As many students can attest, arguably one of the most exciting aspects of visiting friends at other universities is exploring those universities’ dining options. I count myself among those students, and add that it’s probably the highlight of such trips.
On a recent trip to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), I was shocked at the diversity of campus dining options available to students. Unlike Longwood, the VCU dining plan incorporates “swipes,” the equivalent of a Longwood student’s entry into the dining hall or Outta Here, at its outside dining locations, including Chick-fil-A, Subway, Pizza Hut, Now & Zen and Taco Bell.
In addition to these and other “swipe”able locations, the plans include a dining hall, grab-and-go location, and bonus dollars that can be used at participating outlet locations, such as the convenience store and Starbucks.
I was further surprised to find that the VCU dining contract was through ARAMARK, the same company that Longwood’s dining services is run by.
Curious as to why the plans were so different, I recently sat down with Director of Dining Services Grant Avent in an interview that left me with a very different impression of the Longwood Dining Services.
At the start of the interview, I’ll admit I had somewhat mentally prepared for what I thought would be a challenging discussion. Fearing I would offend Avent with my comparison of the two programs, I hesitated at first, but Avent was more than welcoming.
I had only entered the dining office to schedule an interview, yet Avent had insisted he had the time right then and there to speak with me and graciously turned all his attention to my questions.
I learned that ARAMARK, while holding many contracts with universities throughout the state, actually holds its oldest contract with Longwood. After some light discussion over the history of the program, Avent asked what I personally thought of the dining services. Sensing an opportunity, I said that while I enjoyed the new additions Longwood made to the program over the last three years I’ve attended the university, I was still curious as to why Longwood seemed to hesitate to install any swipe-based meal plans that would work at off-campus locations. The answer, he explained, was complex.
First and foremost, the company is contracted by the school itself, and therefore works in the interest of each individual school’s needs.
Secondly, to compare Longwood’s Dining Services with VCU and other larger schools is like comparing apples to oranges. The budgets for the school’s programs are directly related to the size of the school, and accordingly affect the pricing students pay for meal plans.
For example, at a school of 40,000+ students, the price-per-meal not consumed in the dining hall vs. those consumed create the entrance price for the dining hall, say, $5. At a smaller school, this price would be much higher if the same quantity of food were considered, as fewer students are paying for the same volume of food as the larger school, much of which would become waste.
With this principle, each school must determine the best approach for keeping cost to students low while offering the best variety of options without losing money.
For VCU, this means offering a variety of locations throughout the urban campus, in order to accommodate a large population of students scattered throughout a vast area.
For the much-more condensed Longwood campus, the best approach, financially speaking, is to make the dining hall the source of most food sales/consumption, in order to keep the base price of entrance low. Bonus Dollar programs help to offer a variety of other dining options without having a large effect on this equation.
Avent explained that what truly sets Longwood’s program apart is the degree of influence the student body has over the dining services. In addition to a monthly dinner in which the Director and his staff sit down and discuss issues and innovations for the program with students, comment cards posted prominently in the dining hall allow individual students direct communication with the service workers.
Avent stressed that he is always seeking student opinion and works with ARAMARK to best accommodate what the students feel should be changed, and he can often be seen walking through the dining hall at meal times, speaking with students about their experience.
Overall, I left the interview with a much greater appreciation for Longwood Dining Services. While other schools might offer a different structure, Longwood’s attention to each individual student is something unique to the small size of the campus that larger schools simply can’t offer.
At no other school did I encounter anyone quite like the cashiers who swipe me into D-Hall and, without fail, ask me how my day is going, even using my name. No other school had student workers who came around to clean off tables. No other school offered specialty bread baked fresh by the owner of the local bakery or had him on hand to chat with.
It’s this personal investment in the students that makes our dining program one to be appreciated and certainly something to be Lancer-Proud of.
