Dining Services to offer weekend meals next fall

New surveys show considerable interest in weekend options. New student surveys on Dining Services show considerable interest in University meals on weekends, and administrators say they will act on that interest by implementing some form of weekend meal plan this fall. Dining Director Bill Canney said surveys his department has conducted point to a potentially large market for weekend meal plans. And indications from a preliminary draft of a private review of Dining Services -- which Canney said he hasn't seen yet -- buttress his findings. The report is the first phase in the review by the Cornyn Fasano Group, an independent food services consulting firm. It is not yet clear exactly how dining on campus may change next year, because Cornyn Fasano will make recommendations based on their data later this spring. But Business Services Director Marie Witt said she didn't expect any major changes in Dining Services for next fall. She cautioned that weekend meals are expensive due to increases in staff and facility costs. The preliminary report showed that over 70 percent of undergraduates indicated they would be interested in a weekend brunch option. Among underclassmen living on campus, 75.8 percent were interested in a weekend lunch and 77.2 percent showed interest in Sunday dinner. Approximately half of the undergraduates living off campus or in Greek houses expressed similar viewpoints. But fewer graduate students expressed a desire for weekend meals, with only 25 percent favoring Sunday dinners. Witt said the report also supported the administration's belief that student would be interested in a supermarket closer to campus and better retail and restaurants. One-fourth of those polled reported purchasing five or more snacks daily during the week, and almost all students said they bought at least one snack a day. Large numbers of graduate students and faculty indicated that they never eat in West Philadelphia restaurants, although many undergraduates said that they frequent area restaurants, particularly on weekends. The idea of centrally located areas combining a social atmosphere and food appealed to most groups. One-fourth of those polled also said they purchase lunch from a food truck, although it is not clear whether such a percentage will affect University plans to limit and centralize food trucks. And students indicated that quality of food and convenience is more important than price, with only 18.4 percent of respondents rating price as more significant than quality and only 29.7 percent rating price more important than location. Canney said Dining Services data also suggests that students value convenience, adding that such interest prompted the establishment of the "Lunch Express" feature in some dining halls. The fact that 53.7 percent of students do not eat a full hot breakfast did not shock Canney, who said Dining Services has seen few regular customers at breakfast. "Despite the fact that it is the most important meal of the day, there is less participation in breakfast," Canney said. He added that this was due to students sleeping late -- not the quality of the food. Witt said she is waiting for the final part report's first phase, which will benchmark Penn's food services against other Ivy League schools and peer institutions. The report's second phase will examine several models for dining services and facilities, and will also deal with methods of managing those plans. Witt added that there will be no definite recommendation on outsourcing Dining until the release of that section of the report. In the meantime, Witt said there may be some minor "fine-tuning" of Dining Services in the short term, particularly in the area of providing "grab-and-go" meals. And while she admitted that the report is running behind schedule, Witt said that Cornyn Fasano told her to expect the analysis of the University's peer institutions "any day."

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