After a two-year absence, hot meals will again be offered at the Jefferson College Student Center on the Hillsboro campus when the 2023 fall semester begins in August.
According to the results of a survey students, faculty and staff took, they wanted to see the return of hot food served at the Hillsboro campus, college officials said.
The Board of Trustees voted 6-0 May 1 to approve a contract with Great Western Dining in Tipton to provide hot food in the Student Center cafeteria and to provide lunches to youngsters enrolled in the Early Childhood Center program on the Hillsboro campus. The company also will provide catering at college events.
President Dena McCaffrey said the micro markets currently offered at the college’s Hillsboro and Arnold campuses, as well as vending machines at those two campuses and the Imperial campus, will still be available. Cardinal Vending in Fenton operates the micro markets and vending machines.
“Students missed not only the hot meals, but also (having the Student Center cafeteria) as a gathering place,” McCaffrey said. “We’re just excited to meet the needs of our students.”
Three companies submitted proposed costs for students who live on campus to buy 14 meals per week, which includes breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday and dinner Monday through Thursday, as well as the Early Childhood Center lunches Monday through Friday. The meal plan for resident students is mandatory.
Great Western Dining submitted the low proposal of $1,283 per semester for resident students for meal cards and $4.75 per Early Childhood Center meal.
Commuter students also will be able to purchase meal cards “at a slight discount” or purchase individual meals on an a la carte basis, said Roger Barrentine, the college’s director of public relations and marketing.
Under the provisions of the contract with Great Western Dining, the college will receive 5 percent of net sales from the cafeteria.
In addition, the college will receive 10 percent of net sales on non-college-sponsored catering on campus, said Daryl Gehbauer, the college’s vice president of finance and administration.
The Student Center cafeteria closed at the end of the 2020-2021 school year, after which the board hired American Food & Vending in Overland to provide the food for the micro markets at the Hillsboro and Arnold campuses and vending machines at all three of the college’s campuses.
In August 2022, the board awarded the contract for the same services to Cardinal Vending after voting in June 2022 to cut ties with American Food & Vending.
