Food options remain scarce

Focus group outlines lack of access to healthy and affordable choices on Pierce’s menu

KRISTINA VILLAMIL Reporter @KrisVillamil and MARITZA SERRANO Reporter @MSerranoRU

Pierce College faculty members met last Wednesday as part of a focus group to discuss the food services available on campus.

EMC Research, a full-service firm that provides market and opinion research services, organized the group at the request of the Los Angeles Community College District.

“We were hired by the Board of Trustees to go to all nine campuses and talk about food service and what people want,” said Emily Goodman, an EMC Research team member.

Adjunct English professor Jeanine Brown said she has been curious about the food on campus since the college built the cafeteria attached to the Library / Learning Crossroads. The cafeteria was open briefly but has been unused and locked since its only tenant, Lovebirds Cafe, ended its lease in 2014.

“I’ve been interested in this issue all along. I’ve taught here since 89’ and we used to have a wonderful cafeteria. Ever since there’s been no cafeteria I’ve been interested,” Brown said.

David Braun, former full-time professor and business department chair, said it’s been about six years that there has been no cafeteria on campus.

Food options for students and faculty are currently limited to three food trucks, the Freudian Sip and vending machines. Some fulltime faculty members complained that the selection is often unhealthy.

“People who work here 40 hours, they’re stuck with either going off campus to some place close which seems to all be fast food, or they stay on campus and they’re stuck with nothing much to eat that’s really nutritional,” Brown said.

Both Braun and Brown would like to see a wide range of food available to everyone.

“It’s kind of what everybody would like to have, you want a variety of food and something for everybody,” Braun said. “You want it to be reasonably fresh, reasonably priced and have some real value.”

Brown said the focus group found variety is the most requested change to Pierce’s current options.

“I think what’s indicated in this meeting is variety,” she said.