Ethnic food acceptance of community college students

The study was designed to introduce these new foods as extra items at the meal served and measure the acceptability through student responses. The goal of the study was to provide data for improving the food service program offered at the community college. The determination of what ethnic foods the students would accept was made together with the reasons for acceptance and non-acceptance. Portion cost was also analyzed to determine whether product cost was a factor affecting the addition of accepted foods to the menu. The budgetary implications were considered important in the frequency with which an accepted item would be served. Students were also asked to give suggestions as to how often each new food should be served or whether it should be served at all. It was thought that information and data obtained would be useful to other institutional food service operations, particularly those in which there was a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds represented in the population. In summary, the present study had four basic objectives: 1) To determine what ethnic foods the students would accept. 2) To determine whether cost was a factor governing which foods were added to the menu and with what frequency the new foods would be served. 3) To find acceptable ethnic foods which might be added to the menu--foods which would Introduce the students to the educational aspects of foods from other cultural backgrounds. 4) To provide the students with a communication channel by which to express their comments regarding the residence hall food service program at Reedley College.