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Page 3 | Monday, December 5, 2016
CLC, Fresh Ideas partner to please students’ tastes Robert Biegalski News Editor
The College of Lake County signed a partnership agreement with the food service provider Fresh Ideas on July 1 2016. “As part of the contract, Fresh ideas has to provide healthy, quality food for our students, faculty, and staff,” said Patricia Argoudelis, Assistant Director of Auxiliary Services-Administration. “The term of the agreement with Fresh Ideas is three years, with an additional two-year term renewal,” Argoudelis said. Fresh Ideas is considered a “vendor partner,” meaning they are responsible for responding to what the College asks of them, Argoudelis said. As part of this agreement, CLC receives a share of the profits from food sales. “Any profits remaining over and above the operating expenses are shared, the larger portion of that share going to the college,” Argoudelis said. “That’s why we really want to promote Fresh Ideas to the college community because it’s financially beneficial to the college.” There were several competing offers for agreements. “I feel that we had a pretty good response,” Argoudelis said. “We had seven different vendors that submitted proposals and they were of varying size.” A selection committee was formed to choose which vendor was the best fit. “We created a selection committee,” Argoudelis said. “The selection committee was made up of twelve people and we had student representation on that.” The committee narrowed down the seven choices to five. “I personally was hoping we could have narrowed it to a smaller number but there were five that were pretty much the same,” Argoudelis said. “The majority of those were smaller regional vendors so we liked that fact.” The selection committee examined the advantages and disadvantages of each choice. Vendors gave vendor pre-
sentations to the committee. “We also did reference checks so we called other colleges and universities to see what they thought of their current vendor,” Argoudelis said. “So I would talk to the person that was probably in my position as the contract administrator.” “What do you think about your current vendor?” Argoudelis asked them. “Then we did numerous site visits,” Argoudelis said. “That was the fun but grueling part.” “The food quality was really one of the deciding factors,” Argoudelis said. “We were really looking for hand-made,” Argoudelis said. “We wanted a vendor that would actually come in and make the food.” Argoudelis compared Cafe Willow to the old cafe. “In Lancers they didn’t have the space,” Argoudelis said. “Not much down there was handmade.” “They made what they could but they just didn’t have the space,” Argoudelis said. Sustainability efforts were a factor as well. The prices were considered. “We compared retail pricing as well as catering pricing,” Argoudelis said. “When the selection committee was created, we were not told to go out and find the cheapest vendor possible,’ Argoudelis said. “We were tasked with a quality product, sustainable systems, a vendor that would use local vendors, that would do composting.” “Those were the things that were really important to the college because that follows the college’s mission statement,” Argoudelis said. Argoudelis does think “price is important.” “Were we looking at a vendor where the pricing fell in line with everyone else?” Argoudelis asked. “It absolutely did,” Argoudelis said. “But quality is not cheap.” Argoudelis emphasized the importance of versatility in a vendor. “We wanted to make sure that we chose a vendor that would give us some flexibility, that we wouldn’t be put in a box,” Argoudelis said. “Sometimes with that larger vendor, you don’t have as
much flexibility.” “We’ve never done this before so we wanted to make sure we had a really good partner that would be responsive to the changes that we wanted made,” Argoudelis said. The cafe has already made changes to the menu without Argoudelis asking. A suggestion board was set up near Student Street outside the student activities office where students could suggest changes to the cafe’s menu. The cafe saw this and made the changes on their own. “They put the dollar bosco stick back on the menu, they’re doing the two dollar menu. That wasn’t something I came and asked them for,” Argoudelis said. “It was on the SGA rolling board and they came to me and said ‘we’ve heard the students were going to do this.’” The faculty and staff are also being considered in the changes. The cafe allows for menu items to be purchased “a la carte”, or in separate parts, if the regular item is too much food, Argoudelis said. This has been important
for the faculty and staff, Argoudelis said. Argoudelis said the transition was imperfect. “It’s been an interesting process because Fresh Ideas has had to get to know us and how we like to eat here at CLC and we’ve had to get used to them and working through a vendor partner,” Argoudelis said. “I feel there were some things that we could have done better in opening,” Argoudelis said. “It was a difficult opening. I think we could have been a bit more ready.” “We were hoping to have more of a soft opening before the students came back,’ Argoudelis said. “That wasn’t anything we could control.” “We didn’t want to hold up opening but it came down to the facility and there wasn’t anything we could do.” A single vendor system is standard for most colleges and universities, Argoudelis said. The selection committee put in a lot of work searching for the right fit, Argoudelis said. The cafe closes at 2:30 p.m. “The way we designed
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it is that the interior would close at 2:30, but the exterior would remain open so that was the intention,” Argoudelis said. However, the cafe would consider extending their main hours if necessary. “Once we start building business and it warrants additional offerings we absolutely would take a look at that,” Argoudelis said. The exterior hours are not yet widely publicized. “Until 8:30 at night you can get a hot sandwich, soup, pizza, sandwiches, and salads,” Argoudelis said. Argoudelis said the change in quality from Lancer’s Cafe to Fresh Ideas was a “big jump” “I think we did Fresh Ideas almost a disservice because when you’re at where you’re supposed to be it looks like a big jump,” Argoudelis said. “I think it’s a good value,” Argoudelis said. “I eat at the cafe usually for breakfast and lunch but it’s a big plate of food so I think the value is there.” “I think they are really wanting to please their customers.”
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