Starting Jan. 6, Chick-fil-A will start serving breakfast on campus.
“It’s been a popular demand from both our clients and student body,” said Jasmine White, a senior resort and hospitality major who doubles as the supervisor of the dining location on campus. “They’ve been wanting us to have breakfast I believe since 2012.”
White started out as a cashier at the restaurant, then she got promoted to a student leader and finally, this semester, she was promoted to supervisor. White said she thinks this change has finally come to our campus due to a change in management of the restaurant.
“Especially with the change of management we’ve been able to push everything and actually make it happen,” White said. “People are retiring, so we just got a full new staff in the summer in FGCU dining. They’ve been very enthusiastic and really trying to push for positive changes for what students want and also that our clients want. This is one of the major things we’ve been able to accomplish.”
Breakfast will be available 7 to 10:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, which are the standard times the chain usually offers it.
Jarret Simpson, marketing coordinator for FGCU Dining, thinks people are aware of Chick-
fil-A breakfast in general and thinks the university community will appreciate that it’s more conveniently located for them.
“It’s something that we heard the students say they wanted and that they’ve been pushing for,” Simpson said. “We do multiple surveys during the year. Some of the surveys we call market match where we give them choices of what they want to see on campus, other times it’s about where they could be spending their money and then we look and analyze the results and say, ‘hey, we’re missing opportunities for morning breakfast and what can we do to change that’.”
The first day breakfast will be served is Jan. 4, when faculty and staff will be able to have a taste.
“They’ll have a personal invite to come and try it out, but we are still open to the public,” White said. “Anyone is still free to come on Jan. 4.”
The breakfast menu on campus will include plain biscuits with butter on top, chicken minis, chicken biscuits, hash browns, coffee, iced coffee with flavoring and orange juice.
“We are still working on the price range, but it’s going to be close to what the standard Chick-fil-A menu is,” White said. “It’s not going to be like two or three dollars more than that.”
White said having breakfast on campus was a big decision, but it’s also a permanent one.
“One thing about Chick-fil-A is once you do something you’re sticking to it,” White said. “We’re not trialing for a month and see how our sales are or anything. Once we start it in the spring it’s here for long.”
The menu board at the restaurant in Cohen Center will be updated with a new graphic.
“This will be the seventh breakfast option on campus,” said Simpson, who is also an FGCU alumnus. “I graduated in 2010. In 2006, there was one dining location and in 2010 there were like five. When you really think about how many options are on campus, you get excited about doing even more, and I think that’s something that’s cool.”
Caleb Courville, junior pursuing a double major in marketing and computer information systems, said he’s somewhat familiar with Chick-fil-A breakfast.
“I think I’ve probably only had it once,” Courville said. “But, it’s cool. I don’t really have breakfast on campus, but it’s awesome that it’s there if I ever think about it.”
Aliza Torres, freshman English major, also thinks it’s great that breakfast will now be available, but she’s not sure if she’d get it.
“It’s a good thing; however, I would only get it if I can use a meal swipe,” Torres said. “I actually don’t have Chick-fil-A much.”
Hunter Dorre, junior software engineering major, is a commuter, so he finds it difficult to get breakfast on campus but thinks it’s positive that it will be available on campus.
“It’s awesome,” Dorre said. “If they bring it in it’s something worth considering (for breakfast).”