On-Campus Hospitality magazine
September 2002
Campuses across the country survey students on a regular basis to make important decisions regarding their food service offerings. One of those key decisions is what type of cereals to offer in their dining operations.
Cereal selection is an important quality-of-life issue for students, and the absence of their favorites could have a significant impact on their impression of campus dining, and even of the school itself. For example, an article in Pennsylvania State University's student-run Collegian newspaper last fall detailed how a few students at the various campuses in the Penn State system felt slighted because their schools offered fewer cereal selections than the main campus in University Park, Pa. At the University of La Verne, La Verne, Calif., one of the key complaints students had regarding the school's existing foodservice provider was that their favorite selection-General Mills' Cinnamon Toast Crunch-was regularly unavailable. Sodexho was named the new foodservice provider at the school in July.
To keep their students satisfied, many schools ask the students what cereals they would like to see offered in the dining facilities. At the University of Minnesota, 22 percent of resident students took part in the school's Second Annual Cereal Survey. The top choice was Cinnamon Toast Crunch, followed in order by Lucky Charms, Golden Grahams, Frosted Flakes, Frosted Mini Wheats, Corn Pops, Cheerios, Low Fat Granola, Fruit Loops, Captain Crunch, Crispix and Life. At the University of Wisconsin-Stout student feedback helped dining services learn that the top choices there were Fruit Loops, Life and Lucky Charms.
At the University of Georgia, dining services broke out the cereals into categories such as sweetened flake, corn, chocolate flavored and low sugar and the students voted for their top choices in each group. Among the winners were Kellogg's Low Fat Granola w/Raisins (granola cereals), General Mills' Cocoa Puffs (chocolate flavored), Kellogg's Rice Krispies (rice), Quaker's Captain Crunch and General Mills' Cinnamon Toast Crunch (sweetened, flavored) and Kellogg's Special K (fortified).