Union Market | Photo by Jessica Fugett | The Wright State Guardian
With several locations on campus that offer meal choices, have you ever wondered how these options are chosen for the Wright State community?
The food options available at Wright State currently include Pizza Hut, Rey Rey Café, Raider Mart, Espresso Lane, Starbucks, The Den, Tim Hortons, Union Market and The Hangar.
They are provided by a company the university has a contract with known as Chartwells.
Who is Chartwells?
Chartwells is part of the Compass group which is a worldwide food service provider.
They serve not only Wright State but over 280 college campuses across the country, according to Nicholas Paige, marketing director of Chartwells, and Nichola Interiano, director of operations at Chartwells.
“These options are supported by student surveys, Onsight Insight Focus Groups and market trends. Chartwells has partnerships and relationships with National and Regional brands and a portfolio of internal brands that provides the best fit for the Wright State community,” said Paige.
There are currently no plans to change any of the food options on campus, although menus and brands are always being observed to ensure student, staff and faculty satisfaction. Menus are changed and new meal options are offered monthly, according to Paige and Interiano.
Raider feedback option
Students can provide feedback about food options via the Dine On Campus webpage, the Dine on Campus App, Text to Solve at (937) 262-4104, Foodie Feedback or by attending Dining Advisory Committee meetings.
“Our Raider Breakfast platter is an example of an item added from a recommendation from the athletics department. The Beyond Burger, Baked Potato Bar and Breakfast Burrito at Sono are all menu items that were suggested from students,” said Paige.
What do Raiders want to see?
“[The food options] are good. I certainly don’t have any complaints about it. The only thing is, I wish they’d add the drinking fountains where you can fill water bottles easily and if they could get a Chick-fil-A, that would be pretty awesome,” said Noah Lowe, Wright State student.
Some students are disappointed in the quality.
“I think the food in The Hangar has gone down in quality. The Den stands out most in my mind, very greasy. The Union is higher quality but tends to be much slower during the preparation and checkout process,” said Justin Aldridge, junior at Wright State.
“I don’t think the options are too bad. I talked to a girl who went to Heidelberg and she said their food options were like school lunch. You had one hot food option, salad bar or a lunch meat sandwich,” said Breanna Poorman, sophomore at WSU.
The Den is one of the more popular options.
“Honestly, The Den is the best food so the line’s always super long, if we could get other places with as many choices as them, we could make their line shorter,” said Jedd Rismiller, freshman at Wright State.
Rismiller thinks that the addition of a Panda Express could be beneficial to students.
