Student groups that have long griped about the cost of buying food from University Catering may have a new lower-cost option in DUX Express.
Launched Tuesday, the new menu offers food platters for pick-up – which eliminates delivery fees – and without the cost of napkins, silverware and linens, according to Tom Driscoll, Director of Food Services.
Student leaders have complained about the University’s policy requiring them to buy food from catering for campus events. Senate President Athan Papailiou has made it part of his agenda to try to loosen restrictions on where groups can spend their money.
Papailiou said students’ money could be stretched further if groups had the option of buying from local stores or caterers instead of being bound to the University.
The University’s policy exists to protect the campus community, Driscoll said, but exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis when there is a “compelling reason.”
Non-perishable food purchased at a grocery store is allowed, but perishable food requires the supervision of someone with a food handler’s card, Driscoll said. Groups can go to local caterers in certain circumstances, but choosing to prepare their own food because it’s cheaper isn’t an option, he said.
“I just don’t see that being approved or negotiated around,” he said.
Waivers are granted when a single event needs to be catered in a Kosher kitchen, for example, and are considered when a group wants ethnic food prepared in a certain way. Whoever prepares the food still needs to be licensed and needs to have liability insurance. Catering can provide someone to oversee food prepared in their kitchen, Driscoll said.
Oscar Guerra, who has dealt with catering as a member of MEChA and other multicultural groups, said the price of catering has increased during his five years at the University.
“It makes it impossible for student unions to accommodate people with a meal because University Catering is so expensive,” Guerra said. Students aren’t the ones deciding how student money is spent, he said. And most groups don’t want the hassle of trying to get a waiver.
“Ever since I’ve been a freshman I’ve just been advised to fundraise enough because University Catering is so strict about (granting waivers),” he said.
DUX Express will offer cheaper options than the regular catering menu. A gallon of coffee goes for $12; a sandwich platter is priced at $45 (that’s $3 a sandwich, Driscoll points out); and an assortment of cookies is $12. “It’s all, I think, very competitively priced,” Driscoll said.
But the new menu won’t help Guerra and Jill Torres, also a member of MEChA, when they are searching for non-Mexican Latino food at a reasonable price. Both Guerra and Torres stressed they were speaking as individuals and not on behalf of MEChA.
“It’s really hard for our community because (businesses) have to have a really big insurance policy” that many local businesses specializing in authentic Latino food might not have, Torres said.
The need for liability insurance “limits us to a few places that aren’t really that authentic,” she said.
Driscoll said students should check out what catering here has to offer before making assumptions. He said catering has an incredible chef and staff capable of catering nearly any type of food for any event.
Torres disagreed, at least when it comes to the regular menu items.
“Fiesta food? What is that? That’s not Mexican food.” she said “I would never eat that regularly.”
Guerra said the regular menu Mexican food is in “no way authentic. It’s kind of insulting, actually.”
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