Western students are no longer able to order food from the Underground Coffeehouse throughout the day.
The Underground now serves made-to-order sandwiches between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. instead of all day, like it did last quarter.
Western senior Bradley Humphrey has been working as a barista at the Underground for almost four years. He said he gets at least three people asking for food during each of his shifts.
“We have to turn down people for food,” he said. “They come down for dinner or maybe a late lunch and we have to send them elsewhere.”
The Underground also no longer makes food during the events it hosts at night, said Kim Masser, supervisor at the Underground. But it still has premade grab-and-go food to buy during those times.
Stephen Wadsworth, the resident district manager of dining services, said sale reports from last quarter show there weren’t significant increases in food sales on nights that had events.
He said Aramark is open to working with student groups holding events on a case-by-case basis, adding that beverages and the grab-and-go food are already available on those nights.
The changes took place at the start of the quarter to allow time for employees to find hours at other dining locations on campus, Wadsworth said in an email.
Humphrey said Aramark didn’t offer help in finding hours at other locations.
“I agree that they might have given us time in it,” he said. “But as far as getting hours elsewhere, that was all of our own accord.”
Masser has noticed a change in the number of people coming to the Underground after the new hours started.
People used to buy sandwiches shortly after the Underground opened each day, she said; now people aren’t coming as much.
Sandwiches were being offered in multiple places in the Viking Union, such as the Underground, the Market Café, Subway and Burger Studio, Wadsworth said.
After the dining hall and Viking Union close, people have limited choices of food on campus, Masser said.
Zoe’s Bookside Bagels is open until 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and the dining halls are open Monday through Thursday for Late Night between 9 and 10 p.m. or 10:30 and 11:30 p.m.
Masser said she feels like students are going to other places on campus because of the limited times food can be ordered at the Underground.
At the start of the quarter, she said students complained about the change in hours, but as the quarter went on the complaints started to fade away.
“We have received about 15 comment cards from students that would like to have the service hours for made-to-order food re- instated,” Wadsworth wrote in an email.
Humphrey said he gets two comment cards each shift about customers not being able to order food. He also gets angry reactions from customers when they are told they cannot order food.
“Often they’re told they can’t have food and they never come back,” he said.
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