Students express dining concerns at FACT meeting

On Tuesday, Nov. 7, the Food Advisory Council of Troy (FACT) met, and students expressed dining concerns, some of which remain unresolved.

The purpose of FACT meetings is to allow students to express dining requests and concerns.

Senator Kayla Mitchell, a sophomore biomedical sciences major from Andalusia, said students and SGA senators expressed concerns at the FACT meeting to Sodexo Director of Operations Michael Wonderly, along with other Sodexo managers. Sodexo is the company that manages food services on campus.

Main concerns included a lack of food variety on a weekly basis, a lack of vegetarian options and unsatisfying and often flavorless options for students with allergies, according to Mitchell.

Other concerns expressed were a need for fresher to-go options in the Trojan Center and more dining plan options.

Mitchell also said that students desire better customer service.

“Michael Wonderly is really passionate about making sure that customer service is top-notch, and he wanted us to make sure that we could complain to a manager and tell them if we felt that we were not being treated right,” Mitchell said.

According to Mitchell, students were unaware that vegetarian options already existed, so Sodexo will work on better advertising those options to students.

Mitchell said that many of the concerns raised were issues that have yet to be resolved, such as operation hours for dining halls; however, those issues remain unresolved because the solutions cannot be accomplished overnight.

“Really the FACT meeting is just about students getting their concerns out there, and since I’m the FACT chair, I’ll discuss what changes (Sodexo) is considering because not all problems can be addressed in a year’s time, but the problems that can be addressed, they (Sodexo) do start working on,” Mitchell said.

Additionally, according to Mitchell, Sodexo can’t do much about hours until there is a change in the employee contract.

FACT Meetings are held every month, and students are encouraged to attend. To find out more about meeting times, students can contact Mitchell directly by phone at (334) 343-5822.