In the wake of the administration’s closure of the Architecture Café and subsequent Students’ Society-supported boycott of McGill Food and Dining Services, some of McGill’s student-run food services have seen an increase in business this semester.
Over the summer, the McGill administration closed the Architecture Café, a popular student-managed eatery in the Macdonald-Harrington Building.
Students began boycotting Food and Dining Services shortly after a rally protesting the café’s closure on September 21. SSMU Council voted to endorse the boycott at their meeting on September 30.
The boycott aims to put pressure on McGill Food and Dining Services to push the administration to reconsider the closing of the Architecture Café.
In the weeks since the boycott began, some student-run food outlets on campus have since seen a slight bump in their business.
The General Store in the McConnell Engineering Building, which is run by the Engineering Undergraduate Society, is one of the services that has seen more business. Laura Samaan, one of the General Store’s managers, said the store has been selling brownies and zaatars to fill the void left by the Architecture Café.
Samaan said she thought the increase in business was mostly composed of students who would have previously patronized the Architecture Café, rather than students boycotting Food and Dining Services.
“I think it’s more of a fact that the Architecture Café is closed,” she said. “There are people who know about the boycott, but then there are also a lot of people who don’t know about the boycott.”
Snax, the Leacock Building food counter run by the Arts Undergraduate Society, has also been busier. However, unlike Samaan, Erin Schilling, the general manager, attributed the bump to support for the boycott, and not the void in campus food options left by the Architecture Café’s closure.
“I think that a lot of people come because of the boycott,” she said. “Because of the closing of the Architecture Café, people are realizing more that [for] the student-run places on campus, it’s less about making money and more about student life and being able to make a choice between one place and another.”
Schilling estimated that Snax is doing about 10 per cent more business than it was this time last year.
“We’ve been moving a larger quantity of our product because a lot more students are coming,” she said.
SSMU Vice-President Finance & Operations Nick Drew, who oversees the operations of Gert’s, said he has not seen a change in business there since the boycott began. The bar, however, only sells food later in the day, after many outlets run by Food and Dining Services have closed.
Drew pointed out that it is difficult to gauge the effect of the boycott solely by looking at other businesses on campus.
“If you see the lineup [at the Subway in the Arts Building] getting smaller and smaller, you know the boycott is working,” he said.
While many students seem to be supporting the boycott—the Facebook event had more than 3,400 attendees at press time—the university administration has not yet responded to the students.
“Some students that have come up have mentioned that they want to do their part [to support the boycott],” Schilling said, “but it’s not necessarily every student.”
