Chartwells, Washburn’s food service provider, hosted several focus groups on April 11 and 12. Students who live on campus signed up as “Residential Students” and “Commuter Students” for people who live off campus. The extra incentive was that participants received free food during the focus group time, as well as $20 in dining dollars on their iCards.

Janel Rutherford, director of business and auxiliary services, shared about the purpose of the focus group meeting.

“Washburn and Chartwells have worked together since 2006. The focus groups are called the on-site insight. It’s probably about every three years they do those. This year, they did a campus survey, so an online survey in the fall, and then they followed up with the onsite insight in-person focus groups in the spring,” Rutherford said. “So they just hear the information without a bias to the information they receive and record that information, and then they’ll give that report back to Chartwells and help them make changes, on their strengths and weaknesses and know how to make changes for the future.”

The audience could rate the variety, quality, value and customer service of the campus dining from the range of 1 to 5. The organization also wanted to know the quality of campus foods when compared with off-campus options.

Daniel Lopez-Hernandez, senior public health major, who is the director of marketing on the campus activities board talked about his focus group experiences.

“I’ve met with Chartwells advising group and it was very interesting and very helpful to have a perspective of students who lived on campus and off campus and kind of get an idea of what students want,” Hernandez said. “[From a] perspective as a student, I really enjoy providing feedback […] which has been great for students to have a variety of items. I understand we’re a small campus but Chartwells has been doing really good and helping students have versatile food opportunities.”

The campus dining survey included what types of foods the audience wants to have on campus such as vegetarian, BBQ, Asian, Mexican, etc. Participants got a chance to share about food location offers, speed of service, and brand offerings.

Aichata Nishimura, sophomore nursing major, shared what she expected for future improvement.

“My favorite place to get my food is Lincoln and yesterday’s meeting was energetic and people have a lot of opinions about good points and also the room for improvement,” Nishimura said.“We want to have more healthy options including fresh fruit and fresh salad and also grilled meat.”

All students contracted under Campus Residential Living, such as Lincoln, LLC and the Village, are required to choose a meal plan, and students who live off campus can buy meal swipes to get meals in Lincoln Dining. Washburn students can use the dining dollars in their iCard or debit card to buy food on campus.

These focus group meetings are good opportunities to share your experience eating at different locations on campus and offer suggestions for improvement! Students need to sign the form to participate at a specific time.

Edited by Stuti Khadka and Morgan Albrecht