By Nicole Andelfinger
January 22, 2008

Upon entering the cafeteria for lunch last Monday, students were surprised and disgruntled to find that they could no longer make their own sandwiches. Instead, under a new “deli system,” a long line awaited students as cafeteria employees made the sandwiches.

The new system caused such a stir that the self-serve sandwich line was back up and running the following day.

Sodexho, the company that supplies PLNU with its food, wanted the school to move to the new system.

The decision to switch PLNU’s cafeteria to the serviced deli system was a decision that was months in the making, and one that was “inevitable,” according to Rick Grimm, residential dining manager.

The problems became apparent with the system, however, on its first day of use.

“It was inconvenient for the people who just ran in for a minute to wait and didn’t have time to do so,” said freshman Sean Smith.

Some students waited up to 10 minutes, said sophomore Jeremiah Graham. He added that he was disappointed that a “healthy option” was harder to get than unhealthy options, such as pizza.

Other complaints included the lack of individuality allowed in making sandwiches.

“It’s tough for the Caf workers to make the sandwiches the way I like it,” said freshman Stephen Bravo. “It‘s hard to get the proportions right.” 
The cafeteria’s comment box was flooded with more than 130 comment cards with negative feedback regarding the deli line.

“The traffic flow of the Caf [with the deli line] made it difficult to get around,” said sophomore Stef Tofanelli.

The PLNU cafeteria serves approximately 1,200 people per meal, whereas most other Sodexho locations serve between 300 and 400 people per meal. Due to the high traffic of PLNU’s cafeteria, the new system was not feasible. The cafeteria switched back to the system of self-serve sandwiches the following day.

“It wasn’t logistically possible,” Grimm said.