Food service in the residence halls and the Memorial Union may be consolidated within the next few years, an ISU committee has decided after months of investigation.

Two consulting firms recently submitted their recommendations for the future of food service, and the committee plans to submit its findings to ISU President Martin Jischke as soon as possible, said Warren Madden, vice president for Business and Finance.

Although the current system works well financially, Madden said, the consultants’ findings point to having the food service on campus consolidated into one system to offer students more options. He said he is pleased with the results.

“[The consultants] have indicated that from a financial point of view, we’re doing things overall very well,” he said. “They’ve indicated that in comparison with other food services, we’re fairly efficient, and we’ve done a reasonable job.”

Madden said the report did not indicate that having an external company would be in the best interest of Iowa State.

“There’s not a great deal of value to commission it out to another organization,” he said.

Made up of ISU administrators, members of the Memorial Union Board, students and student-government representatives, the Ad Hoc Food Service Advisory Committee has been investigating options for food service since last fall. Madden and Thomas Hill, vice president for Student Affairs, headed the committee.

Hill said people from different groups were chosen to give a balance to the feedback.

“[The committee] was the best way to be objective and get a broad view of opinions,” he said.

Hill said the consultants were brought in to assess the current food service offered at Iowa State.

“They looked at who we’re serving, if we’re serving them well, what we can do better and what students would like to have,” he said.

The consultants, Claudia Scotty from Thomas Ricca Associates in Englewood, Colo., and Joyce Fasano from the Cornyn Fasano Group in Des Moines, recently presented their findings to the committee.

Hill said the committee looked into how food service would be most effectively run with the options that are available on campus. Hill said the three main food service options available on campus now are the Dining Services, the athletic dining services and the Memorial Union Food Court.

“We’re trying to investigate those operations to determine if we are being efficient with three separate ones, or would we be better to have one. If we decide to have one, then the question is, who should operate the one food service operation? Should it be contracted out? Those are the questions we are looking into,” Hill said.

Madden said the university plans to act on the information officials have received.

“We will begin moving forward,” he said. “There will be some changes that will occur over the next few years.”

A director will be chosen to guide the consolidation process, Madden said. He said the director will be needed to begin implementing the changes as soon as possible.

Heinz Humm, Memorial Union food court manager, said consolidation of the food services on campus will be a positive change for everyone involved.

“It’s a win-win situation,” he said. “I think it’s wonderful for the students — anytime we can give students options to eat without more money and give additional options, it’s great,” he said.

Humm said consolidation also will affect the Memorial Union Food Court favorably.

“It will increase business by quite a bit. If you take care of the customer, it means we have a job,” he said.

Stewart Burger, director of Dining Services, said the ISU Dining Services also is pleased with the findings of the consultants’ report.

“We were thrilled and happy with the results,” he said.

Burger said future changes to food service will make more food options available on campus.

“Once you start leaving Lincoln Way and traveling north, [food options] get thinner and thinner,” he said. “We hope there would be an ability to be convenient to students, faculty and staff. We’re looking forward to moving on with this.”

Hill said the committee wanted to determine what would be most beneficial for the university.

“What we hoped to accomplish was to come up with a recommendation of what would be the best arrangement for Iowa State,” he said.