nThis report has been prepared in order to depict the present condition of the cafeteria of Kinnaird College for Women as well as some obligatory suggestions for the changes that are applicable. The condition of the cafeteria is although satisfactory and just enough to meet the demands of the people visiting it, it is somewhat a serious problem throughout college and in a past few months everyone has been taking concern about lifting its quality. The quality of cafeteria is degrading day by day that everyone has a concern about it. The enhancements in the basic sanitation, hygiene, quality food and customer’s service are the most important problems that concern everyone. Therefore, the changes in these features would mutually benefit the daily customers and cafeteria management itself. The improved quality may however slightly raise the price of the cafeteria items but improved cafeteria system is the priority rather than its slight increase in cost
A cafeteria is a type of food service location within an institution that serves as a place for students’ healthy food intake in the institute. It is one of the substantial bodies of an institution and it becomes particularly important in case of education institution. This body not only serves as a place to provide foods for lunch or dinner but also a body to take care of students’ health. This is a place where everything must be in perfect condition from food, serving plates to service and hygiene. The mismanagement in any of the above aspects might cause an adverse effect on the health of entire students, staffs and the whole college.
Procedure:
The report has been prepared by distributing questionnaire about the college cafeteria among students of the college. The questionnaires was generated on google docs and consisted 10 questions. They were filled by 35-40 students. Their responses were collected and statistical analysis of the data was made to conclude the results. In this report the present condition of cafeteria has been depicted, working measures and a new proposal of cafeteria system to surpass the existing condition are provided. The advantages and disadvantages of projected system of cafeteria, furniture, etc. are well analyzed. In this report the current problems are deliberated thoroughly; the students’ view about the cafeteria and their opinion about it. The necessary topics to improve the present condition of cafeteria to make it improved system are discussed. The problems like detail menu system, increased cafeteria facilities, infrastructures, hygiene and a good management etc. are sorted out.
OBSERVATIONS
Consumption of cafeteria food
At a university level, students prefer cafeteria food. Another factor besides preference is their schedule suitability to buy the food and the pocket money a student gets. Many factors contribute to that. The question asked was: How often do you eat the cafeteria food?
People responded differently and their results were recorded and are shown below:
The results are different. 35.7% of the students eats 3 or more times in a week while there was nobody who ever eats from food. Thus, many students are dependent over the cafeteria food items.
Types of food
There are two aspects to type of food.
I. Category of food
The cafeteria of Kinnaird college has a menu that serves different types of food. However, we see that mostly students eat the same food almost everyday which may vary from person to person. Although, options ranging from pasta to biryani to samosa are available, one student consuming French fries one day will be buying the same article next day.
The question asked was What type of foods do you mostly eat at the cafeteria?
Students responded in the following way:
According to this, French fries and samosa are highly demanded, almost by 35.7% of students, followed by shawarmas, biryani, chips and juices. However, the chart is well distributed showing that preference of food depends from person to person.
II. Healthy or unhealthy food
As the menu display variety to some extent, quality of food in respect to its nutrients vary too. This also includes the ingredients and the hygiene of the food product. The question asked was In general how healthy do you think the food is?
People responded this way:
This shows that most students believe that the food is unhealthy. This might be due to more consumption of fried items. Only 7.1% of the students answered it as healthy which proves that people do question the standard of the food they are being given.
Food Option
Despite the presence of different items on the menu, the options will remain questionable. As we see in our cafeteria people do get bored of the menu because it stays the same throughout the year. After enjoying something for a week or more, students look for something different to eat. This attracts them to fast food nearby like subway, kfc etc.
The question that was asked in the questionnaire was:
Are there enough food options?
The results are shown below:
78.6% of the students believe that food options are not enough representing that more than half of the college is displeased with menu and more food items daily to be present I the caf”.
Taste
Taste is the greatest factor that affects the selling of the product. Better the taste, more people are convinced to buy it. As we see in this cafeteria, the taste varies according to the food product. Some are delicious, while others are average are simply not good at tase. Another question in the questionnaire was :
How to describe the taste of the cafeteria food?
Its answer is displayed below:
The result is very clear. Nobody find the food delicious. 71.4% responded it as average. While some claimed it to be bad as well. Clearly, more concentration should be provided to the taste to have happy customers.
Timings
Timings depend on the schedule of every other student. But the main concern is that do they have enough time between their classes to buy and eat food, is the service quick enough to get the food quickly between classes. College gives 12;30 to 1, hour an hour break but that create so much crowd and long lines of people that many students return without food, and others reach their class late. The question asked was: Do you feel you have enough time to buy and eat your lunch?
They responded this way:
Half of the students think that the time is not enough to buy food between classes, others responded differently. However we can conclude that the break should be extended and service should be quicker with proper management in the caf”.
Staff service
Staff is an integral part of the cafeteria. They do not only prepare the meals but also manages the system properly and smoothly. It is very important to have an efficient, honest and quick staff to manage the cafeteria well. The question asked was:
Please rate the staff service
Students responded in the following way:
More than half of the students believes that the staff is average so there is some room of improvement. 35.7% of the students are not satisfied by the management of the staff and only7.1%of the students think that the staff is well managed.
This result represents that work is needed to be done to improve the staff service by training them or hiring more staff for an efficient system.
Price of Food
According to the survey in which we asked the students that whether they think the cost of the food at cafeteria is expensive, average or cheap. 57.1% of the students responded that it is expensive while 42.9% said average, also when we asked the students about what improvements would they like to see in the cafeteria most of them said that they would be happy if the food was cheaper. This shows that most of the students are not satisfied with the price of food and believe that it is overpriced.
Down below is a table in which the recent prices of some of the major food items available in the college cafe are present:
Food Item Price
Biryani Rs.120
Pasta Rs.130
Burger Rs.70
Pizza slice Rs.55
Shawarma Rs.100
Chicken sandwich Rs.100
Fries Rs.60
Seating Arrangement:
The college cafeteria is located on one of the extreme corners of the campus, both outside and inside seating arrangement is present. The outdoor caf” consists of around 20 tables with 4 to 5 seats around each one of them while the indoor caf” has about 25 to 30 tables with 4 seats around each table. During the peak rush hours e.g. break time almost all of these tables are taken while some of the students sit on the floor of the cafeteria in groups and outside in the corridors and on the grass. In response to the question we asked in our survey that whether the students are satisfied with the space and seating arrangement of the cafeteria 76.9% of them said No, 15.4% said Yes while 7.7% said Maybe. This shows that majority of the students are not satisfied with the space and seating arrangement. Students think that more space should be added in the cafeteria and more seating arrangements should be made so everyone can fit in during the ruch hours.
Conclusion
To conclude this report we can say that most the students are not happy with the condition of the cafeteria and want to make changes in the menu, prices and seating arrangements. The college committee should take a look at this issue because majority of the students are not satisfied with the food and need more variety with healthier choices. The cafeteria requires a new meal plan which will provide good quality food that provides all the nutrients and are made hygienically in a clean environment.
Recommendations
Some of the recommendations for the Cafeteria of Kinnaird College are:
‘ Add variety in the food items so the students have more food choices and they do not get bored by eating the same food everyday
‘ A proper meal plan should be made for every age of students according to their nutritional needs with calculated calorie content
‘ The environment of the cafeteria should be made more comfortable so the students can enjoy their food
‘ The prices if the food items should be reduced as college students have to manage buying food from their pocket money.
here…