From an all-campus e-mail from BA Resident District Manager Michael Strumpf:
We will be unable to open the Daniel Family Common for lunch today, Monday, March 2nd. The weather conditions have caused a high number of employees to call out and we are unable to staff the operation. Also, Summerfields will be closed for lunch today for the same reasons but will open for dinner as scheduled at 5:00pm.
This week (presumably beginning Monday), Summerfields is adding an "express lane" for food to go. It will accept only points, but it sounds more convenient than waiting in line if you're in a rush. No word yet on the menu or where specifically it will be located.
It's a pretty interesting move, considering Summerfields already does takeout (and, unlike Usdan, doesn't charge 50 cents extra and has it for both lunch and dinner); perhaps they've realized the Usdan Cafe's shortcomings as the primary "to-go" venue. Does anyone (Jen? Becky?) have figures on traffic at the Cafe or takeout at lunch at the Marketplace? It'd be interesting to see if this is in response to diminished traffic at Usdan.
Sorry if this post is especially inane, as my brain doesn't seem to be working very well right now, but this is when dining stuff opens:
Saturday 1/17:
Wesleyan won Round 1 of PETA2's 2008 Most Vegetarian-Friendly Colleges. After surpassing our first series of competitors, Wesleyan is now up against SUNY Fredonia, Georgetown, Ohio University, UCLA, SUNY Purchase and ten other schools.
We have already outranked UC Berkeley, Yale, UPenn, Temple and UNC Chapel Hill.
Cast your vote NOW! Voting ends on November 10th.
Wesleyan is in the running for PETA2's 2008 Most Vegetarian-Friendly Colleges in the Nation, along with 31 other schools competing in a sort-of-geographically-arranged online elimination grid.
Our most immediate competitors are the University of Rhode Island, Brandeis, and SUNY Fredonia. Seeing as how we are the only one among these schools with a significant Internet presence, that much should be in the bag.
PETA2 has this to say about vegetarian eating at Wes:
At a university legendary for its student activism (particularly with issues relating to sustainability, animal rights, and labor wages), the dining halls have responded by giving students what they want—amazing vegan options. With regular meat-free choices available at each dining hall, some of the many standouts include barbecue tempeh wraps, Moroccan-style chickpea and tomato stew, and seared tofu with broccoli over sticky rice.Fair enough. Even if you love eating meat, who here doesn't appreciate Wesleyan winning Internet competitions? Vote here, the first round ends on November 6:
Today I met our dining director, Michael Strumpf, who has replaced Delmar Crim. We discussed both the recent Wespeak I wrote and the blog comments about the new addition of hot soup at the Cafe, as well as new options. I'm glad to say that our conversation went great and I think that Michael brings some promise to B.A. at Wesleyan.
Just to give you a little background, Michael has worked with Bon Appetit for 10 years. He worked on the bidding contract that went on 3 years ago, and admits that the current way in which the Marketplace and Cafe are set up does not match some of the original goals. However, he is very concerned with the quality of the food and making the Wesleyan students happy. He has agreed to the following things at the Usdan Cafe:
I've updated the points spreadsheet for this fall.
For those of you who are new to this, the points spreadsheet is a way to tell if you're spending too many or too few points to end the semester with a zero balance. You can also use it to ration out your remaining points from now to the rest of the semester.
New this year is that everything you can do with points, you can also do with meals!
The way it works to track your "ideal" usage since the beginning of the semester: Enter the number of points and meals that correspond to your meal plan in the two boxed cells. Leave the "enter the current date" field alone.
To track your "real" usage based on what you have right now, enter your current point and meal balances in the two boxed cells, and today's date in the cell next to "enter the current date."
Note that for those of you using the "ideal" option, you may want to deduct your starting point value for certain large, initial purchases, like the Fruit and Veggie co-op, or a meal contract at the S&C, or something.
Also, the spreadsheet assumes that you use the same number of meals each day of the week, but rounds all the totals to whole numbers.
Post comments with bugs, problems, questions or whatever.
From an e-mail:
Wesleyan Dining by Bon Appetit is listening to students!
Bon Appetit is listening to students and Summerfields has implemented distinct menu changes since Monday, September 15th.
Improved selections of meal bundles:Other changes to the menu:
- A home cooked style dinner available Monday to Friday with a beverage and dessert piece. The dinner entrée is a special of the day with a menu available online here.
- Expanded vegetarian sandwich choices
- Added chicken sandwich choices
- Enhance burger choices with cheese available on request
Bon Appetit will continue to evolve and fine tune the menu to meet with students’ taste and needs. We invite you to revisit Summerfields and seek out its improved menu as well as enjoy all that Wesleyan Dining has to offer.
- A freshly baked roll is served with any salad entrees.
- Option to add grilled chicken or grilled marinated tofu to your salad.
- Dressing on the side available on request.
- Guacamole is customary with any purchase of quesadilla, along with sour cream and salsa.
An anonymous student writes in,
Just went to the new Summerfields. I call it new because it is actually quite different from last year and the year before.
Changes:I gotta say pretty severe disappointment.
- There no longer seem to be rotating meals that you can pick from. Instead they basically have a larger late-night menu. (All medium priced by Wes standards)
- NO SALAD BAR! The best thing about Summerfields is now no more. Instead there are a few select salads on the menu.
- NO ALL YOU CAN EAT DESSERT: Instead on the menu are cakes, brownies and cookies.
Back in Wesleying’s infancy, one of the first posts was Holly and Xue’s Guide to Eating and Drinking Things at Wesleyan. Then Usdan opened and the whole thing was rendered completely inaccurate. Fear not; the yearlong void has been filled. Without further ado, Wesleying presents the 2008 Guide to Eating and Drinking Things at Wesleyan, made with 10 percent more love than the leading brand.
USDAN MARKETPLACE
Part of our pretty new campus center, the Marketplace has assumed the coveted title of “main campus eatery” from Mocon. It has your basic cafeteria staples—a rotating entrée station (“Classics”), grill, pizza, cereal, a salad bar, ice cream, a self-serve deli thing—as well as the Mongolian Grill (basically a stir-fry station—you choose your veggies and meat), a Belgian waffle station that’s always rendered inoperable when people like me forget to spray, a vegan section, and a Kosher section (formerly its own eatery, the Kosher Kitchen, which was located in the Butt A basement).
There’s also a rotating lunchtime burrito bar/big salad/”Brunch at Lunch” station next to the grill that turns into a pasta station at dinner. In all, it’s a pretty good deal, though if history is any indication, it’s going to turn into the freshman preserve that Mocon was with a handful of sophomores using up their 105 mandatory meals thrown in. (Note also that according to these WSA minutes, hard ice cream may be coming to the Marketplace.
Currently, there is soft-serve ice cream on one side and yogurt on the other; Mocon had an ice cream freezer with eight flavors, which may have caused the push for hard ice cream in Usdan.) The Marketplace is also the new home of late night, which is the only dining option open past 9:00 (other than WeShop) but does not take meals.
For those wondering: Bon Appétit finally established to-go in the Marketplace last spring—though for lunch only. For an additional 50-cent charge, you can get a to-go container (including a disposable cup) from the cashier; you have 10 minutes to fill it up but can take as much as you want.
WEEKDAY HOURS (M-F): Full breakfast 8:00 AM-9:30 AM; limited breakfast 9:30 AM-10:30 AM; lunch 11:00 AM-2:00 PM; “lite lunch” 2:00 PM-3:00 PM; dinner 5:00 PM-8:00 PM.
WEEKEND HOURS (Sat.-Sun.): Brunch 11:00 AM-2:00 PM; dinner 5:00 PM-8:00 PM.
LATE NIGHT HOURS: 10:00 PM-1:30 AM, 7 nights a week.
SUMMERFIELDS
Arguably the best thing about living in the Butts, Summerfields is located in Butt C and was completely renovated in fall 2003. Unlike the Marketplace, Summerfields is more of a restaurant than a cafeteria—each meal features a rotating menu of four entrees, along with soup, a salad bar, and desserts (I believe drinks are also unlimited). This year, Bon Appétit is apparently introducing a new Summerfields menu, which will include “a variety of grill items, quesadillas, wraps, soups and salads” (according to an all-campus e-mail from June), but there don’t seem to be any fundamental changes.
Summerfields served as the home of late night from its reopening in January ’04 (taking over from Davenport) until last year, when it moved to the Marketplace; the WSA has been consistently pushing to have it moved back to Summerfields, but it looks like that’s not happening this fall. Summerfields is the only eatery on campus other than Usdan that takes meals.
(EDIT: Summerfields also does take-out, and for dinner as well as lunch. Thanks, Anon 10:16!)
HOURS: M-F 11:00 AM-2:00 PM, 5:00 PM-8:00 PM; Sat.-Sun. 5:00 PM-8:00 PM.
WESHOP
It’s like an on-campus 7-11, only several times more expensive and open half as long. WeShop is located between WestCo 1 and 2 and actually has a pretty nice selection for a campus mini-mart. Just don’t be one of the jerks that views stealing candy as a way of sticking it to the man. All it does is force the honest among us to pay $6.75 a pound.
HOURS: Sun.-Thurs. noon-midnight; Fri.-Sat. 2:00 PM-6:00 PM. (NOTE: Bon Appétit and the WSA were in talks last year about changing the weekend hours, so be prepared for a change.)
USDAN CAFÉ
A living lesson that attempting to combine three separate floors of dining into a roughly 3’ x 10’ space isn’t the best idea. It took until spring break, but the Café has turned into a reliable, convenient to-go option; it’s also the only place to get dinner to go. In addition to the usual staples—hamburgers, pizza, chicken sandwiches, vegetable lasagna—the Café has an assortment of hot and cold drinks, pre-made sandwiches, pudding/parfaits, and sushi. It’s also the only dining option open all day seven days a week.
HOURS: 8:00 AM-8:00 PM, 7 days a week.
PI CAFÉ
What began as a lunchtime sandwich cart outside SciLi has turned into a lifeline for science majors. Pi has a somewhat smaller sandwich selection than the Usdan Café but compensates with a larger variety of specialty drinks and baked goods. It’s a great spot to stop and get breakfast before class—especially if your first class is in Exley—but if you’re in a rush for lunch between classes, Usdan is probably the better bet (Pi is so small that it isn’t terribly conducive to traffic flow). Still, with the closing of Davenport, Pi is the only dining option in the Exley/PAC/Olin lawn area and is pretty good for a makeshift eatery in the corner of the science center lobby.
HOURS: Mon.-Thurs. 8:00 AM-9:00 PM; Fri. 8:00 AM-5:00 PM; Sat.-Sun. 1:00 PM-6:00 PM.
WESWINGS
Established in 1993 1991 and located in the basement of 156 High St. (right by the intersection of Church and High), WesWings’ menu is based primarily not on wings, but on fried chicken. WesWings tends to be on the pricey side, but it’s well worth it. It’s also the only (on-campus) breakfast option on weekends other than Usdan and is a generally advisable weekend option, since Usdan sucks on weekends. For those of you that live in the Butts and like to kvetch about the location, keep in mind this eatery is literally right in your backyard.
HOURS: 11:30 AM-1:30 PM, 5:30 PM-8:00 PM, 7 days a week.
RED & BLACK CAFÉ
Red & Black is run by the same folks who own WesWings (Ed Thorndike ’89 and his business partner, Karen Kaffen) and is located in Broad Street Books. Like Pi, the menu consists primarily of soups and sandwiches. It’s a bit out of the way but always helpful if you’re in the area.
HOURS: M-F 8:00 AM-8:00 PM; Sat.-Sun. 9:00 AM-5:00 PM.
STAR & CRESCENT
Located in Alpha Delt, S&C has a rotating menu (like Summerfields) and its own chef. The food consistently receives high marks, though S&C only accepts points (but the first three freshmen through the door at dinner eat for free).
HOURS: Mon.-Thurs. 12:00 PM-12:30 PM, 5:00 PM-7:30 PM.
CHIQUE CHAQUE
Here’s all I know about Chique Chaque, courtesy of Holly and Xue’s old guide: “The dining brochure lists Chique Chaque but no one eats there except Psi U brothers.” Sorry. If anyone else has more information, please send.
NEON DELI
It’s not technically campus dining (nor does it accept Middletown Cash), but the Neon Deli probably receives more traffic from Wesleyan in a school year than Wesleyan-operated dining facilities. The owners are super-nice and seem to hire primarily Wesleyan students, and the sandwiches are amazing (and they now have quesadillas!). Neon also has a small grocery section comparable to WeShop (and much cheaper).
Neon is located at 130 Cross St., right by the intersection of Vine and Cross (in back of Fauver/across and a bit up the street from Freeman); notably, the building in which the deli resides is owned by Wesleyan (the abandoned store to the right used to be Club Liquors but closed a few years ago). The university had planned to turn the whole building into an expanded WeShop, but it seems those plans have been shelved for the time being.
HOURS: 6:00 AM-11:00 PM M-W; 6:00 AM-midnight Th-Fri.; 7:00 AM-midnight Sat.; 7:00 AM-10:00 PM Sun.
(These are off the top of my head, but I may be a bit off; please correct me if they are.)
And for good measure, the local grocery stores:
STOP & SHOP:
416 East Main St. (take the “A” bus). Open 6:00 AM-midnight Mon.-Sat. and 7:00 AM-10:00 PM Sunday.
195 West St. (in Cromwell, in the big shopping center with K-Mart—take the “D” bus). Open 6:00 AM-midnight Mon.-Sat. and 7:00 AM-midnight Sunday.
A&P:
820 Washington St. (big shopping center—take the “C” bus). Opens at 7:00 AM Monday and stays open until midnight Sunday morning; open 7:00 AM-9:00 PM Sunday.
RITE-AID:
100 Main St. (across the street from the intersection of Main St. and William St.). Open 8:00 AM-10:00 PM Mon.-Sat. and 9:00 AM-6:00 PM Sunday. (I know it’s not technically a supermarket, but Rite-Aid has a pretty decent selection of foodstuffs, and there’s some sort of Rite-Aid on steroids going up down the street at the intersection of Main and Church.)
WSA Dining Committee chair Becky Weiss '10 is working with Bon Appetit to tweak the hours Weshop will be open on weekends next year, and wants to hear your thoughts.
Please answer this quick survey question about Weshop hours. Note that we can only shift the hours around - we do not have the option of simply adding more.
Weshop is currently open 2-6 on Fridays and Saturdays and 12-12 on Sundays. A few years ago, the Saturday hours were extended from 6 to 8, but very few people took advantage of the additional time. A poll like this is hardly scientific, but we're hoping you'll use it to give us an idea of whether it makes sense to adjust the Friday hours.
Suggestions welcome in the comments!
Update: There was a mistake in the original poll and it had to be reset. Please recast your votes! Sorry about that.
My good friend Becky Weiss '10, who chairs the WSA Finance and Facilities committee as well as the Dining Committee with Bon Appetit, summarizes the results of a little sit-down we just had with Delmar in the Cafe:
After the first two days of to-go, there were still come kinks to be worked out. Bon Appetit's plastic containers were too small and we weren't given enough time to fill them. Fortunately, the following changes should be in place starting tomorrow:
-You will have fifteen minutes to fill up your container, instead of ten.
-Bigger to-go containers will be available (9-inch clams, the same kind that Summerfields has)
-You can get to-go from the Kosher station (although this may involve a transfer of food from a plate to your to-go container because you can't pass your container over the counter)
From your WSA Dining Committee reps - Allison, Saul and Becky
NYTimes does a feature on colleges which draw in students with delicious dining menus - pictured above is one of Virginia Tech's dining halls - chandeliers! Does Star and Crescent have that many chandeliers? Clearly chandeliers are a mark of a superior dining facility.
Here is what looks like a fancy version of WesWings at Virginia Tech:
Bowdoin is the star attraction in the article, but Wesleyan gets cited for its commitment to organic food:
Food was definitely on Jenna Gruer’s agenda last fall as she visited colleges coast to coast. Jenna, an 18-year-old vegetarian from St. Louis, Mo., was particularly impressed by Wesleyan University.Great, organic food, but I can't help being a little disappointed by a typically lackluster Salisbury steak from the Usdan Classics bar when I see meat like this available elsewhere:
“I heard a lot about organic food co-ops and the little organic store where you can use your dining card, and those things are important to me,” she said of its offerings.
Food alone might not be a reason to apply, she said, but it might eliminate colleges with lesser dining halls.
Full article: Latest College Reading Lists: Menus With Pho and Lobster
Come to Usdan between 12 and 1:30 on Thursday (tomorrow) to show your support for the Wesleyan dining staff, who are currently negotiating their contract with Bon Appetit. Pick up a patch to put on your bag, and grab a card to give to the management, to let Bon Appetit and the Wesleyan administration know that workers are a part of our community and we stand with them in protecting the rights they've fought for in the last 20 years.
Among other changes that our favorite Bon Appétiter, Delmar Crim, mentioned in his recent email to students is the return of burritos! Here's to hoping they're as good as the ones they had on Thursdays at the kosher station.
Apparently the servery at Usdan has been updated over break, with new stations added. Delmar says we'll see:
And though all meals are now all-you-can-eat for one fee, Delmar also mentions that we'll only be able to take one piece of "hand fruit" with us when leaving the dining area. So watch out for the fruit police, or they may seize your extra banana. (Though if past observations are any indication, enforcement will be lax.)
Thanks to an Anonymous commenter for the following:
Ok, so a couple of us students have created a makeshift grapevine to keep all of those who have contacted me in recent weeks abreast in the affairs of the labor union and BA. USLAC is starting to become active although at this time I couldn't tell you who is in charge or who you should contact. If anyone from USLAC wants to come out and lead the peoples, please leave a comment or shoot me an email at hwood@wes.
So Alan Yaspan '08 sent me two interesting articles about Bon Appetit's practices at other schools
From an interview with a student activist at Washington University-St. Louis
So I just had an illuminating phone chat with one of the labor union stewards, Sue Silvestro, who as you might know works at Pi.
Benefits
The problem BA has with the benefits package shouldn’t be a problem at all. During the contract negotiations, the labor union presented each of the bidders with an honest evaluation of their current situation with Aramark, including hours, wages, number of people employed and their benefits package. “No matter what it costs, however,” Silvestro said, “you were given the contract upfront…we did not want to be blamed once again for their failure [to remain solvent].” Silvestro added, “We do have a good package. But we’ve bargained in good faith for over thirty years to get that package.”
In negotiations, BA promised to maintain the service, without cutting staff, wages or benefits. “They were shocked to hear that Wesleyan students cared so much about worker’s rights,” Silvestro said. “We have talked amongst ourselves and we have all agreed that they have no idea of what these students are like—and that’s meant to be seen in the best light. Students on this campus care. They care about recycling. They care about food waste feeding the poor. They care about worker’s rights. And [BA] has not experienced that at any other university.”
However, over the past two weeks, BA has made those same cuts it promised not to, and it’s having an impact on the staff. Delmar Crim, Bon Appetit’s district manager described BA’s recently discovered position that the benefits package is impractical and uncommon (however, they did not seem to have a problem with it during the bidding).
While benefits are available for workers who work 20 hours or more a week, Silvestro noted that much of the staff has seen their hours cut to 17.5 hours a week—a flagrant move, in my opinion, to shortchange them on benefits. She noted that many 40-hour staffers have seen their hours cut to 37.5 as well, in order to deny them full-time benefits. While in his emailed response, Delmar claimed that there are 69 full-time staff positions at Wesleyan, Silvestro and others in the staff note there are only two with the recent changes.
Overall, 149 hours have been trimmed from the staff’s schedules, which, as you can see, could mean a big savings to BA if they strategize which hours they’re cutting. Silvestro expressed the anxiety these changes are causing amongst the staff, describing a recent phone call with a colleague who is afraid of a family member going in for surgery not knowing whether he will have the health insurance to cover it. “People with lower hour jobs are coming to work this year fearing that any small cut could lose them their benefits…This is an unfair labor practice which compromises the standard of living of the staff” she explained.
Fresh Food? How?
One of BA’s promises was to deliver food almost entirely local and fresh. As Silvestro explains, when Aramark received their bid, for five years, Summerfields operated on a “fresh food” model, making everything from scratch. Obviously, the food was a hit with students and it was one of the more successful operations on campus. However, fresh food requires more labor than dumping frozen fried chicken into a fryer or opening a can. Silvestro believes that because fresh food is inherently labor-intensive, the quality of food will be compromised in relation to the hours that are cut. So these cuts are not promising.
Hours Cut Already
Already, Silvestro explains, Pi may see its hours cut. When asked why no workers were scheduled to work at Pi over the weekends, BA responded with ambiguity, stating they were unsure whether they’d actually be keeping it open over the weekend. There have also been talks of canceling late night with the compromise of keeping Usdan’s a la carte operation open slightly longer. As noted previously, this probably won't sit well with students.
A la Carte + Less Cashiers =Longer Lines = Bigger Profits
Silvestro explained how Crim said that Usdan was designed to cut back on labor. Segmented into stations, there is less room for workers behind the scenes. It doesn’t need as many cashiers. However, anyone can foresee how this will pan out: if you have an a la carte operation between the hours of 8am and 3pm, and student traffic concentrates between the hours of 11:50pm and 1:10pm and you have less cashiers to service the students each grabbing only one or two things, well, gee, I think that’s going to mean long lines. But since students have to pay for the meal plan and are forced to eat there anyway, dealing with longer lines and grumbling students doesn’t bother BA because they aren’t afraid of us eating somewhere else. So this is just one example of how cuts are made which affect workers--which in turn affect students directly.
BA’s Gamble
Bon Appetit, Silvestro believes, sees Wesleyan as their break into the world of elite colleges, including the Ivy League and other selective schools. Our contract was seen as a critical strategic move and so they made big promises. “They promised you the world,” she said. But like Aramark, which failed, in Silvestro’s opinion, largely because it failed to listen to the students, BA seems to be modeling itself on those very same failures.
Wesleyan’s Part
"Wesleyan has a role in this as well. They aren't able to make a move without Wesleyan's approval," said Silvestro reminds us.
So I've emailed Wendy and we're waiting on an email from the union steward who deals with bargaining and the others I have contacted yesterday. In the mean time, Delmar Crim, Bon Appetit's district manager has emailed me with his response:
Hello Holly,
Thanks for the time that you took to reach out to better understand our challenges regarding the dining service that we are charged to be providing you.
My first reaction is to apologize. In the thirty years plus that I have had in the hospitality food service industry, the first rule is to protect the customer from the challenges that we incur to bring the service to your table. That being said, I realize that I am now privileged to be a part of a culture that is interested in more than just what is in it for me attitude.
I personally take partial information as a bit of an affront. Out of respect to you and the student body that ultimately pays all of our salaries, I will try to be as transparent as possible in depicting a comprehensive disclosure of our business.
The average pay of our bargaining unity employees is 18.65 per hour. You could literally go from Las Vegas to the Atlantic shore and not find a richer average rate. The benefit package is fully paid by Bon Appetit "actually you". Again this is a package that simply cannot be topped. It is a better package than administration, management, or mine. The health insurance is fully paid for by the employer, again almost unheard of. I can, if you would like, provide full details. But for the benefit of this communication, I will tell you that the comprehensive package costs you over sixty percent of the wage. This comes to a little over twenty thousand per year per person.
Normally food costs should range between thirty and thirty three percent in our end of the business, and labor just about the same. The balance is for cleaning supplies, paper products and if we run our business well some profit. The current labor model labor runs over fifty percent. As I have said a hundred times in conversations and negotiations, I am happy to be a party to a culture that the hourly workers are able to have a living wage. The facts are that with the high rate of compensation, we need to closely manage labor resources. With all of this expense, we still need to purchase great food for you to eat.
In the past there have been venues "Davenport" with many Monday through Friday jobs. Now there is a new center with seven day a week service and some shifts are weekend shifts. There really is no way around that if we are going to provide seven day a week service. Some people will have to work on weekends that are not used to it etc. That is what you pay us to do!
Our opening schedule reflects sixty nine full time employees. Last year Aramark had sixty eight. True to my promise of transparency, I will tell you that some of the concern is about people not getting benefits that got them last year. As I mentioned earlier business needs have changed. Everyone over twenty hours per week is eligible for full time benefits. Some of the jobs because of business needs have been reduced in hours or increased. Traditionally full time benefits kick in somewhere around thirty hours worked per week usually thirty two. Here they kick in at twenty hours per week. So not only do we have more full time benefit positions available, the positions are much richer in hours. In addition to this there are many more part time positions available. Some people are going to be asked to make some adjustments. Things have changed, it is of course our goal to have these changes reflect a positive net gain for you, and the bargaining unit team members that make all of this possible.
I need to also point out that assigning specific people to slots or schedules is not in our control as per the CBA. It is up to everyone to bid on the jobs available and through the bidding and bumping process procure the job that best fits their need.
Please feel free to distribute this to your peers or who ever else you would think relevant.
Delmar Crim
