DINING COMMONS
REPORT
Alex Corkran
Malaysia Aver y
Karina Macias
Eric Britton
Boolean Nguyen
SURVEY QUESTION 1
 Are you satisfied with the food the Dining Commons serves? Yes or no?
Why?
 89% No
 11% Yes
 A majority of the students agree that the food served at the dining commons
isn’t acceptable.
SURVEY QUESTION 2
 Are you aware of your calorie consumption at the Dining
Commons?
 43% Yes
 57% No
 Some people are aware but the majority of people do not know
how many calories they consume. This number should be 100%
Yes.
SURVEY QUESTION 3
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What do you order most from the Dining Commons?
8 Blue Plate
5 Grill
4 Salad
4 Pizza
3 Sandwich
2 Mexican
2 Rice Bowl
This shows that people do have their favorite options and not one
specific thing is the most popular. It depends on the person
SURVEY QUESTION 4
 If you can change or add something to the Dinning Commons, what would
it be?
 Sushi
 Fast food (Panda Express, Subway, Carls Jr.)
 More cultural foods
 Better Mexican foods
 More drinks
 More desserts
 Menu with nutrition facts
 These answers show that there are lots of things that can be done to improve
the dining commons and how the students aren’t happy with how it is.
SURVEY QUESTION 5
 Would you want the nutrition facts to be posted at each station
at the Dining Commons?
 85% Yes
 15% No
 This tells us that having the nutrition facts available at each
station is almost unanimously wanted
SURVEY QUESTION 6
 Would you pay extra for more nutrient rich (healthy) foods? Yes or no?
Why?
 60 % Yes
 40 % No
 These answers show that people care about their health and money isn’t really
an option when it comes to health.
SURVEY QUESTION 7
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Would you pay extra for better quality of food? Yes or no? Why?
79% Yes
21% No
These answers show that the students aren’t satisfied with the food quality and
would pay extra for the quality to improve.
SURVEY QUESTION 8
 Are you happy with how the food is prepared? (safety, health) Yes or no?
Why?
 54% No
 46% Yes
 More than half the people aren’t happy with how the food is being prepared.,
which means there needs to be change.
SURVEY QUESTION 9
 Do you support the addition of fast food chains to add a
greater variety? Yes or no? Why?
 86% Yes
 14% No
 This shows that college kids love fast food and that there should
be fast food chains added.
SURVEY QUESTION 10
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Any complaints in general?
Hate Ozzi containers
Food sucks
More variety
Better wrapped burritos
Too expensive
Professional Interview Question 1
 Why don't we have healthier food options?
 Include the response
 Beef don’t really vary in calorie, the average hamburger is calc in the
nutrition fact to include mayo , Mc Donalds full of preservative, we have
natural shit; customer makes the decisions, very little demand for
healthier foods or any food, they had soy milk before but didn’t sell;
presentation was changed and purchase went up.They have whole
wheat crust
 Include your analysis/thoughts on the response
 This means that if the customers don’t want the food, the dining center
will not have it. If the option isn’t selling well, it will be removed.
Professional Interview Question 2
 What are the future plans for the DC?
 2.partially baked bakery, supposedly lower price this way, partnership
with beooaluna; always undergoing change(depends on demand);
They would like feedback. They apparently really listen to feedback.
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Professional Interview Question 3
 How did the DC get to what it is today?
 originally did not have that room with cashier; didn’t have grill and such
or seating areas, 50 different pizzas, kungpow used to cook food on a
wok but couldn’t keep up; Jason says we considerably more items than
other campuses for what we pay for
 The dining center was originally only the inner room, meaning we did
not have the yogurt bar, or the grill. They were also experimenting with
what pizzas the customers may like, up to 50 pizzas were tested. The
stand kungpow used to cook on a wok, but that is no longer done
because it will not keep up in speed with customer needs now.
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Professional Interview Question 4
 How did you establish the food prices on each item?
 4. labor cost, benefits, function costs, raw food (produce or bag of rice
40% increased), prepackaged is up 50%, commodities market is
volatile right now such as chicken, beef, proteins; prices fluctuates; less
cattle cause wheat cut, Cost 98 cent to make a dollar 2% profit, dent
service and such
 The cost of labor, worker benefits are considered when calculating the
price. Not only that, but the base cost of the food (the price paid to buy
the ingredients in the first place) is part of the cost also. Then, the final
product is marked up between 40% to 50%
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Professional Interview Question 5
 How do you guys get your produce?
 primary produce perhana in Turlock, CA. M-F(huge supplier), K.D wiluy
farms (smaller company 30 miles from here, shasky farm (packaged
nuts, peaches,plums seasonal fruits cheap), tries to be local as
possible to lower price
 They have a few partners that they work with, one being US Food
Service, which is fairly popular across the country. The rest of the
partners are Perhana, KD Wiluy Farms, Shasky Farm. These are local
sources and they do intentionally try to stay locally.
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Professional Interview Question 6
 What are the most popular items in the DC?
 Breakfast sandwiches and cereal, caliente for lunch and blue plate,
hamburger, chicken strips, pizza
 During breakfast, most people get the breakfast sandwiches and as
well as cereal. For lunch and dinner, people mainly want hamburgers,
chicken strips, pizza, and items from the blue plate.
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Professional Interview Question 7
 Why isn’t there more food selection?
 7. not enough space, not just stands but food storage too, he tries to
offer other things in the marketplace. Organic salad bar costs 40-60%
more expensive and not necessarily healthier
 There isn’t enough space to store the food in the back or space to
serve the food. There also isn’t enough suggestions. I feel like Jason
Souza also meant that there isn’t enough feasible suggestions.
Feasible suggestions being suggestions that will actually sell and make
them profit.
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Professional Interview Question 8
 If we were to change our supplier, how much would prices go up?
 8. other sources cannot meet demands, they don’t have liability, the
average produce travels 2k mile but not here, goal is to go to local
vendors, US FOOD SERVICE(everyone uses this); otherwise another
source
 Didn’t really get a straight answer for this. They try to get food from
partners that are as local as possible.
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Professional Interview Question 9
 How much would it cost to have fast food chains on campus such as
subway, panda, etc?
 9.buildings, space is required, this may change the way meal way plans
work, we’re years from that; they have to pay rent and franchise fees
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Professional Interview Question 10
 Are there any future plans to change what the DC serves?
 Yes, They would like feedback. They apparently really listen to
feedback.
 They are constantly undergoing change to what the DC serves. Jason
claims that they are always looking for feedback, and the DC may
change accordingly to those feedback.
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Professional Interview Question 11
 If enough students suggest a new recipe, would the DC take it into
consideration, and make it?
 yes
 Yes, Jason claims that they are constantly trying to get feedback from
the customers. One thing that has changed due to a customer
suggestion is the implementation of the grilled chicken breast and
brown rice.
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Overall thoughts on our findings
 How will what you discovered from the surveys inform your
proposal?
 From what we discovered from the surveys it informed our group on
what the students agree upon are the most prevalent issues, so we
know what to focus on most in our proposals.
 How will what you discovered from the interview inform your
proposal?
 What we discovered are that the dining center takes suggestions and
that they won’t serve an option that won’t sell. What my proposal will
contain is certain healthier food options that will sell. What I may also
propose is a change in the ingredients for the foods.