Let’s face it, every cafeteria at Burnaby campus looks sad. Aside from The Study, there’s no place that’s Insta-worthy, or somewhere you’d want to hang out. It’s hard to ignore the major flaws that every eatery on campus has.
WHAT WE LACK:
1) A spacious area, like the Dining Hall but even bigger;
2) A modern and hip space, like The Study but not as niche and won’t charge you $17;
3) A variety of seating options like Mackenzie, but less crowded and less fluorescent lights;
4) Another place accepting meal plan dollars that doesn’t keep res kids apart from other students like the Dining Hall’s $10 cover charge does, and;
5) a place with even more food options than Cornerstone, but inside one central building.
WHAT’S THE VISION: It shouldn’t be this hard to have a decent cafeteria. Enter SFU’s new cafeteria, working title: The Gondola! Like a mighty savannah, every university needs a watering hole. Picture a huge hall that’s large enough to fit SFU’s growing community, FIC kids and all! Featuring chic seating that hasn’t already been here for 10+ years, and as a bonus, reasonably priced food options. This is a space worthy of our Insta-stories. It makes students whine that there are too many places to eat. Finally, we have someplace everyone can congregate to have lunch, hang, and just chill. Unlike the Dining Hall, you don’t need to pay a cover charge. Unlike Mackenzie Café, the chairs aren’t ripping open. And unlike the MBC Food Court, you have plentiful options and don’t feel depressed by sitting here.
WHY WE NEED IT: No SFU student should have to make multiple commutes to find more than five options for their lunch. We need one, central building for a variety for every kind of diet. And yes, the Student Union Building (SUB) will open “soon,” but it’s not the kind of dedicated eatery we need. Currently, the SUB will have a 250 sq. ft community kitchen (read: not a cafeteria). With a commuter campus like SFU, a new cafeteria could finally help foster a community here. Finally, we’d have somewhere we could feel proud to hang out in.
More food options in more interesting spaces equals less grumpy students. SFU needs, nay, deserves a vast, central cafeteria. Now more than ever, we need a large, inclusive space where any SFU student can feel proud to eat at.
