At a meeting to discuss the future of on-campus dining options, Long Beach City College brought in design company Webb Foodservice Design to explain what new options would look like.
Having been in business for 31 years, Webb Foodservice has completed more than 850 projects, 426 of which provided oversight for community college food service projects.
Robin Hungerford of Webb Foodservice Design is working closely with LBCC to develop plans going forward and to resolve the current food vendor issue.
“The approach to the contract is different than it was 5-6 years ago, when S&B foods was the only vendor to respond,” Hungerford said.
Previously, the cafeteria was the only component of the contract where food could be provided. The contract is now being structured to contain public events on campus, various food areas, cafeteria and stadium events.
Given Hungerford’s expertise and the response they are already getting, this Request For Proposal (RFP) should get a much better response.
Hungerford explained her 13 year year past with higher education food services of the University of California, as well as 7 years running food service before that. It was during her career as senior director of dining & hospitality service at UCR that they won the coveted culinary Loyal E. Horton Dining award.
Raymond “Chip” West, Vice President of Administrative and Business Services asked all interested participants to give their feedback on food service desires, as well as provide updates on available food options.
Renderings for the future coffee bar, food hall and outdoor dining were shared. They are fast tracking and expect to open a new coffee kiosk in January 2024.
Additionally, West shared they are building infrastructure to accommodate robot food deliveries, similar to other campuses.
West met with S and B in his third week at LBCC, where they told him they would no long be servicing the college.
“They were pulling their contract. They had been losing money at both campuses for a very long time and they were in a financial crisis and could not sustain their operation anymore,” he said.
“We started a band aid approach, and it has not been great, despite their many efforts, tried food trucks, tried mom and pop businesses, looked at contracting with larger services to bring food in. it’s difficult, due to 50% classes online there is not the number of people on campus that there were,” reported West.
“If you know of a vendor willing to come onsite that has insurance, have them contact my office,” West said.
To date, getting affordable food trucks has been challenging as the foot traffic hasn’t been there to make it worth the vendors trip and the prices have not been appealing to the customers.