By Ripon Media in College Days on April 8, 2016
By: Ben Valdez
For the first time in a while food services at Ripon College are getting the improvements they need.
After the Student Senate meeting two weeks ago, Sodexo’s Head Chef Jon Reinke and Regional Manager Keith Pitner held a town hall style meeting with students to address concerns with Sodexo food on campus. This ultimately resulted in a variety of changes that have been made, and will be made, to college dining.
“It was great, there was good feedback, and there were great examples,” Pitner said of the town hall meeting.
Pitner and Reinke said that in addition to the town hall meeting Sodexo is making changes based on student comment cards in the dining hall. Reinke said comment card feedback has already helped Sodexo identify and implement positive changes to the Terrace.
“The Chicken Pesto Sandwich is probably the greatest thing that Sodexo has ever created and the doubling of the meat on sandwiches is really nice, although it would be nice if that extended to things in the commons,” said Matt Schultz ’16 after experiencing these changes at the Terrace.
Pitner heavily emphasized that the foundation for better communication between Sodexo and the student body started by the town hall meeting, and needs to continue. “The more dialogue and the more we engage the better [the food] will be,” said Pitner.
Jack Talbot, Sodexo’s marketing director, said that the future holds a “plethora of marketing engagements” from themed meals such as trending movies and sports to possible double swipe options that would make the commons feel more like a restaurant.
“These improvements of doing the themes or a restaurant style with a double swipe will help bring in more people, and I think it’s a good idea,” responded Noelle Korzeniewski ’17.
Reinke said he wishes to “make the food more fun and more accessible” by changing the food calendar and making “each station a meal” that helps to increase the diversity of food at the commons. He pointed to Larry’s station as an example of one way of diversifying the menu.
“Communicate with [Sodexo], but to do it in a way [we] can listen,” asked Pitner of the student body.
So, instead of complaining to your friends about how bad the food was at the Commons on a Sunday night write a comment card or reach out to Ripon Sodexo on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
