Students at Biola are vocal about their opinions regarding the university’s cafeteria. From complaints about the freshness of the food to the quality of the service, the Caf has received much criticism.
In a Google forms survey shared on Instagram, students responded to follow-up questions concerning the quality of their dining experience at the Caf. Out of a total of 32 responses, about 40% said that their dining experience was satisfactory about half of the time. About 28% reported a dissatisfactory experience, and about 12% reported a satisfied dining experience.
The survey specifically asked students to share their sentiments from the past month, as the Caf has been working hard to improve beginning with an open food form in Jan. 2022. Since then, the Caf enlisted new kitchen staff, encouraged students to offer feedback through the Instagram account ratemycaf and has been meeting with SGA President Christie Macris to identify and implement changes that matter to the student body.
WHAT STUDENTS ARE SAYING
At the end of the short survey, students were given the option to share additional thoughts in their own words. First-year English major Hannah Petinak said that she hopes the chicken tortilla soup will return while first-year education major Hailey Jackson would like to see cotton candy ice cream. Three anonymous comments expressed a desire for increased healthy or vegetarian options. Another anonymous commenter said that “curry, burgers, nachos, mac and cheese, tots and much of the Hispanic food[s] are usually decent or even good. The Chinese/Japanese/Korean food is consistently bad, or mediocre at best.”
Some students included requests for later hours, variety, and bigger portions. Students continue to critique the Caf, but improvements such as food quality, new fruit containers suited to avoid sogginess and more fruit variety have been implemented since the initial open food forum.
