Website Delivers Food to C.U. Students

By wpengine | November 22, 2002

A new virtual marketplace has discovered that college students like free food and may appreciate a more convenient way to access it, along with their favorite late night snacks from area restaurants.

Since last week, Campusfood.com has given University students the chance to do just that.

Servicing students from over 200 different colleges across the nation, the Internet-based business is the leading network of collegiate restaurants in the United States. Before becoming involved with dining facilities across America, Campusfood.com was limited to the area around the University of Pennsylvania, where the founder, Michael Saunders, developed the idea five years ago.

According to Saunders, “I was in my dormroom and I kept on getting a busy signal [while trying to order some food]. I thought there must be an easier way and everything mushroomed from there.”

After graduation, Saunders moved his headquarters to lower Manhattan’s Tribeca where he now runs a six-person operation. Campusfood.com contacts dining facilities located near college campuses to see if they are interested in expanding their ordering by marketing it on the Internet. In return for representation on the website, businesses pay a service fee as well as a percentage of the profits made by their online patrons. Once a buyer enters and verifies his desired items on a virtual check, the information is transmitted and sent to each restaurant’s fax machine. For the free deals available only to website users, Campusfood.com covers most of the bill.

Success

After only a week of affiliation with the Ithaca community, 10 percent of Cornell students have registered with Campusfood.com. According to Saunders, news about the online service relies on word of mouth. Undergraduates appear overjoyed by the potential complimentary sub, pizza or other form of nourishment.

“I was immediately intrigued by the prospect of free food as my points [Big Red Bucks] were running low this semester,” Ashok Srihari ’05 said. Due to the simplicity of using the website, Srihari was convinced that he would use Campusfood.com again. However, next time he will have to spend his own money because offers for free edibles are limited to one per customer.

Word of Mouth

Jacquelyn Nastri ’05 heard about Campusfood.com through a friend’s away message. After visiting the website, she decided to order from King Submarine for the first time because the menu looked appealing and, more importantly, there was no charge for her sandwich.

“It was convenient but it took a really long time for the food to get there,” she said.

Campusfood.com asks for information that is essential to getting addresses and information correct in the university setting. Patrons of the website must specify the type of building, such as a lab, classroom or dormitory, to which the food is to be delivered. Additionally, the company recommends that a buyer give his screenname on America Online Instant Messenger to improve the real-time nature of the transaction in case any problems arise.

For local businesses, Campusfood.com’s marketing scheme for attracting more Cornell consumers has had mixed results.

“So far we have done a whole lot of free pizza and that’s it,” said Brian Bowers, the manager of Rogan’s Corner. Bowers claims that since Campusfood.com’s advertising for free pizza began, he has received extra orders but simply because students are not charged for the food. However, he is hopeful that soon they will have some good steady customers after the sales ploy ends.

Hal’s Delicatessen has only had a little extra business since the online service began to include restaurants in Ithaca. According to Mike Kuntz, one of the partners of the family-style establishment, the purpose for getting involved with Campusfood.com was to draw a larger university crowd.

As Campusfood.com attempts to entice the collegiate consumer, the company also acts to improve restaurant efficiency and, hopefully, increase sales. Steve Kempf, the manager of The Pita Pit, finds that he saves a lot of normally wasted resources by affiliating with Campusfood.com. Now, he does not need a person always answering the phone and fielding questions about their offerings. Last Friday, with the commencement of the promotion for free pitas, the food joint broke its delivery record by dropping off 110 orders, which crushed its original record made on Slope Day 2002 by 36 orders.

“Orders are coming through the fax machine faster than we can pick up the phone,” Kempf said.

Already Kempf has had to hire another delivery person and more workers in the store. Even though a majority of these additional patrons were on account of the free food, Kempf feels that this will entice new students to order from The Pita Pit. Kempf has already seen a small increase in deliveries for paying customers which he attributes to The Pita Pit’s presence on the Internet.

Campusfood.com is one of many web addresses where students can, at the click of the button, make purchases without walking out of their house or picking up the phone. Local businesses did not seem worried about losing patrons to online buying but, instead, saw the Internet as a way of gaining additional consumers. Even on campus, facilities such as Bear Necessities in Robert Purcell Community Center allow students to now place their requests online.

Archived article by Dana Rosenberg

Forum Raises Farm Worker Rights

By wpengine November 25, 2002

A forum organized by the newly formed Cornell Farm Worker Advocacy Coalition was held last Thursday evening in Uris Hall. A series of speakers ranging from local migrant farm workers to the director of the Cornell Migrant Program spoke to an audience of about 40 people about important issues currently facing farm workers in upstate New York. The panel of six stressed the lack of human and labor rights afforded to migrant farm workers in the state and how students could help gain fundamental rights for the workers. This was one of the first events of the new student organization, started to get Cornell students more involved in helping local farm workers. Migrant farm workers, of which there are approximately 47,000 in New York alone, often migrate or perform seasonal labor on different kinds of farms, ranging from harvesting fruit such as apples, grapes and cherries, to work on dairy farms. While the National Labor Relations Act of 1995 entitles most workers to many fundamental labor rights, farm workers are exempt from this legislation and therefore are exempt from most labor laws considered standard for other industries in the U.S. The panel explained and illustrated many examples of such laws, including the right to workmen’s compensation and sick leave, minimum wage and freedom from harassment. A highlight of the program were three farm workers, Irlain Theodore, Aleus Hilaire and Augustin Dumerci, who spoke about their experiences during the past 15 to 20 years. Each told a similar story of coming to the United States from the Caribbean and the various jobs they had worked as a farm worker since that time. While each had been in the industry for a number of years, none had received any more substantial increase in payment for work and experience. They all spoke of working in conditions where managing farmers withheld payment for long periods or infinitely, and without water or light. While some of the workers expressed their enjoyment of farm work in general, they all hoped that and actively encouraged their children to succeed enough to be employed in other industries. Because conditions are so poor for farm workers, and real wages have actually decreased over the past thirty years, Hilaire asked the audience who would harvest their food in the future, implying that conditions were so bad that soon everyone would leave the industry. The efforts of organizations such as the United Farm Workers and Rural and Migrant Ministries have been able to lobby legislatures on behalf of farm workers and to organize farm workers themselves to increase their power. However, the latter has remained quite daunting because the workers are not even given the right to organize or unionize. The panel stressed the importance of empowering farm workers themselves, rather than continuously advocating for them. “Farmworkers are the ones leading the charge; we’re helping them along the way.” said Bill Abom of Rural and Migrant Ministries. The idea for the new student groupcame last year from several students and Herb Engman, director of the Cornell Migrant Program, an outreach program which began in 1971 as the Agricultural Manpower Project, part of the department of human development in the College of Human Ecology. Engman spoke extensively about many of the local issues affecting farm workers as well as systems in which Cornell students and faculty have worked on behalf of local farm workers in the past. During the latter part of the program, Engman and members of the Rural and Migrant Ministry as well as some audience members talked about the potential help that students could give by lobbying the state legislature, doing research and creating a knowledge base about farm worker issues for students. Several of the student founders have engaged in independent work during the school year or summer through local organizations. Rebecca Bixby, president of Cornell Farm Worker Advocacy Coalition, and Pilar McKay worked on a field interview project this summer, involving interviewing migrant workers across N.Y. about sanitary condition across the state. Alyson Greenlee, another organizer of the Cornell Farm Worker Advocacy Coalition, worked for Rural and Migrant Ministries this summer. “Before working [at the Rural and Migrant Ministries], I had no idea that this issue existed, because farm workers are totally hidden from everyone. And even in school, you don’t learn that they don’t have the same rights as other workers,” Greene said. “Even in ILR, we spent maybe one day learning about how farm workers are exempt from most labor laws.” Discussion between the audience and the panel veered towards the immense structural causes of farm worker impoverishment and lack of rights. While they are being oppressed by farmers, many of the farmers are not making large profits at all and are in turn oppressed by the distributors and supermarkets who sell the food. “There’s an incredible variation, and it’s not based on need, it’s based on production,” Engman said. “The biggest earners are the truckers, processors and grocery stores.” Bixby said that the struggle is “definitely something that Cornell students can and should be involved with, in the way that it relates to ongoing policy changes regarding immigration and documentation” Archived article by Aliza Wasserman
Canadian Parliament Member Speaks

By wpengine November 25, 2002

A current member of the Canadian Parliament and former Canadian Minister of National Defence, Art Eggleton, spoke this past Friday in Goldwin Smith Hall’s H.E.C. Auditorium on Canadian-U.S. Relations since Sept. 11. The talk was sponsored by the Canadians at Cornell Club, the largest Canadian student organization in the Ivy League. Debunking Myths Eggleton said that he wished to “debunk sad myths” that seemed to develop after the terrorist attacks. These myths include “Canada [being] portrayed as a haven of terrorists” and concerns over the Canadian-U.S. border, the longest undefended border in the world. Eggleton said that Sept. 11 “awakened us all to new dangers [and] ushered in new challenges for Canadians and Americans alike.” The president of the Canadians at Cornell Club, Daniel Braun ’04 — a Canadian citizen — said, “When Sept. 11 hit, I didn’t feel like a foreign citizen and it hit close to home … I’m sure other Canadian students felt the same way.” First Country Eggleton said that Canada was the “first country outside of the U.S. to respond” to Sept. 11 and “among the first countries to offer assistance for what would eventually become Operation Enduring Freedom.” Eggleton noted that the “Canadian contribution [is] going largely unreported.” Just three months after Sept. 11 the Canadian government finished work on their budget, with nearly “seven billion dollars [reserved for] all initiatives.” These initiatives include the Smart Border Initiative, which is an attempt to “create a seamless yet secure border” with the U.S. According to Eggleton, “more than one hundred billion dollars U.S. cross the border everyday” which is more than the U.S. trades with all of the European Union countries combined. Though Canadian military assistance was provided for Operation Enduring Freedom during Eggleton’s term as Minister of National Defence, he noted the existence of “growing discomfort with American unilateralism.” Referring to an explanation given to him by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for American unilateralism, Eggleton said, “It is the mission that will define the coalition and not the coalition that will define the mission.” “The principle of multilateralism is still valid” so that the entire international community has a voice, Eggleton said. He added that the “very rules we now seek to circumvent may be the same rules we wish to evoke.” Eggleton also said “as a general principle preemptive action is fraught with dangers … the U.S. or other Western nations [do not] have an unblemished record [and] the solution we sought often [becomes] a problem later.” However, Eggleton noted that Canada is “not neutral when liberty and human rights are at threat” and that “we seek the same outcomes [as the US]: freedom and justice and peace.” “We in Canada are not a militaristic nation, nor do we spend a lot of money on the military,” Eggleton said. He also stated that “perhaps it is because we share so much with you [Americans] and think so much of you that we expect so much of you,” adding that “if war is being inflicted on our friends we rise to the occasion.” Audience members had the opportunity to ask questions after the lecture. One member asked about Canada’s involvement in the United State’s alleged violation of Geneva convention resolutions concerning the treatment of prisoners. Canada passed custody of prisoners they captured in Afghanistan to the U.S. with “assurances the U.S. would follow Geneva conventions,” Eggleton said. He noted that the main issues over prisoner treatment centered on whether the captives were prisoners of war or unlawful combatants. Organizers said they felt lucky to have such a prominent speaker come to Cornell. “Eggleton’s lecture was informative and insightful,” Braun said. “He is at the forefront of Canadian decision making.” Archived article by Brian Kaviar