Chartwells conducted a survey Oct. 19, asking the body of Mt. Hood Community College about their thoughts on the food and service.

Chartwells usually has surveys done during the fall and spring term at the facilities they work for. The survey is taken nationally, and they base what to change off the results.

The survey asks questions about the food services and whether Chartwells is meeting the standards of the customers. The rating system is from poor to excellent. It touches upon how clean the environment of the serving and dining area is, the speed of the services, prices and performance levels of employees.

“The surveys help us find out what the needs of the current students are,” said Debbie Moore director of food services.

In the past, Moore has worked with other food companies that have served here on campus like Marriott, Northwest Food Services, Fine Host and Aramark. Those companies would also conduct regular surveys (similar to the one Chartwells is doing) to find out what the customer response is. The survey is a way they can stay attuned to customer needs and trends.

When all the surveys are turned in, Moore would mail them to a company where they would compile the results. Over the years, Moore has used different companies to send the surveys to.

This year Moore is sending the results to Customer Survey Solution.

After a month or two the results come back, and the food service committee would then meet to study and discuss the results. They look at the feedback from the student body and faculty members and see how they can improve and try new things.

The food service committee meets quarterly and is made up of a chairman, two student representatives, and faculty members. Pat Parmenter contract administrator for food services says that most of the results from the survey comes back quite favorably.

From the results of the surveys, Chartwells has come up with many ideas on how to be flexible to student and faculty needs.

One of the things Chartwells is offering is the Outtakes program. It’s a program where the concept is “grab and go” foods.

The purpose of this program is for people who have a short amount of time to eat, and they just go in quickly grab something and be on their way.

The menu consists of sandwiches, soup, salads, pop, coffee, yogurt – anything that people can grab and go.

“On campus, people want grab and go. They don’t have time to sit down and eat a big meal,” Parmenter said.

Chartwells has also thrown two successful barbeques and an Oktoberfest feast. These events were hosted to attract the people out in the Main Mall area and classrooms in the northern area of campus.

“The main reason that I want get out there is because I know we’re missing a lot of the students that are in the 1500 – 1600 area. There isn’t really any hot food down there.

“A lot of students come in for their class and go to their class and leave. They really aren’t aware that food services are down here,” kitchen manager Jeremy Wilebski said. “[We’re] just trying give awareness that we are here.”

Wilebski is planning about setting up a taco cart down or some type of cart, like the barbeque. Something that is a little bit more permanent and it would be open on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

“It’s kind of in the works, it’s really just talk right now,” Wilebski said.

It’s something where Wilebski has to figure out the cost for it, how many hits per day to keep the cart going, the budget they would get from it and it’s up to Partmenter on whether its something the school would provide for.