Senior: Chartwells used to be decent, but not any longer

BY RYAN SONDALLE
Guest Writer

Are you craving something delicious?

How about wanting a nutritious dinner? Well, unfortunately if you answered yes to either question, Saint Mary’s has no solution. Why? Because the service provider here is Chartwells; the company that specializes in budget cuts, false advertisement and general depression brought upon by poor nutrition and terribly tasting meals. If you think I am being rather harsh, I apologize, but I am trying to be truthful. Let me explain.

Being a senior, I am on my fourth year of knowledge and experience with Chartwells. Over the four years I have experienced a transformation which turned a respectable food service into garbage. Yes, that’s right; Chartwells was decent once, but those days are long gone. Let me quickly summarize how the food used to be compared to the current situation.

In 2006, Chartwells provided a large variety of foods for choice in the cafeteria. This variety often consisted of premade subs, burgers, tacos (that tasted good), classic American meals, Asian food and an entrée prepared freshly in front of you. This was in addition to the salad bar, cereal and sandwich area, which at the time had real, not processed, cheese. The Cardinal Club’s transfer menu was also at least double the size of the current one and also included Mexican food.

Looking at the food service now, Mexican food has entirely disappeared from the Cardinal Club’s transfer menu - along with about half the other items. We can accredit this to Chartwells successful campaign to revamp their menu for failure. I have no doubt that the changes were put in place in an effort to try to boost cafeteria success, which is succeeding only by default. But even as people are now forced to eat in the cafeteria more often, the food quality has still continued to decline. The cafeteria also has removed many of its menu options, as staple items now consist of poorly made pizza and terrible tasting tacos.

I do fully understand that the economy can affect all companies. The fact still remains though, that many simple foods are still either prepared incorrectly or remain non-existent. With an everdepleting menu, students are left to settle for garbage, which only leads to the option of sending it back to the creator via conveyor belt. And as Chartwells complains about wasted food, Saint Mary’s students can only attempt to send them the hint that people would gladly quit wasting food if only Chartwells would prepare something that actually tasted good.