Sodexo, the food supplier for UMass Boston, has changed its catering options. The catering menu has been in place for years as an option for student clubs and organizations who want food at their events but don’t want to buy it from expensive outside vendors. Only students can use the catering menu. Unfortunately, it’s never been easy to use.

Alex Wilson, the UMass Boston Student Government’s Presidential Liaison for Dining Services, says that although he’s been working in restaurants for more than ten years, he “had a hard time making sense of it.” The menu wasn’t easy to navigate online, it wasn’t printable and it wasn’t clear about what food was available for which price. Wilson and other members of the UMass student senate decided months ago that they wanted to change the menu to something less confusing and more student-friendly.

Wilson, Student President Jesse Wright and the new Sodexo catering manager Peter Martineau had a meeting in July in which they discussed how the menu could be improved. Wilson and Martineau both used their extensive experience serving college students to design a new menu which Wilson felt would “fit the particular tastes of the student body.”

The new menu has gone into effect and is now available online at http://site.www.umb.edu/sodexo/catering.html. It’s printable, the prices are listed with each item, and Wilson is sure that “even someone that has never worked in food service” could use the new menu to order from catering.

Students who wish to order from UMass Boston Catering Services can find forms on the website and turn them in either by email, or they can visit the Catering Office on the Lower Level and speak to Martineau in person.