MISSION COLLEGE : Catering-Truck Contract Canceled

There’s no more food at Mission College, except perhaps food for thought.

The only food service at the Sylmar campus, a catering truck, left for good last week after the Associated Students Organization decided not to renew the owner’s contract, which was to expire Wednesday. The decision has left thousands of students and faculty with only a few vending machines on campus. The closest fast-food restaurant is about a mile away, campus officials said.

“For students who don’t have cars and who only have 15 minutes between classes, that’s an awfully long walk,” said Lewis Munoz, 21, student body president.

Student leaders said they decided to cancel their contract with the catering truck, which followed them from San Fernando to the new Sylmar campus last fall, mainly because of rising prices.

“It was ridiculous, the prices of the catering truck,” said Joe Andrade, 19, student vice president. “Up to $8 for a dinner--maybe a sandwich, soda and fries.”

Andrade and other students said the prices of certain items such as french fries had doubled since classes began in September. The student organization received a small percentage of the profits from the truck’s sales, while the college, itself, had no involvement in the contract.

The catering truck’s owner could not be reached for comment.

College officials and student leaders, however, blamed the lack of campus food service on the state, not the catering-truck operator.

“Most colleges have food service on campus,” said Jim Austin, college business manager. “This college was designed without a food service. The state did not adequately fund us.”

Austin acknowledged that cafeterias on other community college campuses are losing money. But he said the state provided no funds to help feed students, faculty and staff at Mission, leaving them to fend for themselves.

Austin said students and college officials have formed an ad hoc committee to find a solution to the problem.

Another contract with a catering truck and a possible agreement with a fast-food franchise to sell food on campus have been suggested.

“Several fast-food franchises were eager to come on campus and sell their food,” Munoz said. But, he added that several legal hurdles, including the approval of the Los Angeles Community College District’s food service employee union, need to be cleared before that can be done.

Al Washington, a business representative for the union, said the fast-food franchise plan might be acceptable “if our members were involved in serving food and if it did not cost the district any additional funds.”

Eventually, Austin said, the college may acquire a restaurant by convincing the state to fund an instructional building for a culinary arts program.