Construction continues on the new Student Union Building at Los Medanos College. While the bookstore and second floor — that houses the new Honors Center, Umoja, Student Life and others, have been open to the public but the rest of the building is still being finished. 

The remaining work revolves around the new cafeteria, a student activity and lounge area, and one of the largest conference rooms in Contra Costa County. 

The cafeteria will have a similar setup to the previous one. There will be two monitors that show off the menu, and it is covered by a glass accordion door with the LMC logo on it. LMC will send out a Request For Proposal to seek interest from local businesses, related to food, that would like to be involved with the new cafeteria.

Currently, Fresh and Natural Foods handles all of the business in the cafeteria. According to their website, Fresh and Natural Foods is an “independent, locally-owned organic and natural full-service grocer wholly committed to providing healthy food choices, quality personal care items and knowledgeable customer service.”

Down the hall from the cafeteria will be the new student lounge, which will have a max occupancy of 82 persons. There will be a couple of televisions and plenty of comfortable chairs. It will also include a pool table, foosball table, and a ping pong table for the students to enjoy. 

“The idea is if you keep students on campus longer they graduate quicker,” said contractor Kevin Little. 

The new conference center will be able to hold approximately 450-470 people. The center will be one large area that has the capability to be separated into three different areas. The room has multiple projectors and screens, in which LMC hopes to create a system that can use all three areas simultaneously. 

“The difficulty with an advanced system is that our goal is to manage that as both one system as well as three independent systems,” said Vice President of Business & Administrative Services Carlos Montoya. 

Connected to the conference center is a kitchen meant for catering during events held in the new center. Along with multiple vending machines around the building, there will be no shortage of food here.

There is no set date yet for when the building will be opened to the public but 

“It looks like it’ll be ready here pretty soon,” said Montoya.

In regards to what will replace the now vacant Bookstore and Honors Center, LMC still isn’t sure as to what will go there. They also are not sure what will replace the current cafeteria once that is moved to the new Student Union Building.