As the fall semester continues, many students have noticed the changes to the hot food offerings at Science Center Cafe (Sci). Through Spring 2026, catered Chinese food from Yangtze Inn in Media, PA was available daily for lunch and dinner at the cafe. As of this semester, Sci instead offers meals prepared in Swarthmore’s Dining Community Commons (DCC), packaged in the campus’s signature orange reusable containers.
Before 9 p.m., students can only use their meal swipes at the DCC. Purchases at Sci are made using Swat Points, Dining Dollars, or debit/credit cards. After 9 p.m., students can use their “evening swipe” at the Science Center to purchase an entree and a canned drink.
The change comes as Erich Geiger starts his first year as Swarthmore Dining’s executive director. In an email correspondence with The Phoenix, Geiger explained that pivoting from Yangtze Inn’s catering wasn’t his idea. In fact, Sci’s Chinese food offerings were never intended to be permanent. After its sweeping renovations in 2022, the DCC was supposed to provide late-night dining options, but that change wasn’t implemented until the DCC’s operations were adjusted this year.
According to Geiger, the change is “driven by [the DCC’s] desire to offer greater variety and create a more diverse late-night menu. [They] want to provide fresh, nutritious food while allowing [their] talented culinary team to showcase the same level of quality and care they provide across campus.”
Coming into the 2026-2027 school year, Geiger received feedback that students wanted “more variety and fresh[er] options” around campus. And yet, the new offerings have been met with mixed reception from students.
Blythe Johnson ’29 described the transition as “disappointing.” Prior to the change, Johnson was an “avid swiper.” She used to select her meal plan to accommodate this habit, but “now that’s changed. If I wanted DCC food, I would’ve [gone] there.”
Conversely, Gary Du ’28, a commuter student who depends almost exclusively on meals from the Science Center, describes the new food options as “pretty good.”
Charisma Santa ’28 feels somewhat more optimistic about the decision, saying that the change did in fact bring “variety and more freshness” but she’d “prefer to have the Chinese food every night. The [DCC] food is a hit or miss. The Chinese food was always predictable, so I didn’t feel like I was wasting a meal swipe.”
Although Geiger doesn’t highlight sustainability as the primary reason for the change, students seem to view it as a major benefit of the new arrangement.
“It’s a good step in terms of having reusable containers,” says Julian Courtney-Bacher ’27. Du echoed that sentiment, adding “If this helps reduce food waste, I am happy to support it.”
In the past, the Chinese food was brought to campus and stored hours before 9 p.m. “due to the restaurant’s hours of operation,” negatively impacting the “overall freshness and quality of the food.” Now, Geiger shares that “the food served at the Science Center is being prepared by our culinary team approximately one hour before service, allowing us to provide a fresher and more thoughtfully prepared late-night experience.”
Du has noticed the difference, sharing that “[the food] definitely tastes a bit fresher. Sometimes, when I would get the Chinese food for dinner last semester, it would obviously be the leftover Chinese food from lunch.”
Courtney-Bacher agrees that the food is fresher, but feels that he isn’t able to reap the full benefits of this change because the vegetarian options are limited, leaving him with only “one real choice per night” and smaller portions.
Geiger received similar feedback from other students. In response, he and the dining staff have worked towards adding “more vegetarian options and are currently working on bringing in more gluten-free and allergy-friendly choices soon.”
Courtney-Bacher doesn’t want to abandon the packaged meals. Instead, he hopes to see improvements. “If this is one step along the path to more food options, it’s a good thing. If they keep it up and they think more about the quality of each food item … it could be a lot better.”
Santa, who was hoping for options other than the Chinese food, feels like the new packaged meals don’t satisfy that desire: “I used to complain about it always being Chinese food but I guess I was looking for different catered options. The last thing I expected was DCC food.”
According to Geiger, Sci’s altered menu has had no impact on the amount of students that use meal swipes at the cafe after 9 p.m. Still, he adds, student feedback is welcome and highly encouraged.
“This is the plan for the remainder of the current school year. Once the school year wraps up, we will thoroughly review our entire dining program and look closely at feedback from the community to decide our next steps moving forward.”
