Food service providers at Wayne State College changed from Chartwells to Fresh Ideas on July 1, bringing with it several changes with mixed results.  

The provider switch came at the end of the contract WSC had with Chartwells. Fresh Ideas wanted to combine the atmosphere of WSC with their own twist.  

Changes to dining on campus include a renovation of the facilities in Cat’s Corner to accommodate new vendors. The renovation took place before classes began, from the beginning of July through the beginning of August. 

The upgrade added two kiosks for online ordering outside of the lower cafeteria. Other improvements included enhancing the look of the center section of the food choices and installing an upgraded pizza oven.  

The food options in the Lower Cafeteria include Starbucks, Qdoba Mexican Eats and Crave. Crave includes five dining options: The Good Egg, Whole Pie Pizza Co., Pulled & Chopped BBQ, City Mac and Hoagie Grinder Submarine. Convenience store items are also available for purchase.  

Another new addition to campus is a fresh vending machine in the Kanter Student Center atrium. This houses new meal, snack and drinks options, and uses the meal plan and a scale that can withdraw directly from your account.  

Fresh Ideas’ concept for meal plans was that they were not going to change as said in a meeting with WSC navigators on April 16, 2024.  

Initially, Fresh Ideas told WSC Navigators it did not plan to change the way WSC deals with meal plans. However, with the start of the school year and the influx of students, not everything in the system was kept consistent, and many students had issues accessing the payment options afforded to them by their meal plans. 

Meal transfers used in the lower cafeteria or in the library’s bagel shop were ineffective and inconsistent as the fall semester started. The meal swipes would not show up on students’ accounts, or the system would claim that they had already used both weekly meal transfers.  

The food options would come out of the Flex dollars instead of meal transfers. The inability to use meal transfer swipes left many students frustrated with seemingly no way to get their flex returned to their accounts. Students were promised two meal transfer swipes per week when they signed up for meal plans last semester, like they had for the last several years. 

Dining services director Mary French did not comment on the new provider or payment issues.