Mandatory meal plan lacks flexibility, choices, value: students at residence

There have been some glitches in a new food plan for new students in residence, which was made mandatory by the university.
Sodexho Marriott is providing the food at the Loyola campus, where the residence is located.
“Some students feel that they are not getting the their value for their money,” said Audrey Lefebvre, one of the residence’s assistants. “We have 19 meals per week on the meal plan and if you do not eat one of your three meals in a day, you can’t eat that meal later on in the week.”
According to Paul Murphy, the manager of residence life, this is the first time that such a plan has been implemented at Concordia. “Other universities have similar programs. Some of the reasons that we implemented the program were the state of the kitchens in the residence. We have only three kitchens, one on each floor for the 144 students living in residence.
“There is only one stove in each kitchen and the stoves became a health and fire hazard because they were not properly cleaned by the students and it’s very difficult to monitor them when they are in the kitchen.”
Murphy added that some students were more satisfied than others and Lefebvre echoed Murphy on this point. “Some students are trying to work with Sodexho and improve the meal plan, but there are some who want to get their money refunded and they have started a committee of their own.
“By far the biggest complaints that I have heard about the meal plan is the that it is not flexible, the poor quality of the food and not having much of an option for vegetarians.”
Both Murphy and Lefebvre agree that Sodexho has fixed some of the problems that cropped up in the fall semester, but there are still some problems that remain, such as not being able to take more than one drink or replacing a few drinks with a meal.
Assistant Director of Auxiliary Services Johanne De Cubellis said that this Friday a group of students from residence will meet with her to further discuss the meal plan. “This is the first year that we have done this and the plan is not to everyone’s taste. The first year is always the roughest.”
Food poisoning
On Nov. 13 students from residence suffered from food poisoning at the Loyola cafeteria. De Cubellis said that when Sodexho received the complaints, they sent an inspector to assess where the poisoning came from. It was concluded that it came from a food source, but De Cubellis could not specify from which food source it had come from.