New PFS hours get good results from students
To be more accommodating to students, Polk Food Services extended the hours of The Perk and Street’s Corner to remain open until midnight, Sunday through Thursday.
“The answer is yes. What’s the question?” is the motto of Director of PFS Ted Polk. Polk’s focus on service is part of the reason that PFS extended their hours.
“It [the extended hours] is more for the students. They asked for it, and we’re glad to try and help,” Polk said. “It was one of the things that came up in studies of how to help the student body, and President Manuel was all in favor of this.”
According to Food Court and Perk Manager Lisa Jordan, the extended hours definitely have caught on among students.
“They are getting busier and busier, especially as finals come on. People are staying up later and later to, you know, meet with friends. So this is a good place for it,” Jordan said.
Students take advantage of the newly extended hours at Street’s Corner. Photos by Chidinma Naze
Polk said that the need for extended hours has been demonstrated by the rushes that occur during times when the locations used to be closed. The current closing hours see about 150 students on average each night. The rushes, according to Polk, are due mostly to how convenient it is for students to come late at night.
“They wanted to have somewhere to go late at night, without leaving campus, to be able to get a sandwich or cup of coffee or something,” Polk said. “Midnight isn’t late for students, and they wanted to be able to get something to eat and use their meal cards instead of using cash somewhere.”
Freshman biology major Nick Beyer said that the extended hours have been helpful to him and other students.
“Many students have busy schedules and different schedules, and the extended hours cater to everyone’s needs throughout the week,” Beyer said.
According to Jordan, the extended hours have not presented many staffing or stocking difficulties, and she is happy to see the extended hours help students.
“A lot of them [students] have such crazy schedules throughout the day. And now at the end of the day, they have somewhere where they can chill, come over here and get something to eat,” she said.
According to Jordan, PFS does have to order more food and schedule more people, but the transition has been, for the most part, a smooth one. The only exception has been trying to find people to cover for someone who calls in sick.
In the future, Polk plans to continue to make PFS even more student accessible by having discussions through the summer about what they can do better.
Beyer would like to see more hours, as well as dining options, on the weekends.
“They can definitely be open more on the weekends,” Beyer said. “And I’d like to see them try to make food that I really want to eat at that time. Sometimes I feel like they are not putting in that much effort on the weekends.”
Jordan and her staff also have ideas for how they would like to see improvement. Like Polk, Jordan plans to continue trying to serve students better.
“I am going to talk to him [Polk], and see if we can get more things in The Perk during the extended hours,” Jordan said. “Personally, I think peanut butter and jelly would be a nice thing to grab. A lot of times we’re out of the muffins and the bagels by that time of night. So we’re trying to find some things to present to him so that we have a few more options for that specific time.”
