Fernando Poumián

200 Wallington Dr.

El Paso, TX 79902

September 30, 2010

Luis Gonzalez
UTEP Food Services General Manager
500W University Ave.
El Paso, TX 79968

Dear Mr. Gonzalez:

First of all, thank you for taking the time to read my letter. I’m a current undergraduate student at
UTEP and as such I would like to bring to your attention an issue and a proposal that might be of
interest to you. It is concerning the variety and accessibility of the Sodexo venues at campus
which provide healthy food alternatives for students and staff. I would like to emphasize that
these observations are not only based on my personal experiences but also in those of many of
my friends and classmates around the campus.
As you know, there are already two venues in campus which provide a healthy food alternatives
(Garden Gourmet and Simply to Go) and as far as the quality of the food and the services goes, I
have no complain at all. However, because these two places are exclusively located at the
Student Union Building, it is highly inconvenient for many students to go there when there are
other Sodexo venues which are much closer to them; unfortunately, none of these other options
offer healthy alternatives in their menus. For example, students at the College of Business
Administration only have the “Miner Stop” venue inside the building, in which you can find
coffee, nachos, burritos but hardly any healthy and substantial meal. In the same way, students
who are at the library can go to Jazzman’s Café & Bakery and even to the venues located at the
El Paso Natural Gas Center across the street, but once again, they are left without any healthy
alternatives to choose from.
Another factor that is also discouraging many students is the fact that both Garden Gourmet and
Simply to Go close at 2:00 pm, making it even more difficult for students who want to enjoy a
healthy meal to go to these venues due to conflicting schedules with their classes. In comparison,
many other Sodexo venues such as Pete’s Pizza, Quizno’s Sub, Delicious Mexican Express and
Einstein Bros close until 7:00 pm, making them more accessible to all students and staff
regardless of their schedule. In my personal case, I have my lunch break from 2:30 to 3:00 pm,
so, even if I decided to walk all the way to the Student Union Center, I would find these two
venues closed. Unfortunately, many students I know also face a similar dilemma when choosing
where to eat at their lunch break.
So, while one solution to the problem would be extending the opening hours of Garden Gourmet
and Simply to Go, that would still leave us with the issue of the location of these venues. Ideally
we would have many of these venues all around campus which would remain open until 7:00
pm, but in these tough economic times I know that would probably result very impractical to
accomplish. I think the optimal solution would be just to add more healthy food alternatives to
all the existing venues inside the campus, so that wherever students are they can always find
something healthy and substantial to eat. Sometimes this can be achieved just by changing
certain ingredients to some of the products. For example, since many venues sell burritos, why
not selling burritos with 100% whole grain tortillas which are much healthier compared to
refined wheat tortillas. A scrambled eggs burrito made with a whole grain tortilla would be an
excellent breakfast rich in fiber and protein. Also, in venues like Delicious Mexican Express, it
might be a good idea to include in the menu healthy Mexican dishes such as Lentil soup, which
is an excellent and delicious source of protein.
Similar to these, there are many other healthy dishes which are easy to cook and that can be
easily integrated to the menus of most of the venues in campus. I would gladly provide you with
a more extended list of such dishes if you are interested in my proposal. The most important
consideration to take into account is that they must be dishes which are high in protein and fiber
and low in sugars, calories, saturated fats and trans fats.
With the alarming rising level of obesity in this country and with all the studies that prove the
correlation between a good nutrition and a good academic performance, I am sure that many of
the UTEP students would appreciate if you would consider this proposal and take action to make
our university an even better institution. I look forward to hearing from you and should you have
any question don’t hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Fernando Poumián.