We love the DC too…
May 25th, 2010
About three weeks ago, we ran a “I Love the DC” essay contest at UMass. We asked our students on the meal plan to tell us some of the reasons why they loved the DCs, in 200 words or less. When you serve over 40,000 meals daily, we often hear that our customers really enjoy our food and service, and some of them even brag about it. The objective of the contest was to find out what our students really think about us. We also expected some not-so-positive comments because sometimes you just can’t please everyone! Our goal was to hear from customers and see how we can better serve them in the future (if there were any negative remarks). This year there were 14,000 some students on the meal plan, with over 2000 being seniors; they dined with us for the past four years, they are very loyal and some of them have turned into what you call “foodies”. We did not know what to expect with our request, but we wanted to hear from them anyway.
We received about 60 entries for the essay contest in two weeks; this was wonderful. There were many excellent essays and we were humbled by reading some of the positive experiences at UMass Dining. The judges had a difficult time in making the winning decision. The criteria for being winner was based on originality, content, organization and eligibility. We ended up with first, second and third place winners, plus four honorable mentions.
Many of the contestants mentioned about how the DCs helped to build a sense of community, to provide their second ‘home away from home’, and to create memorable UMass experiences, not to mention the good food and the variety of options to eat. It was nice to know, but made me feel kind of sad, when the seniors expressed how much they are going to miss UMass Dining. During the commencement exercise a few weeks ago on Saturday, when one of the student speakers talked about they how will miss the smiling faces of one of our cashiers at Berkshire DC, the audience cheered with approval.
We intend to post all the entries soon. It was a fun contest to run and the response exceeded my expectations. Thanks for loving the DC too!
This is Ken Toong and thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.
Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu
You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong




