Lining up to buy siomai, pizza, or other cafeteria food is among the countless face-to-face experiences students lost during the pandemic. Now, the majority have transitioned back to the face-to-face setup, but not everything has returned to the old normal. This is reflected by the new online cafeteria ordering system of the canteen concessionaire, D’Creative Cafeteria.
Ms. Rhenee Sy, the Food Services Coordinator, explained that given the current safety restrictions, the new online ordering system allows students or parents to pre-order lunch or snacks from the main concessionaire at least two days in advance via the D’Creative Cafeteria website. The food would either be delivered or picked up at the second or fourth floor cafeterias, where students would collect their food by presenting their receipts and looking for the area designated with their section.
En Hui Ge, a student from Damascus who ordered food online, commented, “The food [tasted] delicious just like what I expected. But when I received it, the food was quite cold.” Another said, “I found the process fine; for me it went smoothly even if my GCash isn’t verified because you can use another GCash and use the order ID. I think [the food was] good although I only tried the spam, egg and rice.” Several other students also agreed that the food was good, the process was smooth, and that they experienced no problems overall.
Meanwhile, Joy Ang, an MGCNLCA parent, remarked, “I really like the online cafeteria ordering system because as a busy mom I can have the flexibility of ordering food for them or have them bring baon on a particular day. By seeing the cafeteria menu for the following week I can schedule their week’s lunch,” she explained.
Despite the efficiency of the new system, one student shared that he had mistakenly received two orders instead of one due to his order being doubled. Sy also mentioned that there were numerous difficulties that occurred during the first few weeks of implementation, such as incomplete or incorrect details, overlooked orders, missing food, students being unaware that their parents had ordered food, and many others.
However, given that it is just the first few weeks of operation of D’Creative Cafeteria’s online system, Sy is hopeful that these kinks will be ironed out, and that students and parents alike would be able to fully enjoy the online ordering process.