Over the summer, the Provisions On Demand convenience store transferred from the JSU Media Center to the former ACP Oakland Campus. This store offers a wide variety of food, from corn dogs and burritos to Caesar salads and parfaits. You can find many convenient grab-and-go options like juice, soda, chips, fruit, and more.
POD was relocated to make it easier for students who have classes in the K building or Oakland Campus. The school hopes to provide meals to students without requiring them to walk across the campus and parking lot. This improves efficiency by allowing students to receive breakfast and lunch in several locations throughout the school, and might even save lunch time for those who previously walked all the way to the cafeteria.
Has POD benefited from its new location? Leal said, “I was really surprised about how many kids were coming through… It’s doing pretty good for just starting out.” Many students have already started buying here, and POD has been busy, especially during A lunch. Some of its most popular foods are the spicy chicken sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and pizza.
To raise awareness of POD’s new location, signs have been placed in the area around the K building and the gate to exit campus. The school also sent out an email shortly before classes started in July to notify students of the change.
CUSD partnered with Aramark Education to provide nutritional food to its students. According to operating vendor Aramark’s website, POD “puts fresh, quality food and beverage items consumers crave within reach.” Holly Leal, an employee in the POD store, expressed how practical POD is for students: “If they do an actual lunch, they get fruit with it and they get juice and milk all together for one price.”
According to reporting by trade publication Food-Management.com, “positive results have been obtained with Chandler High School, which has an open campus environment, seeing a 12% participation increase (in its meal program) off a $65,000 investment on the space.” Aramark is committed to offering healthy and delicious meal choices to students and does this by surveying students annually to gain insight into food preferences and satisfaction. They also ensure that “students eligible for free or reduced-price meals through the USDA National School Lunch Program access the venue as regularly as the cash students” by making sure all items are food-related. So don’t hesitate to explore and try out the great variety of food at the POD store.
