Two new food trucks are now serving up meals at Nassau Community College, as campus leadership works to line up a new food services provider after the recent closure of the college’s dining facilities.
On Monday, The Big Cheese food truck rolled onto campus, featuring halal items, while The No Good Burger food truck kicked off service last week. The trucks and other new offerings were brought in to provide food to NCC’s 11,000-plus students as well as faculty and staff.
The food truck arrivals follow the abrupt shuttering of services by Compass Group. The food services provider had cancelled its contract with NCC, claiming its financial agreement was “no longer financially feasible,” as stated in a March 12 agenda item of a finance committee meeting, according to published reports.
The college is looking for new options which Jerry Kornbluth, vice president for community and government relations at NCC, described as a “process.” In the interim, it has lined up food trucks as well as a campus grab-and-go option with sandwiches, yogurt, cheese and microwavable soups for the community. There are also gift cards from the college’s foundation, pizza days, bagels and more.
But Faren Siminoff, president of the Nassau Community College Federation of Teachers, pointed to the initial vending machines that were brought in when Compass Group left, and added that the additional options aren’t enough.
“The college knew, well in advance, this food desert was coming but had no plan in place to provide a seamless transition that would ensure our students nutritious options,” she told LIBN.
“Instead, they put out an ‘in the middle of the night’ email announcing there was no food service on campus and directed the students and staff to half-empty, junk-filled vending machines,” she added
“They only began to respond and look for options after the students rallied to protest the administration’s cavalier response," Siminoff said. "The fact that all we have are two food trucks and some other items at the bookstore for some 11,000 students is a testament to their continued mismanagement and disregard for ours students’ health and welfare.”
Kornbluth said the college had been in talks with Compass, with two years remaining on this contract. The new contract under discussion, he said, “would have cost the college over $2 million.” NCC had asked the company “to at least complete the semester,” but that didn’t happen.
It can be economically difficult for food service providers at commuter schools, especially where enrollments are down.
Kornbluth said that after the pandemic and also in the years before, there had been some drop in enrollment.
While enrollment was high in 2008 25,000 students, Kornbluth said enrollment is now at about 12,000, including through its certificate programs and seasonal enrollment programs with high schools.
A pattern of diminished enrollments has been seen across the country, according to reports. Enrollments peaked during the 2008 financial crisis, when more than 1 million students who lost jobs went to community colleges, according to the Community College Research Center, which is part of Teachers College at Columbia University. Over the next 10 years, enrollments continued to dip, and COIVD-19 further exacerbated the decline.
But enrollments are starting to grow across the country. This is true at NCC, Kornbluth said.
Kornbluth said finding a new food service provider is process, requiring issuing a request for proposals, evaluating bids, making a decision and getting county feedback. He expected that the decision process will take place in July.
Meanwhile, Kornbluth said, “more food trucks want to come to our campus. We don’t want to overdo it. We want to make sure that people make a profit.”
Summertime, he said, will have fewer people on campus, and that will “make things a little easier.”
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