A year after losing their cafeteria supplier, Bronx Community College and Hostos Community College students, faculty and staff still don’t have a place to get hot food on campus.
The two City University of New York schools have both been without on-campus dining since the fall 2023 semester after food vendor A La Carte Menu Services abruptly ended its services just one year into a five-year contract, citing low sales and an inability to operate at a huge deficit.
Both campuses have struggled to consistently establish on-campus dining service since the pandemic began in 2020, when they were both forced to shut down their cafeteria service until finally establishing a contract with A La Carte Menu Services.
“A La Carte Menu left BCC and Hostos in September 2023,” CUNY spokesperson Noah Gardy told THE CITY in response to a question asking when was the last time each campus had in-house dining service. “CUNY continues to provide students with a variety of food choices ranging from full-service dining [at other schools] to grab and go stations. As a predominantly commuter system students also enjoy access to off-campus dining options.”
According to the University, a replacement plan is simmering.
On April 5, CUNY posted a request for proposals looking for a food vendor to provide on-campus dining services at BCC, Hostos and LaGuardia Community College in Queens. The vendor is expected “to provide the College community with a full range of fresh, nutritious, affordable, and tasty food and beverages through the management and operation of dining rooms, cafeterias, catering services, and related activities.”
CUNY’s projected date to select a contractor was July 25, according to the RFP. It’s unclear if a firm has been picked.
Gardy would only say that “Hostos, LaGuardia and BCC are working on a collective RFP for Cafeteria Food Operations.”
‘Everything Was Good’
When Hostos did offer cafeteria service, student Sulenny Dominguez, 24, recalled paying about $7 for a plate of rice and beans, chicken and salad.
“Everything was good. They were giving good food, breakfast and everything,” Dominguez told THE CITY. “Honestly, it was going pretty well … it would be nice to have it open again [and] not having to come outside with the weather and food is expensive.”
Off the Hostos campus, which sits on a bustling section of the Grand Concourse in the South Bronx, students can purchase food from a halal food truck, bodegas, a pizza shop and various fast-food restaurants, including a newly opened Chipotle.
At BCC, which is in the quieter University Heights neighborhood, students can visit a bodega across the street from the campus and the occasional food truck, along with pizza and other fast food options a few blocks away.
Students operating on an empty stomach or without healthy food options are more likely to struggle in the classroom according to a 2022 study by the university It found that two of every five CUNY students are food insecure.
CUNY has sought to fill in the food-service gap with vending machines offering healthy food items, including salads, pasta bowls and chia seed pudding.
“BCC and Hostos have introduced the Farmer’s Fridge, a popular provider of fresh ready-to-eat meals at the airport and in offices, as an alternative while the campuses develop an RFP for dining services,” said Gardy.
“I do buy from the vending machine because, I’m not gonna lie, the food is fresh,” Dominguez told THE CITY, noting she normally gets a $10 caesar salad.
Tahj Evans, a 25-year-old student at Bronx Community College studying recreational therapy, says that he often brings his own meals to eat in the unstaffed cafeteria.
“Every day that I’ve been here, eating there, I haven’t seen it open,” he told THE CITY, referring to the lack of on-campus dining service.
When Evans doesn’t bring food from home, he said, he goes outside to “get a sandwich and pizza, maybe, if I got time.”
He counts “salami and pepper jack cheese” among his go-to sandwiches.
“I’m a spicy type of guy.”
THE CITY partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
