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City Cafe cooks up new deals
City Café is serving new meal combinations this semester in order to save students money. Randy Briggs
Sophia Lopez | Staff Writer
lopezs8@imail.losrios.edu
A bill passed by the House of Representatives on Sept. 17 aims to make attending college more convenient, affordable and effective by increasing Pell Grants, simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and making many other changes.
The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (H.R. 3221) will help America meet a goal set by President Obama to have the highest percentage of college graduates in the world by 2020.
SAFRA will increase the maximum annual Pell Grant award to $5,550 in 2010 and increase funding with inflation, according to the Committee on Education and Labor. The Pell Grant is a need-based scholarship awarded by the government for college students.
City College student Violet Garcia didn’t think the increase was enough.
“You’re failing to support the people who really need the support,” Garcia said, explaining that while the maximum Pell Grant amount may be sufficient for some, for the people who need it most it isn’t enough.
The bill also simplifies the FAFSA form by significantly reducing the number of questions, according to the Committee on Education and Labor.
City College student Cynthia Daniel approved of this idea.
“I have friends that ask me for advice on … what to do in the FAFSA, and sometimes I can help them, but there’s a lot of people that fall in between the cracks—like if they didn’t do something right, and they don’t have someone to explain it to them, it can be really difficult,” she said.
The bill would save about $10 billion, according to Mara Lee of Congresswoman Doris Matsui’s office, by switching to the Direct Loan program, where the government would lend directly to students instead of subsidizing private lenders. Jane Glickman of the U.S. Department of Education said, however, that “the private sector will still be involved in servicing the loans.”
SAFRA will also institute a competitive grant program for community colleges, supporting free online courses and improving pre-kindergarten education.
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the bill Oct. 15.
Camille Anglo | Staff Writer
angloc@imail.losrios.edu
This fall, City Café has unveiled changes in its menu, which include lower prices and meal deals to help benefit students’ wallets.
Aramark is the food service provider for City College. Francis Gleason, the Aramark manager for City Café, says that changes are made through suggestions of their clientele.
“We get customer feedback in a variety of ways: individual’s comments, the DiningStyles surveys we do each semester, and input provided to us via the Food Services Advisory Group,” Gleason said. “We also look to the marketplace to see what the current trends are.”
Robert Martinelli, vice president of Administrative Services for City College and spokesperson for the Food Service Advisory Group, said the survey data of the campus population was part of the information used to determine the menu changes.
“With today’s economy value is important to all of us,” Gleason said. “We certainly expect the changes to positively affect our revenue, only time will tell on the overall impact of the changes.”
Some of the changes at the City Café menu included more choices, like the mozzarella wraps.
“I like how City Café added more vegetarian things,” said Jake Cabrera, a City College student and vegetarian. “Adding on the mozzarella wraps was a good idea. There are more vegetarian items other than salad.”
Gleason said the most dramatic change is the ‘Big Eats Bigger Value’ menus that are implemented with each concept. There are now $2, $3, $4 and $5 options at the deli, pizza, grill and Mexican stations.
“Our customer base has been increasing at City Cafe for the past few years and we expect the changes we’ve made to help continue that growth.”
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Yum! I’ll have to forget my lunch one of these days so I can go check it out …
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I tried out the… hummus something or other?? — some type of wrap. And it was good! I didn’t forget my lunch, either, I just accidently packed chicken that was bad.
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