Juan Cebreiros

Two LMC students decide on the different food choices that are placed in front of them.

For the first time since the pandemic, the Los Medanos College Pittsburg campus has an open cafeteria to serve its students. 

Vice President of Business and Administrative Services Carlos Montoya said a deal was finalized in July to welcome Fresh & Natural Food Service Group as the vendor for the cafeteria located in the Student Union. 

Sep. 1 was the target date for the cafeteria to open after some minor repairs were made by the vendors such as sorting ethernet cords and having a composting system organized according to Montoya.

The cafeteria’s first day operating was Monday, Aug. 28 serving breakfast and lunch to the students at the Pittsburgh campus. Through the first few days of operation the menu consisted of breakfast sandwiches, bagels and pastries for breakfast while for the afternoon the menu shifts to sandwiches, hamburgers and burritos.

Montoya said, “The menu is dynamic meaning it will rotate and change.” He added, “The initial menu is to get a combination of things identified like student demand and getting the food ready in a timely manner.”

Montoya also mentioned how the goal is to have the food being offered at the cafeteria to offer healthy food while also being relevant and available for everyone to eat. 

“We do want to make sure that each and every day we have health conscious food, such as those with dietary restriction, vegan or religious belief,” said Montoya, he also mentioned, “We want to make sure the vendor is going to be responsive to our student needs.”

The Fresh & Natural Food Service Group is a third party vendor and according to Montoya the decisions of what goes on the menu is made by the vendor. 

“We’ve outlined that we want to make sure that we have healthy options, but we don’t restrict what’s on the menu,” Montoya said. 

Even with the cafeteria now open, Montoya said the college renewed its contract with the food trucks that served food to students the past two semesters. They will continue to be in the front of the school one to two days a week but he mentioned it’s possible for the trucks to come on even more days just to continue to offer another food option for students that are on campus. 

Pricing of the cafeteria food is cheaper compared to food trucks with no item at the cafeteria costing more than $10. 

Manager of the group that now occupies the cafeteria, Suzi, said their first few days of being open have had both busy parts and slow parts. 

“It’s up and down but the 12:30pm lunch rush is our busiest time of the day,” she said. 

Both her and Montoya anticipate the cafeteria will see an increase in customers as time progresses due to the announcement of the cafeteria being opened not going out to students until 2:30 p.m on Monday Aug. 28. 

While the majority of students and staff are happy to have a functioning cafeteria back to the campus, many found it odd that the cafeteria serves hamburgers, but not french fries. Workers and manager Suzi have said fries are not sold due to health concerns from the school but Montoya said because they are a third party vendor who has the final say on their menu.

With the college making strides back to how it ran before the pandemic, both Montoya and Suzi don’t have concerns for the cafeteria keeping up to the demand of the amount of students back on campus for the 2023-24 school year.