Cafeteria Cuts to Balance Budget

Oklahoma Christian University’s cafeteria is not immune to the budget balancing on campus. Increased theft and decreasing student numbers caused UDining to make changes in their budget.

The most visible change students have seen in The Branch is the absence of styrofoam cups and lids for taking drinks to-go. 

“We were spending an average of $1,600 a week on cups. Students had talked with us about sustainability, and we were losing more money with how many pieces of orange chicken that can get in those cups and walk out,” Kurt Hermanson, Owner and Operator of UDining, said. “Literally anything you can imagine was going in those cups. Between the cost of the cups and the cost of the food that was walking out with the cups, it was pretty substantial.” 

As the student handbook states, “Drinks, a piece of fruit, ICEE’s and ice cream may be taken out” of the cafeteria. This rule still stands in the absence of disposable cups. 

“We encourage people to bring their own cups. It’s better for everybody,” Hermanson said. “We are looking into providing cups at the beginning of next semester. To-go type cups for each of the students. We’re still debating whether we can do that or not. But then they could have something to bring in every time.” 

UDining has one meal station closed per day to offset costs. 

“When we opened The Branch, we had 1,650 students on meal plans. We designed The Branch for that many people. Right now we’re at about 1,056 students so we’re 600 students less than what we were four years ago,” Hermanson said, “And when you get to that low of a number, we have to have a certain revenue stream to be able to open all the lines. And so rather than closing one full time, at lunch, we’re rotating that one that we close every day.” 

Dish theft runs rampant on campus and creates extra expenses.

“One of our biggest costs is having to buy $15,000 to $20,000 worth of bowls, coffee cups and silverware because students take those items out of the caf, and we don’t get them back,” Hermanson said. 

The caf has made efforts to recover the dishes, but there is still a substantial amount that never returns. 

“We’re actually saving boxes right now to put in the dorms and the apartments next week to ask for some of them back. We hope that most of them don’t go in the trash cans,” Hermanson said. “The first time we did it, we had a milk crate half full of just spoons. There were probably 2000 spoons in that crate. It was heavy.” 

Hermanson is optimistic about the future of Oklahoma Christian. 

“We’re excited because we really feel like we’re going to start slowly, incrementally getting more and more students with a new admissions team on campus,” Hermanson said. “Then none of these things we’re talking about will be an issue. Other than the people who scan other people’s cards and steal dishes.”