ACU Dining Services has made some noticeable changes in order to fulfill requests made by students.
These changes include: extending the hours of the Bean, offering more of a variety of foods and solving several problems that occurred last semester.
Joshua Garcia, freshman convergence journalism major from Lexington, N.C., eats at the Bean almost everyday for lunch and dinner. Garcia noticed a difference in the ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard dispensers.
“The new dispensers are a lot more convenient,” Garcia said. “It is much easier than scooping with a spoon.”
Tom Arellano, senior food service director, said the dining style surveys given to students along with one-on-one conversations helped determine the direction of the program.
“A lot of the comments we receive from our dining style surveys are partly what we use to mold the program,” Arellano said. “It’s based on things the students want. I also get a lot of information from students I talk to.”
Dining Services has been tweeting these changes since October.
Arellano said he recently added soy milk as an option because of a comment made by a student.
A change in the hours of the Bean during weekdays and weekends was student requested as well. The Bean is now open between 11-11:30 a.m. Monday-Friday. Dinner service is now available Monday-Thursday from 7-8 p.m. and on Saturday nights to 7 p.m.
“The general consensus was 7:00 p.m. seemed like a more reasonable time to end dinner on Saturday,” Arellano said. “Last Fall we noticed people would go workout and then come in late to eat. We stayed open until 7:30 p.m. as a courtesy, however by that time there was nothing to eat. That’s the reason we decided to stay open until 8:00 p.m. Monday-Thursday.”
“Opening from 11-11:30 a.m. is nice for people who have received all their Chapel credits or who just need some food in for the rest of the day,” Garcia said. “It’s a good change.”
When students return from the holidays or other breaks on Sundays, The Bean will be open later to accommodate different arrival times.
From a food and drink standpoint, ACU Dining Service is giving students the opportunity for more choices throughout the day.
Garcia said the international grill station has improved.
“The food in the international line is more gourmet than it used to be. There are more choices too.”
Breakfast omelets are now served Saturday and Sunday mornings instead of only Monday-Friday.
Gatorade and a four-flavor fruit juice dispenser have been added to the beverage line up.
Honey mustard dressing is available in the salad bar. Because of its popularity, yogurt and granola toppings can be found in the salad bar all day.
In the dessert area, waffle cones for ice cream are now a second option to the regular cones. Arellano said Dining Services has also included more flavors of cookies and changed the size of them.
“The cookies we were making were the larger ones, so we thought if they were smaller students could take two or three of a variety,” Arellano said.
Last semester, a fly manifestation became a problem in certain parts of the Bean. To eradicate the flies, traps were set. Arellano said the traps have successfully eliminated most of the pests.
A second problem was with the new meal plans. Students are allowed a certain number of guest passes for family or friends. This function was not active in the Fall, but is now fully functional.
