Good news for hungry students: Los Rios Community College District has partnered with Pacific Dining to bring increased dining opportunities at City College. The earliest addition is scheduled to begin operating later this semester, according to Pacific Dining owner Rick McMahon. 

The first addition will be a cafe serving Starbucks coffee, and later additions are planned to include a deli station serving Subway sandwiches, and eventually a grill with rotating meal options.

Pacific Dining was founded in 1989 in San Jose. The company initially provided corporate dining services for companies in Silicon Valley, until a crash in the tech market led McMahon to shift the focus of the business to the college market, believing it to be more resilient.

The first community college Pacific Dining took on was College of San Mateo, which McMahon had attended before getting his accounting degree at San Francisco State. He also attended culinary school at the University of Houston before performing accounting and consulting work for other corporate dining services. 

The shift in focus seems to have paid off. According to McMahon, Pacific Dining now has “22 of the California community colleges currently under contract, making us the largest company servicing that business segment in California.” He chose this specialty, in part, because of the experiences he had with food services during his time at College of San Mateo. He felt that “there was a lot of opportunity there” and that “the current players at that time weren’t doing a great job.” The company’s services also include catering at dining halls at San Mateo and Skyline College in San Bruno, where it caters private events on the weekends.

Pacific Dining focuses exclusively on California community colleges, and this specialization was part of what helped convince City College staff, including Interim Vice President of Administrative Services Mitch Campbell, to decide on the choice of food service providers. 

In December 2022, Los Rios issued a request for proposals, inviting external food service providers to submit proposals to operate City College’s dining and vending programs. According to Campbell, many other proposals were considered before finally landing on Pacific Dining. The service is also selective about the clients it chooses, having declined requests from other institutions, and McMahon said the company will not take on a new client after Los Rios for at least 18 months.  

City College, along with Cosumnes River College, is currently undergoing kitchen renovations necessary to complete the planned rollout. Renovations in the City Cafe include, per McMahon, “a flooring project.” He noted that “much of the equipment is antiquated. Prior to us coming on board there was a plan to replace that and that’s what’s happening now.” There’s also, he said, “some demo probably going to be happening in the servery area.” These plans must also be approved by the county’s Environmental Health department.

At City College, progress is underway but an exact timeline is hard to pin down. The coffee portion of the project will likely be the soonest to open, but McMahon still expects a “minimum of eight weeks” before it will begin serving. According to Campbell, “we’re hoping to get the coffee shop portion … online sometime this term.” 

McMahon is hopeful that the main kitchen will begin full service sometime next year. The sandwich shop may open sooner, but Campbell noted that it may require usage of the main kitchen, which is still undergoing renovations. American River College is further along in the process, and services are fully operational, offering multiple dining options for students, including Starbucks coffee, a grill, deli and pizza station.

Operating hours for the food services, according to Campbell, will be based around class schedules, with limited hours on Fridays, for example, when less students are on campus. There are also plans to allow for student employment once the facilities are open. Campbell is excited for the service to begin operating and added, “it will be a nice addition in many ways.”