricular activities to achieve even a daily meal.

Currently, the Dining Hall in Centennial Halls serves breakfast from 7-9:30am, lunch from 11:15am-1:30pm, and dinner from 4:45-7:15. Between meals, continental breakfast and “lite” lunch are offered for the equivalent price of a full dinner or any other meal. These “lite” meals are not enough to constitute a balanced, healthy meal to feed the pressures experienced by college students; apples, oranges, and soup just don’t cut it. Many students manage work and extracurricular involvement along with classes and need complete and balanced meals to maintain the necessary energy to perform all of these required tasks. It is not a solution to merely ask students to eat during the allotted meal times. Many students have classes while lunch is served and don’t have time to visit the Dining Hall before work and meetings. If students are able to sneak time to visit the Dining Hall between meal times, they still are only able to obtain enough food to last a couple of hours.

The University of Denver encourages students to get involved on Campus and students have to work to be able to afford living here in the first place, and thus are busy all day, with no time to eat until later in the evening. Students who are involved and working are unable to eat a good meal at the end of their day because the Dining Hall is closed after 7:15, without even a “lite” option. How can students be expected to perform at optimal level for the University when they are not getting three or even one square meal a day. Poor eating habits have been proven to decrease overall performance in academics, thus lowering the image of the University as a whole.

The Dining Hall isn’t even open after 1:30pm on the weekends. The only option available to students living in Centennial Halls and Centennial Towers is to amble across campus to Nelson or Nagal Dining Halls. Walking across campus at night is not only inconvenient, but also dangerous. If weather conditions are hazardous it is dangerous to be walking across campus for dinner. Sidewalks and roads can be slick and icy, causing students to potentially slip and fall; perhaps even in the road where a car would be unable to stop.

On Friday and Saturday evenings, there is also the problem of overcrowding in Nelson Dining Hall. Since Centennial Halls Dining Hall feeds around 1,000 students, when it is closed, most of those students go to Nelson Dining Hall which is not big enough to serve such large amounts of people. It is nearly impossible to find a table big enough for more than two people during prime hours for dinner on the weekends in Nelson Dining Hall. The abundance of students eating in Nelson Dining Hall on the weekends is not only hard on students, but Sodexho workers as well. The workers that work in Nelson Dining Hall are forced to work significantly harder to feed the extra students and can be so busy the quality of service is reduced. If Centennial Halls Dining Hall were open, more workers would be needed, but these workers wouldn’t have to do so much more work than on a regular weekday and since the workload would be decreased, they would be able to finish their given tasks in a faster more time efficient manner.

The unreasonable hours of operation for Centennial Halls Dining Hall are unfair to both students and workers. Students pay good money for their meal plans to allow access to the Dining Hall, managing, work, classes, meetings, and extracurricular activities all the while. It’s not fair to have a meal consisting of soup and an apple cost the same amount of money as a full dinner with the payment of a “meal swipe.” Students living on one side of campus cannot be discriminated against because their Dining Hall serves less people. The hours of operation for Centennial Halls Dining Hall must be changed to ensure a better environment for current and future residents of Centennial Halls and Centennial Towers.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Student

Why would we change something that's not broken?

Sodexo, a name students may not know of, but Sodexo is a company that knows its students. Sodexo “is committed to enhancing the learning environment on your campus through world-class food and facilities services, while supporting the ethics and values of your institution.” At first glance of the dining halls schedule, I must admit the hours for dinner was considerably early. At home, dinner was normally served around 7:00PM, sometimes after, and I think that’s pretty typical, so when I saw that dinner was from 4:45 to 7:15 I was surprised at how early it was. And the odder thing was the dining hall at Centennial Halls is closed on Friday and Saturday nights. Where was I supposed to eat? But I figured there are reasons for everything, so I just went along to new change. After living at Centennial Halls for almost two quarters now, I don’t even notice the hours; it has become a routine like at home.
The hours given, provides guidelines for students, many who are freshman. Without parents there to pressure you about eating your veggies and have three meals a day a decent hours, the dining halls hours in some way act as your parents. College is an immense transition for many students, and one big part is adjusting to new eating habits (new food, and new times.) We have to keep in mind that at DU we have students from all over the world so the schedule has to accommodate everyone. There are those people out there who eat earlier than others, and students get out of class at random times, so the schedule has to consider that too. There’s much more freedom living in a dorm compared to living at home for most students, and the dorms still can’t control what you eat, the least they can do is mold students into the new, regulated schedule.
To provide for all the students, Sodexo needs help and lots of it. Sodexo is more than just providing for students, it’s about providing jobs and benefits to millions of workers worldwide. The hours are more than just for the students; it’s also for the workers. The dining hall closes at 7:15 PM, but the work doesn’t end there, they still have to tally up the day, clean of the tables, the kitchen, and so on and so forth. So by the time the work is done, it’s at least 8:30 PM, normally around nine, and sometimes even later, according to one Sodexo worker. Even though college is the time to live out our lives, we have to realize that these workers have families and children who would want to spend time with them.
As for the dining hall being closed on Friday and Saturday nights, there are several reasons for that. There’s always the issue of budget. Sodexo is a company thriving on bringing the best service at an affordable price. By closing on the weekend, the company can cut down some of the costs. Also, there’s not a big enough of a demand. As a new student, new to the community, new to the people, most students choose to explore on the weekend. Another factor is that with the dining hall being closed on the weekend, it forces the students to explore more, meet new people, and find new places.
And if none of the options work for you, the C-store is open when the dining hall is not. This provides students with more resources to get a variety of food (ramen, milk, cereal…) Therefore the dining hall does not need to open more than it is now. This saves energy from all the heat to cook the food, keep it warm, and the team of workers that are there to provide service, as opposed to just having one person manage the C-store. All students living in centennial halls are required to purchase a meal plan that suits their eating habits, and in every meal plan, meal cash is included where they can spend it at the C-store. So this also pushes students to start thinking more about how to spend their money wisely if they haven’t already, and plan it accordingly.
From my experience, the dining hall is always packed around 6:00PM, but around 7:00 PM people in the dining hall are getting scarce. Even on Friday and Saturday nights, Nelson’s dining hall isn’t any busier than it is on a weekday. So the hours just group the students more together instead of spreading it out which would stretch out their resources, which would mean the quality would decrease. As always you can’t always make everyone happy, but you do try to please the majority and provide the best service possible, and that’s what Sodexo has done.

When considering two sides of this problem, we conclude that this problem can be observed in two ways.

The first way to look at the problem concerns people. The solution to the limited dining hall hours is to find the reason that made this phenomenon happen. From the students’ perspective, some don’t have a very convenient schedule. An example would be like having the class from 10 to 12 then 12 to 2. For these people, they cannot have a lunch if the dinning hall closed before 12. They need to have lunch and it’s not necessary for those students to pay money for their lunch outside the campus every day. For the dining hall’s side, the workers also need to take a rest after several hours work and they also have their families, so they also need to go back home around 7 or 8 pm and stay with their family after one day’s heavy work. So the solution of this problem should be lasting longer for the lunch and dinnertime and hiring more dining hall workers that can work during the longer schedule. For example, Monday and Wednesday, Worker A can work from 7 am to 6 pm, and Worker B can work from 9 am to 8 pm. Tuesday and Thursday, they can change the schedule. However, it should be considered that the dinning hall company wouldn’t want to hire so many workers, which will increase their cost and decrease their profit.

For the commerce part, I think if the company hired more workers, they absolutely will increase their cost. But if they can find a way to add to their revenue, the profit will not be changed anymore. Don’t forget that there are three meal plans to choose from. One of them is the gold meal plan allows meals unlimited. The cost of the gold plan is 1,315 dollars per quarter, which is the most profitable one. In order to attract more students to choose this meal plan, the longer dining time is the best way. Since the dinning time is so short, even the students who chose the gold plan can only have the meals 3 times every day. There is no big difference between the gold plan and the other meal plans with restrictions. So there are no reasons for them to pay more money but have basically the same result as others. But if dining hall has the longer mealtime, everything will change. More students will choose the unlimited meal plan, because they can eat anytime they want. With longer hours, people can get what they want anytime, which seems much better than others who chose the second and the third plans.

There is a balance for the company between money and people. Although profit for a general company is very important, the student’s health should also be very important for a company who works for the schools.