On-campus restaurants like Chic-fil-A, Wingstop and Tropical Smoothie have been experiencing heavy wait times.
Since the start of the fall semester, many on-campus restaurants will have wait times of up to 30 minutes or more for food. Mostly around noon, students must wait longer than ever before for food or deal with the Grub Hub app being down.
Jacob Muse, a first-year finance major from Fort Walton, would like to see Metz shut down the app for ordering. He also believes they need to hire more employees.
“I feel like they can get more staff to man the amount of people coming in,” Muse said. “They also should shut down (the app) to handle all the students ordering better.”
FAMU has a record amount of new freshmen on the hill this fall. With many living on campus, a lot of them are dependent on using on-campus restaurants for food. Many are turning to on-campus options for breakfast, lunch and dinner to ease their hunger this semester.
Most students living in residence halls must purchase meal plans for the semester. These required meal plans insist on several all-you-can-eat meal swipes you can use at the two residence halls on campus. They also include a specific amount of flex bucks you can use at on-campus restaurants.
Aaliyah Cleveland, a first-year biology pre-med student from West Palm Beach, says the on-campus staff needs to prepare more for all the students they serve.
“I worked in food before, so I learned the importance of prepping,” Cleveland said. “When I eat at Chick-fil-A, they always run out of things like vanilla ice cream.”
FAMU has 10 on-campus restaurants, not including the all-you-can-eat residence dining hall, Top Cafe and The Hub. They are all run by the food company Metz, which runs all the restaurants and residence halls on campus.
Metz General Manager Jeff Kwolek says that the first month on campus is always hectic every year.
“With all of the freshmen on campus, it does get busy during the beginning of the semester,” Kwolek said. “As the semester goes on, it gets slower as many students’ flex bucks run out.”
As students settle into the new semester, there is hope that getting food on campus will become easier as time goes by.