Thursday 09-05-2019 - 08:44

Written by Stanford, Union Affairs Officer 2017-19

When I was elected in March 2018, I promised to provide all students with the opportunity to take a survey on my favourite venue of all-time, the Balloon Bar!

I’m very proud that we’ve managed to go one step further and now have feedback from hundreds of students and staff on the whole of the University’s food provision on top of our own bar space.

We accomplished this through the Food for Thought Survey, which had one of the largest response rates of any of our research – with 1200 staff and students taking part. Huge thanks to all of you who took the time to fill it in! 

On a personal note, it’s been really gratifying to have data that confirms messages I’ve been giving to the University across my time in office. For students, affordability is key. Variety is key. And students need more spaces at Bristol to eat their own food!

Some of the key findings include:

• Only 35% of staff and 21% of students agreed they were receiving value for money from the university’s catering outlets.
• 86% of staff and 81% of students agreed that the friendliness of staff and good service were a benefit of current catering provision at the university.
• For the new food court in Senate House students wanted pizza and all-day breakfasts whilst staff wanted a deli bar and a salad bar. 
• Students wanted to see more variety of options in the balloon bar, and also wanted discount and loyalty cards.

And here’s some of the things that are happening because of the survey’s findings:

• A focus on variety and dietary requirements in the upcoming food court and at Langford and Priory Road.
• The introduction of a Source £3.15 meal deal.
• A University review of food at source cafes, with a commitment to provide more variety and more affordable options.
• New specials, a breakfast loyalty card and a 10% discount with a NUS Totum card have all been introduced in the Balloon Bar. 

To read more of the findings and find out how the University and SU are acting on these – check out the executive summary here!

To conclude: Bristol students have proved once and for all one of my most earnest beliefs – food is not a trivial matter!
 

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More Info:

Read the Food for Thought Executive Summary.

Find out what's going on in The Balloon Bar.