The cafeteria under the Library / Learning Crossroads was vacant since 2014, as Pierce looked for the right cafeteria vendor. That all changed earlier this semester when Falafelicious Catering took the reins as the new food vendor for the Pierce College campus.
Falafelicious owner Ofir Bass said they have been doing well since the grand opening in September.
“I’m not sure why [it took so long],” Bass said. “I think they were looking for the right vendor to operate it. As soon as we got approved, we moved forward with it. We’ve been here for three years now, with our catering and our food truck. This is just a continuation of what we’ve been doing on a larger scale.”
The catering service is focused on offering students more food options, mainly more sandwiches and salads. The menu will also be expanded based off of the students and their reaction to the daily specials. Popular daily specials may be added to the permanent menu, while new specials are tested out, Bass said.
“We just explore the menu. We keep trying to see what works and what doesn’t,” Bass said.
The Falafelicious food truck will remain on campus for the imminent future, as well as the food truck in front of the North Gym, the “Hot Sauce Truck.”
According to Administrative Analyst Dr. Brian Silk, the district has indicated that they are going out for a competitive bid sometime this spring for an operator of the food court.
“They want one operator for all campuses,” Silk said. “So if one company comes in to run all food service on campuses, then we have to look at what the contract says and whether they’ll allow food trucks on campus, or they’ll provide them or what they’ll do. We don’t know yet.”
According to Silk, the white truck that was in front of the Student Services Building decided to leave campus after a change of food distribution territories. With Falafelicious taking control of the greater Mall area, the white food truck was offered to take control of the upper art district, but after testing sales for roughly two weeks, they decided to leave the campus altogether.
The future for the food truck is not clear at the moment, although the campus is happy to host them, Silk said.
“I just started working here, but it seems good. Students come here to study and do their homework,” Falafelicious employee Reyna Augilar said.
The cafeteria will remain open during the winter semester, but may be limited in the amount of stations open, based on student enrollment numbers. Bass is still waiting to receive the final count to decide how much of the cafeteria needs to be operated.
