University Cafe a total ripoff!!!

porgie1985

Right,

I just wondered if anyone else has had this problem, and whether they managed to solve it!

My university has a cafe where you can buy food (obv). However, they don't have microwave or kettle facilities for students who wish to bring their own food and heat it up plus even for a bit of hot water it's 50p!!! I point blank refuse to buy food from there which is going to end up costing me upto £25 a week. In the winter i'm going to be out of my house for nearly 12 hours a day and going to need something hot to keep me going. I've tried putting soup in a thermos but it's gone cold by lunch

So, my question is, has anyone either petitioned for microwave at uni/already got the facility at uni or got any ideas on how I can keep food warm until lunch?

Any ideas would be very gratefully recieved! Thanks guys xxx
:T

The_One_Who

You're doing something wrong if your thermos isn't keeping stuff warm. It may be you aren't using it correctly, or it's broken. Plus, you can get 'food flasks' which are a bit fatter, and means you can get a bit more variety than just soup.

To be honest, this is something you'd need to talk to the president of your student union, or student council about. I can understand why the cafe doesn't want to provide such facilities, since it would be doing them out of business!

kitschkitty

Did you heat the thermos before you put the hot food in it?

kitschkitty

The_One_Who wrote: »

To be honest, this is something you'd need to talk to the president of your student union, or student council about. I can understand why the cafe doesn't want to provide such facilities, since it would be doing them out of business!

Plus they'd have to clean it, keep it PAT tested, make sure no-one damages it/blows it up - (with anything that boils over, steam/water pooling on the bottom, metal packaging/plates etc, burnt food etc....)

porgie1985

Yes, I do heat it up before I put the soup in. The only thing I can think it could be is that the soup doesn't fill it all the way up and that it might be cooling because there is air in there...

I will have a look into contacting my student union, surely the uni should be advocating us saving our pennies not spending them! I will also have a look for this food thermos thing..sounds pretty good!

Thanks xxx

porgie1985

kitschkitty wrote: »

Plus they'd have to clean it, keep it PAT tested, make sure no-one damages it/blows it up - (with anything that boils over, steam/water pooling on the bottom, metal packaging/plates etc, burnt food etc....)

But it's ok for staff to have use of one....?

System

porgie1985 wrote: »

However, they don't have microwave or kettle facilities for students who wish to bring their own food and heat it up

Why would a business provide something that would take sales and profit away from them? Try taking your food into other cafes, asking them to warm it up and see what happens

The_One_Who

porgie1985 wrote: »

But it's ok for staff to have use of one....?

Yes, because the staff will probably be using it in a separate area (or if not, probably using it for cafe purposes as well) and will not be taking sales away from the business. You seem to be asking for the university to provide you with cooking/heating facilities for free, whilst no doubt expecting them to be of a decent quality and always kept clean and well maintained.

porgie1985

It's the general eating area for all students, regardless of whether they have bought their food there or not.

PasturesNew

Welcome to the real/adult world.

I'd be surprised if the cafe wasn't an entirely separate entity to the Uni - they probably pay rent to use the space as it is.

porgie1985

The_One_Who wrote: »

Yes, because the staff will probably be using it in a separate area (or if not, probably using it for cafe purposes as well) and will not be taking sales away from the business. You seem to be asking for the university to provide you with cooking/heating facilities for free, whilst no doubt expecting them to be of a decent quality and always kept clean and well maintained.

In exactly the same way any of the facilities I use should be kept...and it's not exactly free is it?