Always Fresh, Always Abbott
Canadian Identity Reaffirmed by Tim Hortons Takeover
By Stevie Harper (Contributor)
Get out your Canadian flags, practice mispronouncing the word ‘about’, and cover your entire body in maple syrup. The iconic Canadian coffee shop chain, Tim Hortons, is here at John Abbott College, ready to serve all of the caffeine-enslaved students’ needs. In the area just inside the entrance of the Casgrain building, Tim Hortons is now open, selling doughnuts, breakfast sandwiches, muffins, and their standard assortment of caffeinated drinks. Just add in cheap ramen noodles, and students will never need to go anywhere else ever again. Don’t let them add cheap ramen noodles.
Last semester, John Abbott College’s food services were handled by Sodexo. Meals were bought at the cafeteria or the Munchbox, a smaller area where the more popular menu items, such as burger or hot dog combos, could be purchased with cash only. The Munchbox also boasted Starbucks brew coffee. Around the school, standard vending machines could be found, stocked with the usual chips, candy bars, and soft drinks that are loaded with enough sugar, salt, and carbon to make consumers carry easily identifiable signs of acne on their faces. Slightly healthier vending machines could also be found, dispensing a variety of items such as milk cartons, cereal packs, and sandwiches. For breakfast foods, one could go to the Oval café, which supplies muffins and other such items.
Along with the college’s new catering company, the food services have undergone many changes. The school cafeteria has changed menu items and prices. New items include chicken tenders and these new inventions named on the menu as ‘beef burgers’, along with variations of the meal of the day. Our vending machines have been completely overhauled, changed, and reorganized. The vending machines with sandwiches and cereal are rendered unnecessary by the unexpected presence of Tim Hortons. The popular coffee shop has been brought in to replace the old Munchbox, and is gradually providing new food items for students at reasonable prices. The only food service remaining unchanged from last semester is the recently renovated Oval Café.
Such a popular chain has brought a lot of traffic to the entrance of the Casgrain building, now often filled with a lineup of Abbott students needing caffeine and Macdonald High School students who think they need caffeine, sometimes stretching all the way to the Agora. Clearly, Tim Hortons is a chain well-liked by students, causing more of a lineup than the Starbucks brew coffee once boasted by the old Munchbox. This is most likely due to the influx of Canadian identity that one gets with driving a couple kilometers to school, buying a Timmies coffee with a couple Timbits, all for “aboot” five dollars, paid for by blue plastic bill with hockey players on it.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.