St. Clair College students will have a variety of new food options to choose from, no matter which campus they happen to be studying at.
Opening on South campus this week are six new dining choices including Booster Juice, Subway, Capri Pizzeria, a Mini Hamoudi's Shawarma and Bamboo & Blossom. The College also added a second Tim Hortons located in the Student Life Center and expanded the square footage of their original Tim's kiosk to alleviate long lines and wait times seen in previous years.
Manager of the Student Representative Council Ryan Peebles said the expansion of the food services on south campus was a much-needed adjustment to fit the needs of a large, diverse student population.
"We were always hearing how students wanted more options, so we put in a lot of effort to expand those options," said Peebles. "We built a second Tim Hortons location because the lineups on main campus were too long. Why not expand to a second location and fill that need?"
Peebles explained how St. Clair graphic design students were instrumental in every step of designing the layout of the new Bamboo & Blossom kiosk, which can be flipped at any time in order to reflect the needs of the students.
"It gives us the ability to adjust to what our students need," said Peebles. "By us owning and operating the businesses ourselves, we can flip it based on our student's needs and maintain and monitor it so we can serve our students and adjust our services accordingly."
With the recent addition of 333 Riverside Drive, St. Clair's Downtown Windsor campus now boasts nearly 3,000 students in four separate buildings. Director of the St. Clair Centre of the Arts Joe D'Angela says the College has added a quick-service food kiosk and expanded its menu to give students a lot more to offer.
"We have completely revamped the kiosk and menu offerings at our downtown campus," D'Angela said. "We are offering fresh gourmet panini sandwiches. Every day, Monday through Friday, we will have a 'Feature of the Day' with dishes like chicken stir-fry, hand-tossed chicken tenders with fries and homemade fish n' chips. We also have some Indian dishes which will be featured. We will also offer a 'Soup of the Day' and a ‘Pasta of the day'."
At St. Clair Chatham Campus, students can enjoy a pub-style menu with a few healthy flares while having to ability to skip lines and wait times by ordering their meals online.
Stephanie Woodall was President of Thames Students Inc. when the HealthPlex opened nine years ago and now leads the food service department for St. Clair in Chatham. Woodall says the menu at the Bean & Barley restaurant on campus has changed to reflect the community of 1,200 students and staff their campus supports.
"We have added quite a large amount of vegan and vegetarian options. We have also tried to find the right price point," Woodall said. "We also added an online ordering option so students can pre-order their food called, "Chow Now", and it is embedded into our website. It's a great option for students because you can go online in the morning and order your food to line up with your breaks, so you can have a fresh-made meal at the time you want it."
Click the link for access to online ordering in Chatham, Bean & Barley Online Ordering (chownow.com).