Many people on campus are familiar with Sodexo and their job here at SUNY Poly. Many people living on campus, myself included, depend on Sodexo on a daily basis for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For the most part, Sodexo does a decent job keeping students fed and content. In fact, I would say Sodexo has been making good, consistent progress since I've arrived at SUNY Poly in Fall 2014 until this semester. They've now dropped the ball, and not in just the quality of their food.
I have a few basic criticisms that I really think would help the student body's relationship with Sodexo.
For starters, I would like to discuss issues with the comment cards. I have been extremely dissatisfied with the lack of communication. In past years I have seen others students leave comment cards talking about both the good and bad of Sodexo, and they would almost always get a written response, and then the comment card would be posted for others to see. So far this year, not a single comment card has been responded to; this is an appalling sign. The cards are the most basic method for the students to communicate with Sodexo, and I have not seen it utilized in any way, which is very disappointing.
There are also concerns with the Student Center and the changes with the points. Many students are frustrated by the recent changes, because the 14 and 19 swipe meal plans have gotten a boost in points that the ten meal plan has yet to receive. This is absurd, especially considering the Student Center has increased the prices on some of their items. This change has been implemented despite the fact that all meal plans cost the same.
The last few thing I've noticed are small details. These are the little things that are easy to fix, but have yet to be addressed. The first of these issues are the wraps at the sandwich line. It's always frustrating when you're ordering a wrap and the person working doesn't know how to wrap it correctly; this feels like a skill that should be taught on the very first day of training. Likewise, the pizza truly has the potential to be excellent. On more than one occasion, I have personally counted more than fifteen pizzas sitting out before going in the oven. By doing this, it ruins the pizza in more ways than one, such as drying out the cheese and the dough. There are more minuscule complaints like these that I've heard from fellow students, and I believe it would benefit our community if Sodexo made an effort to speak to the students and worked to fix persisting problems. The Food Committee is held every other Monday at 2pm in the Student Center, and they would like students to come and voice their complaints. The next meeting will be October 17th.
As a student that pays a pre-set rate for my meal plan, I think we deserve to have the quality of our food, in the very least maintained, or better yet, improved. Unfortunately, in my opinion this has not occurred and instead we have had a decrease in quality and a significant lack of communication that I'm worried could become a trend in future semesters. Sodexo has dropped the ball, and I hope they pick it back up.