News
Dining Monopoly Gives Back
by Michael Hasper
Opinions Editor

In recent weeks, Stanford Dining has taken heat from various individuals and publications that portray its meal plans as inflexible, its costs expensive, and its food quality unacceptable. In light of these perceptions, the Review decided to sit down with Mr. Nadeem Siddiqui, Executive Director of Stanford Dining, to gauge his assessment of the current state of the dining program and his vision for future improvements.

One popular complaint raises issue with Meal Plan costs. Siddiqui explained that setting prices for Meal Plans mindfully takes into account many factors. While he states that Meal Plan rates increased 2.75% last year, "we tried extremely hard to keep [costs] as low as possible. Our dining committee understands the challenges and has reviewed Meal Plan rates as being favorable in comparison to national and local markets." In doing so, Stanford Dining absorbed a total cost increase of 4%, "including payroll for unit staff, food costs, utility costs, overhead, and maintenance and repair" without passing this burden along to students.

Siddiqui finds it paramount to keep Meal Plan rates from rising unnecessarily. To accomplish this, Stanford Dining "continues to look for improvements in food costs" by "negotiating different contracts to get a better pricing structure." One of the most noticeable changes was the recent switch in primary food vendors from Cisco to U.S. Foods "to get a little cheaper food." In addition, Siddiqui describes ongoing efforts to "make sure we're using our staff efficiently and prepare foods in optimal quantity to reduce waste."

Food quality has been targeted by some as needing substantial improvement. However, Siddiqui insists that Stanford Dining is "most adamant about--upholding a standard of food quality." He says that while it would be very easy to "reduce prices by reducing quality," goals when negotiating contracts and with vendors aim "to see that the same quality product can be bought for a better price--we never reduce the quality of the product." To provide evidence for success in food quality, Siddiqui highlights the Annual Survey by Stanford students that rate Dining Services "4 to 4.5 on a 5 scale, a very positive rating."

Stanford Dining's nonprofit approach has periodically been criticized as choking off other vendors from campus and casting meal options in an uninspired light. However, Siddiqui sees Stanford Dining's nonprofit aspect as one of the keys in successful dining operations. In being nonprofit, he argues that "[we] are here to provide services to students. Our eyes are not on the bottom line. All we make sure to do is balance our books, use the money we get from students properly, and still provide high quality." Funding for Dining Services comes completely from meal plans and purchases at vending points around campus.

Siddiqui views the cafes around campus run by Stanford Dining as serving a dual role. They "make revenues that help keep the board rates down" and "bring variety to campus dining." He reveals that new concept cafes such as Olives@160 "have had a popular response from students and faculty alike--that's what you want to provide, a unique market such that people feel good about eating lunch with variety."

Nevertheless, a popular complaint among students is that thirdparty operations such as nationallyrecognized fastfood outlets are disallowed from directly entering the food market on Stanford's campus. However, Siddiqui claims that such desires "really come down to demand and need from students--and how much can be supported by students, because it's their program." He says the process is a slow one, but movements in this direction include introducing Peet's Coffee at the LINX café in the new Clark Center, and Subway in the soon-to-be-open Tresidder Café. Siddiqui indicates that the fundamental basis is "how much the students will support," and that with more services provided, "we have to be careful what we can afford to provide and what we can't--and have good dialogue with students."

In this regard, Siddiqui states that Stanford Dining steadfastly welcomes student input. At the current time, students can participate in such endeavors as working in their local residential dining hall to participating in marketing groups that "try to gauge student behavioral patterns in dining." He believes such opportunities allow for the sentiments of the student body to translate into tangible change. "We always like to see students working for us, and we would like to see more--since this is the students' program, no doubt about it."

Such student response has led Stanford Dining to explore innovative programs. Specifically, they started a program last year with Alba farms, a coop of 27 local area farmers, to test organic foods in different locations to try to "work with these farmers to make sure that prices are at a stable level." If successful, organic products that are usually more expensive could be incorporated into dining hall food offerings. On a scaled-down version, herb gardens are being created at each dining hall, along with greater composting and recycling efforts.

Perhaps the greatest change Stanford students will see in the near future is a newly revamped Tressider Café, something Siddiqui describes as "an amazing place." The space will be partitioned to create diverse atmospheres for a wide range of purposes. "We have divided the space. For students who want to study, there's a space. If they want to have coffee and chat, they have a space. If they want to watch TV or a movie, they have a space." Food services will also be varied, with offerings from sushi to tandoori to pizza to Peet's coffee. Continued additions will take into account "students' demand to see what they will support and purchase. We have to be cost sensitive to make sure that students will want what is provided."

Looking towards the future, Siddiqui envisions Stanford Dining as "engaged in change and flexible to change." He sees trends that show that "students' eating habits are changing ­ more attentive and diverse, stronger palettes." To accommodate change, Siddiqui proclaims Stanford Dining as being committed to this developing process while "being responsible financially to make sure that prices aren't too high--I think the prices we have are fairly strong--and we have to make sure to keep that as tight as possible. And we do."

Page last modified on Thursday, 02-Mar-2006 00:25:04 MST.