Mesa Community College students to lead dining advisory board
Mesa Community College’s dining options will begin to include direct student feedback with the creation of the Student Culinary Council, which holds its first meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 3 p.m to form a student and faculty lead advisory board that will span across all Maricopa College Community College District campuses.
The MCCCD hired contractor Sodexo, a food service and management company, in 2021 to oversee the food and dining facilities across all 10 colleges. Collectively known as “MCCCD dining”, each campus has its own resources that are provided through Sodexo’s management.
Food options at MCC are overseen and managed by a site supervisor, a role that most larger colleges like MCC have under Sodexo. However, up until now, feedback from students and faculty has only come through online surveys.
“We’ve always asked for feedback, but we know that just doing the surveys annually is not necessarily enough, it doesn’t give us that direct and personalized input that we’re looking for.” said Alice Yam, marketing manager for MCCCD dining and Sodexo.
MCCCD dining and Sodexo hope the formation of the Student Culinary Council will create connectivity amongst students and faculty who have dietary restrictions or preferences and need a platform to suggest changes.
That same connectivity will create data that learns how students want to be notified about their dining options at MCC, and whether or not that should include dynamic menu and promotion notifications.
“We want to make sure we get those who are really passionate about food onto the advisory board”, Yam added.
The Student Culinary Council’s first meeting will focus on introducing students and faculty to the team at MCCCD dining/Sodexo, along with establishing a meeting schedule and future roles within the council.
Students and faculty can join the meeting by completing a form on the district’s website.
