Throughout my four years at Bluffton University I have felt confined by the limited amount of food options that Marbeck offers. While the Sodexo posters plastered throughout the Commons attempt to advertise a healthy and diverse menu, my experience with Marbeck food has been the exact opposite.
The options at mainline are hit-or-miss. Some days mainline is appetizing and worth waiting in line for, and other days it isn’t. Rarely is there ever an in-between.
After passing up on mainline the only other available options are a sandwich, pizza, burger, chicken, fries or pasta. These same options become repetitive and unappetizing after a while. Not to mention there many instances in which the grilled chicken and burgers are still pink in the middle, the lettuce in the salad is wilted, the fries are cold and limp and the pasta sauce has a consistency closer to water than sauce.
Marbeck is an essential part of the Bluffton community as the main place where students come together daily to eat, socialize and relax. Its importance as a gathering place has become even more prominent in the midst of the pandemic when feelings of isolation and loneliness increase in this era of social distancing and virtual learning/gathering.
As such a pivotal part of the Bluffton University student experience, why have the Marbeck food options not stepped up to the challenge of providing students with a tasty and reliable variety of food options?
Marbeck’s response to the pandemic has only further increased the unpleasant dining experience that is offered to students. With the removal of self-serve style dining, students are forced to wait in incredibly long lines for food that is only sometimes good.
My goal in writing this piece is not to appear as an angry, grumbling student, but to express feelings about my experience as a Bluffton student that I feel many others share. Fear of offending the institution or Marbeck workers can make confronting issues with dining services difficult. However, this tough conversation is one that must be had because it will serve to the betterment of the institution if students speak openly about what can be improved on. Students have oftentimes done so by taking to social media to share pictures and opinions of less-than-appetizing Marbeck food.
Tajah Upshaw, senior criminal justice major, does a daily Marbeck food review on her Snapchat Story where she reviews the food options that Marbeck is offering at mainline. Her reviews are brutally honest and have gained a good amount of popularity among the student body.
“The food [at Marbeck] is just simply not tasty,” said Upshaw. “Bluffton is supposed to be our home away from home, but this food doesn’t taste like a home-cooked meal made with love. This is especially true for students of color and international students who are used to meals with lots of seasoning and flavor. The food is often bland, flavorless, and seasonless.”
Upshaw feels that the reason her daily reviews have gotten so popular among the student body is because many students share her feelings that Marbeck food is often lacking in taste and that the entire Marbeck experience is lacking in variety.
Haley Byrnes’ Snapchat story of a raw Marbeck biscuit. Photo courtesy of Haley Byrnes.
“When I first started doing the reviews, I didn’t think that anyone would really care,” said Upshaw when asked about responses she has gotten to her reviews. “People have told me that they look forward to seeing my reviews every day and that they are the deciding factor of whether or not they eat at Marbeck that day.”
Upshaw acknowledges that the pandemic may be the cause of some of the current issues Marbeck is facing in regards to lack of variety. However, she believes that the variety of Marbeck in past years was not much better.
“Compared to other colleges we lack variety,” said Upshaw. “Other schools have fast-food chains on campus, ethnic foods, froyo and just more options. At Bluffton, it’s the same thing every day: mainline, burgers, pasta, pizza, salad or sandwich.”
I am a subscriber to Upshaw’s daily reviews, and I find them helpful, funny, honest and accurate. However, I also realize that it is important to remember the people who make up the Marbeck staff and managing team are not villains who set out with the intent of punishing students with dry chicken and watery sauce.
When I reached out to the university’s Public Relations team about who to talk to in order to find answers regarding student issues with Marbeck, I was connected with Micheal Stewart, general manager of food services at Bluffton University.
From talking with him I learned that the food service staff is receptive to both positive and negative feedback from students, and they acknowledge the fact that no matter what food they do or do not serve, there is no way to please everyone.
“One of the things I think students forget is that we are feeding, on average, 425 to 475 students per meal,” said Stewart. “I think just about the only time everyone likes mainline is when it is chicken tenders and fries.”
I was surprised to find that Stewart expressed an appreciation for the many options that he believed Marbeck to offer. However, in my experience, I have found the daily options of pizza, pasta or grill get old after a while.
“It is impossible to please everyone,” said Stewart when asked about the repetitive nature of food options. “That is why we have different stations in the commons. If you don’t like the mainline you can go to the grill or salad station. The next time you come in you might like the mainline.”
As someone who tries to eat a healthy diet, I have often felt bored when the only consistently healthy thing to eat is a salad from the salad bar. Furthermore, I detest long lines, and usually only have thirty minutes to eat lunch, so when the lines for mainline and the grill seem to stretch on for infinity, I am forced to opt for a salad.
These feelings have been further increased by the removal of the self-serve options which allowed for some autonomy and variety in salad making and in the overall Marbeck dining experience.
However, I remind myself that these changes are not the fault of the campus food services as they have had to take certain measures in order to comply with health safety standards even if these changes are not popular with students.
“None of these changes were our choice, but due to the pandemic they were required,” said Stewart. “I do feel that most students are understanding and see that we are trying to do what we can with what we are allowed to work with.”
After talking with Stewart I was comforted by the fact that he heard my concerns with open ears and was reassuring that the food services department was well aware of negative feedback coming in and that they are working to improve the dining experience as much as they can.
It is always a good feeling to know that student concerns and complaints are not falling on deaf ears, and it is even more comforting to know that a department as essential to campus life as dining services is working closely with students and staff to continue to improve and increase the dining experience. The campus dining department has recently brought back more soft drink options and added a few more toppings to the salad station.
“As you might have noticed, we did finally bring back more drinks,” said Stewart. “We [also] brought wraps back to the deli and added more selections to our salad pre-made items; we did so because students requested it.”
Stewart also informed me that he regularly meets with the heads of Student Life, Marbeck Center, and, sometimes, President Jane Wood to discuss “what is happening in the Commons, good or bad, and together [they] they come up with a solution.”
The main thing that I took away from my conversation with Stewart was that students speaking up and making their concerns and voices heard is what has caused positive change and awareness to be brought to campus dining.
As the students who make up this university, we have the right and the duty to hold the institution accountable and to speak up for the things we want, and for the things that we believe will make the university as a whole better. While all suggestions may not be taken, they will at least all be heard which is the first step in meaningful change.
When students engage in the tough, uncomfortable but honest conversations about what the university can improve on to make the lives of students more enjoyable during their time here, the university is able to open itself up to the opportunity of meaningful change and innovation which can only happen when students engage in intentional and direct dialogue about where change is needed.
I encourage students to keep speaking up for the changes they want to see in their universities, to keep expressing their concerns and complaints on social media and to continue to hold the institutions where they invest their time and money accountable. Students deserve a say in their universities, and it is the responsibility of the university to keep that dialogue open and honest for the betterment of the university as a whole.
— Claire Myree is a senior convergent journalist majoring in communication and English
