Fullerton College cafeteria began operating under extended hours last week to serve evening and night students. The cafeteria is now open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the remainder of the fall semester as part of a trial to measure student demand.
“We had talked to Associated Students and some faculty with concerns, who mentioned evening students are still in need of food solutions,” said Henry Hua, vice president of administrative services.
The college plans on watching foot traffic throughout the semester to determine whether the extended hours will continue in the future.
“It’s absolutely something we’ve been wanting to do and have tried on and off,” said Hua.
“We’re always trying to make sure there’s student demand, and when we’ve done extended hours, we haven’t had a lot of usage.”
To raise awareness, the campus has published flyers, sent emails to evening students and encouraged faculty and staff to help spread the word. As of right now, “word of mouth” is something the college is heavily relying on. The school has also made posts on social media, such as Instagram reels, to get the word out.
In addition to extended hours, the cafeteria is also accepting EBT as a form of payment.
“We want to meet students where they’re at,” said Hua. “If they have EBT or maybe need EBT services and don’t know about it, we want to help them get it. And if they have it, they can use it to obtain food.”
Evening students can expect similar meals to daytime students during extended hours, such as pizza, deli and grab-and-go items.
The cafeteria is run through a third-party vendor, Sodexo. Staff scheduling and costs have been adjusted through negotiations with Sodexo and will continue depending on student demand.
Hua mentions the Learning-Aligned Employment Program as a previous consideration to help staff the cafeteria with students during extended hours. State budget cuts cancelled LAEP in spring 2024.
“We’ve done this a couple years before,” said Hua. “Unfortunately, between the time of 5 to 8, we had like three students. It makes it very hard for us to justify opening those types of extended hours.”
This fall, Fullerton College is offering 234 classes after 4 p.m. to accommodate evening students, according to the North Orange County Community College District’s searchable class schedule.
“It’s a basic need,” said Hua. “As a campus, we’re very keen on trying to make sure we meet the basic needs of our students, and this is one of the commitments we’re trying to do this year.”
