LOOKING for a place to eat during lunch time is a common problem among students, as school cafeterias and nearby fast-food outlets and karenderia are often packed full of people once the clock strikes 12 noon.
In order to cater to the students' everyday dilemma, Joel Ramos, the owner of the dessert shop Nummies, decided to open up a business that serves lunch food at an affordable price.
Lunch Central, now on its third year, is a food hub located at the second floor of Nummies Sweet Shop, along Pabayo Street, Cagayan de Oro City, which is composed of nine feasibility studies groups.
The nine groups or companies are students from Xavier University who took up business-related courses, according to Ramos.
"Ang common problem kasi ng mga students is where to find food during lunch time. Its either they go to Jollibee, they go to mga karenderia or inside sa school. We decided na parang let's create a business wherein we can cater to all of it, kung baga yung mga students," Ramos said.
"It’s a place by the students for the students," he added, saying that he's only renting the place for the students to put up their businesses.
According to Ramos, each year, they change the food concept as the students who do the feasibility studies graduate.
"So basically, this is the first of its kind," Ramos said.
Each of the group has their own original product, selling them at a price range of below P60 (i.e. P59, P55 or P49), a satisfactory price especially for students.
McManok
McManok serves glazed fried chicken with unique flavors of that their customers can choose from: honey garlic and buffalo.
What makes it unique if that they created the flavors and the sauce themselves from scratch, unlike others who bought ready-made sauce.
Shakey Chick
Shakey Chick sells a variety of flavored chicken such as barbeque, cheese, spicy barbeque and spicy cheese. Each serving consists of double flavored chicken wings with garlic rice.
Sisig Natu
Sisig Natu serves tuna and pork sisig. It is to cater to every student regardless of their religion. So tuna sisig for Muslim and Seventh Day Adventist students and pork sisig for those who were allowed to eat pork.
Crave Dip
Crave Dip offers Lechon Kawali with Cheesy Potato which they sell at an affordable price of P59.
According to their finance manager, they chose lechon kawali as their product to attract their target market, the students, especially since lechon kawali is not something you commonly served in fastfood chains or karenderia.
Bonito Taco
Bonito Taco serves taco, a rolled tortilla filled with beef or chicken, tomato, lettuce, cheese and cucumber, and mayonnaise.
The production manager of Bonito Taco said they chose taco as their product for they want to bring back taco business in Cagayan de Oro.
Wrap and Roll
Wrap and Roll offers shawarma rice, which consists of Chinese cabbage and cucumber, topped with Korean Barbeque (pork) and Buff Rock (chicken).
Cheesaw
Cheesaw, a product by 421 Bengalla, is deep-fried chicken intestine with cheese inside. They are the first in Cagayan de Oro to create this kind of product that shows a twist of the usual isaw that Filipinos love to eat.
Cheesy Bomb
Cheesy Bomb serves chicken balls with cheese inside with variety of sauces such as the honey mustard, buffalo and soy garlic. One serving is composed of five chicken balls with sauce of your choice.
The chicken balls are made from ground chicken which they formed into balls together with the cheese. Cheese is a core ingredient in their product as, according to the managers of Cheesy Bomb, cheese has become something that millennials of today prefer.
Chick 2 Juan
Chick 2 Juan offers chicken nuggets and their own rendition of chicken ala king. They use the breast part of the chicken to create their own chicken nuggets. They also have sauces available which are the mayo, spicy and barbeque.
Lunch Central is open Monday to Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.