To escape the rising maintenance costs and provide food students want, the college is working to change four cafeterias to Subway restaurants, the board of trustees was told.
TCC is negotiating a contract with Subway to operate in the NE, NW, South and SE cafeterias.
Mark McClendon, vice chancellor of finance, estimated the college paid $12,000 more in equipment repair in the campuses’ kitchens than it received in revenue from the current food services provider, ECI Catering.
TCC will have less maintenance costs because Subway will maintain its own refrigerators and other equipment, McClendon said. He forecast a possible 10 percent increase in food sales, generating a possible $78,000 of revenue for the college.
However, two NE Campus student body members told the board NE students want more than just Subway.
“We are all excited about the Subway, but we are concerned that we will lose our variety and choice we have with ECI and wanted to know if there is a way we can have both,” said Peter Salas, NE Campus student body president. “We really would like to have, even if it is not ECI, just an additional choice.”
But the campuses cannot support multiple food providers, McClendon said.
“It is not economically feasible on our campuses to have two franchises,” McClendon said. “There is not enough volume. We know that, and they know their business.”
Subway does not have hamburgers, but it provides more than just a sandwich menu, said Heather Stanley, director of operations for Subway’s development corporation. They offer a breakfast menu, including breakfast sandwiches and biscuits and gravy.
“We also offer pizza,” Stanley said. “We will be bringing in various snack items and trying them out for the students. We have soups. We have salads. We will be bringing in stuff like hot dogs, pretzels, so we will be looking to add more items as we go along.”
Once the contract is signed, Subway is scheduled to begin construction at the end of the spring semester. NE Campus’ kitchen should reopen in June, South and SE campuses will open in July and NW Campus in August. Subway will provide food services over the summer as well.
In a survey completed last fall, students indicated they wanted more healthy choices and better pricing, Kimberly Lambert-Thomas, director of business services and business affairs, told the board.
The college looked at both franchises and food service contractors. One food service contractor was not interested in operating at TCC. The other, Aramark, didn’t match TCC’s approach because it wanted to mandate a meal plan for all students, she said.
Of the franchises the college considered, she said the college chose Subway because the sandwich franchise did not require startup capital.
A food service contractor similar to ECI will continue to operate on TR Campus, Lambert-Thomas said. The college is currently looking at bids.