Dayne Lyster

Although Taher’s food is great, it’s selection is ofter limited.

Taher is Benilde-St. Margaret’s food service, and provides food for both staff and students. It offers unique meal options every day, often making cuisine from different cultures to help promote BSM’s diversity. Taher’s food is amazing and everyone loves it; however, Taher’s options and system have some flaws.

I realize that I don’t know what is going on behind the scenes at Taher, and there could be kitchen or supply constraints that prevent them from perfecting their systems. I would also like to say that I am a massive fan of Taher. I love their food, and I think that most of their options are great, but they need more food options and more accessible choices.

Taher should broaden their menu and offer a greater diversity of choices every day. Besides the main course each day, there are only side options like fried chicken or mozzarella sticks. There are also permanent foods, including pizza and burgers.

The problem comes on the days when the side foods are only things like breadsticks or pretzels, which shouldn’t be the sole choice. These items are sides that are meant to be served second to another item. Pretzels and bread are just carbohydrates and are not nutritional or substantial enough to be the sole food choice. Cream cheese wontons and mozzarella sticks are a step in the right direction, but more diversity would be beneficial. Although there are always burgers and pizza, they don’t seem very popular and feel lower quality compared to the temporary menu. Improving the quality of the pizza and burgers would be great, but it would also be awesome if they added more foods that were available every day. I would propose that the fries and chicken that they often have should be available permanently. The potential issue with this is Taher’s supply. I do not know where or when they get their supply from, so I can understand if they are unable to obtain a broader menu.

The main courses are often great, and Taher offers foods from different cultures, which makes their menu diverse. Cultural diversity is important at BSM, but this runs the risk of students turning away from the main courses in favor of simpler foods they are more familiar with. The food itself is amazing, but I see very few students who decide to buy the main course instead of the side options. The solution to this is to allow students to customize their meals so that they try new things while also having things they’re comfortable with. Diversifying side options is the best thing Taher can do to help students branch out. Allowing students to pick and choose some elements of a main course could be a great way to keep the core menu, get students to try new things, and overall, create healthier lunches.