The cafeteria in the Student Center at the Jefferson College Hillsboro campus closed on May 13, the last day of finals for the winter semester.
Food Service Consultants (FSC), the company that has operated the cafeteria for almost 19 years, notified college officials that it no longer would run the cafeteria because it has been losing money since the COVID-19 pandemic started, which resulted in fewer people using the service, college president
Dena McCaffrey said.
FSC, however, will continue restocking vending machines at all the college campuses and provide food for the daycare program on the Hillsboro campus for the next few months.
“Technically, I am employed until Aug. 1 to feed the campus daycare and fill the vending machines, until they can find my replacement,” FSC food service manager Michele Largent said in a letter.
In the meantime, college officials will request proposals for a new food service provider, but it likely will be a different kind of operation, McCaffrey said.
“It could be someone providing a mini market with fresh food,” she said. “But, it will not be like our current cafeteria.”
Before the cafeteria was closed, FSC contacted college officials and asked to be paid to operate the cafeteria for the 2021-2022 school year, something the college is prohibited from doing, McCaffrey said.
“The college did not terminate the contract,” she said. “FSC requested to be paid $5,000 for 10 months to operate the cafeteria. But, as we are an institution receiving public funds, we can’t subsidize a private company. We have never paid them in the history of the contract for operating the cafeteria.”
Largent sent a letter to college officials requesting they subsidize FSC after a year in which the company lost approximately $60,000.
She said the company had a staff of six working at the cafeteria in August but reduced it to three by October.
The employees worked at the cafeteria and at a snack bar in the Career and Technical Education (CTE) building.
Largent questioned why FSC could not be paid when the college pays for other services, like groundskeeping.
Daryl Gehbauer, the college’s vice president of finances and administration, said paying FSC, which takes in money for selling products, would be different from paying for groundskeeping services.
“You’re comparing apples to oranges,” Gehbauer said. “With lawn care, they provide a service and we pay for that service. The cafeteria is like the bookstore. If they’re profitable, they pay us a percentage as a commission.”
Gehbauer said FSC made a payment to the college after a profitable year in 2018.
“We shared 50 percent of their operating profits,” he said.
However, the college hasn’t received any commission from the company since then, Gehbauer said.
He, too, said it would be illegal for the college to pay FSC for its service.
“We’re funded by federal funds. They asked us to give them a subsidy to take care of some of their losses. That’s what we can’t do. It’s in the state constitution.”
McCaffrey stressed that college officials understand FSC’s position and are willing to work with the company and its owner, Mike Kumpf, again in the future.
“FSC and Mike Kumpf have been very good friends to the college,” she said. “If we would have catering needs, he would still be open to providing that.”