Clairmont residents now have access to a quick and convenient breakfast option at the Emory Market at Clairmont Campus because of a recent collaboration between the Residence Hall Association (RHA) and the Food Services Administration (FSA).
Available from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m., the pilot program – spearheaded by RHA President and College junior Niketu Patel – began March 18. Students can pay using meal swipes, Dooley Dollars, Eagle Dollars and any normal form of payment. The menu features different types of breakfast sandwiches on a weekly basis, as well as pastries, tea, coffee and a variety of sides like a yogurt parfait or fruit cup. Every item on the menu costs less than $3.
Patel said RHA councils at Clairmont and many others he spoke with expressed a need for coffee and breakfast at the Student Activity and Academic Center (SAAC).
He met regularly with Dave Furhman, the senior director of Emory's FSA, in an effort to meet student demand for an accessible and convenient morning meal at Clairmont.
Both Patel and Furhman also communicated with Sodexo, Emory's food-service provider. Patel said that when he heard Sodexo had already planned on improving dining options at the SAAC, he took action.
"Our plans meshed together," he said.
Before the new option's implementation, the Emory Market offered mainly fast-food meals, such as burgers, pizza, subs, wraps and soft drinks, from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., but no breakfast foods or coffee were ever provided.
"Although Clairmont apartments have kitchens, many students are just too busy to make breakfast," Furhman said. "By providing breakfast at the SAAC, students now have quick and easy access to the most important meal of the day."
In a first-week report on breakfast and coffee at the SAAC, Timber Hines, the associate director of the SAAC, referred to the program as a "huge success," with an average of about 40 students daily.
On Tuesday, its second morning, 51 students purchased a morning meal at the Emory Market in Clairmont. Timber described a "community feel" at the Emory Market each morning, where students are "hanging out, studying and meeting up with friends for coffee."
However, while Furhman describes the option as "designed for convenience," some students said they beg to differ.
"You can't use it if you're in a rush," William Matheson, a Goizueta Business School junior and Clairmont resident, said of the option, citing the fact that eating food on the Cliff Shuttles is prohibited. "If you're waking up that early, you're probably going to class, in which case you'd be going to the [Dobbs University Center (DUC)] or Cox [Hall]."
Matheson said that the food "wasn't bad," though he added that he feels there is a greater variety of food options at the DUC and Cox.As for whether or not this option will stick around, Furhman said the FSA will rely predominantly on student feedback.
"We're hoping for a great response from the Clairmont Campus community that will allow this program to become a permanent feature at the SAAC," he said.
The program will continue if students utilize it, Patel said. To him, the most crucial aspect of the new Clairmont breakfast option is a college-student staple: coffee.
"The coffee option will be available all day, so it is useful for all residents that do not have a coffee machine or want to go off Clairmont campus for coffee," he said. "This program has an extremely high potential to be successful."
– By Lydia O'Neal
