It’s almost a tradition that Iowa State dorm food be the butt of jokes and at the top of college students’ complaint lists, but is it really all that bad?

Stewart Burger, director of ISU Food Service, said one way the dining facilities receive feedback about the meals is from the student employees. They also have suggestion boxes and surveys to help get responses.

“We get [information on] things they like, things they want more of and things they want changed,” Burger said.

Food Service does take the suggestions into consideration. Burger said last year students asked for orange juice to be served at all meals so food service wrote up a proposal and took it to Government of the Student Body. It, however, was turned down due to lack of funds.

Burger said food service is working on a master plan for the dining services. He said it will be sending out 1,000 surveys to students both on- and off-campus to get feedback about food service.

“We need their feedback so we can make informed decisions,” Burger said.

Not all of the feedback food service gets is negative.

“I like the theme dinners,” said Ruben Newell, a freshmen in music education. Theme dinners consist of foods all centered around one central idea.

Many students are concerned with the nutritional value of the meals. Newell said he thinks most meals are nutritious.

“It’s up to the students,” Newell said. “You could pick a nutritional meal if you wanted to.”

Julie Struck, a sophomore in animal ecology, said she thinks more fresh fruit and vegetables need to be served in the dining halls. She rates food service overall as average.

Lori Jo Murray, a freshmen in English, has a different perspective on dining at ISU. She works the line at Oak-Elm Halls for credit toward her tuition. Each week she serves two breakfast shifts and two dinner exchanges, where a brother and sister floor eat together.

Murray said sometimes certain meals are served too often.

“We have the same kind of food once or twice a week. They don’t spread it out enough,” she said.

She said she has heard people say foods, like pizza, are served too often. Murray doesn’t like the food service pizza because, “It’s too greasy,” she said.

A favorite serving of Murray’s is the baked potato bar, which is somewhat like a salad bar, because “you put on your own toppings.” One complaint Murray said she hears often is that fruit is served cut in halves.

Students pick from meal plan packages that include either 20, 15, 14 or 10 meals a week.

Burger said it is set up this way because a survey done a couple of years ago suggested that students wanted it this way.

Struck said many students would prefer it if you were just charged for the meals that you eat.

“I’m on a three meals a day plan, but sometimes I only eat two a day, sometimes only one,” Struck said.

Burger said the structure of the meal plans will be addressed in this spring’s survey.