Your Ranking of the Food Offerings at Mensa Gießberg at the University of Konstanz in the 2026 Mensa Survey

In February and March, we conducted our large-scale survey at Mensa Gießberg and asked you what matters most to you, how you rate the Mensa, and what suggestions for improvement you may have.
 

We are very pleased that around 1,800 Mensa visitors took part in the survey, including 69% students, 30% staff members, and 1% external guests. The University of Konstanz currently has approximately 9,100 enrolled students and 2,400 employees. On average, we serve 2,000 lunches per day at Mensa Gießberg. For us, the survey results therefore provide a broad and meaningful picture of overall opinions and sentiment, and we would like to sincerely thank everyone for the many thoughtful and differentiated responses.
 

We received well over a thousand individual comments and suggestions, which we are still in the process of reviewing and which will contribute to the further development of the Mensa. Nevertheless, we would already like to give you a brief overview of the most important findings:

Conclusion: We want to improve

Thank you very much for your active participation in our Mensa survey and for the feedback you continue to share with us in between. We are pleased that many guests enjoy eating with us and that positive and neutral ratings of the Mensa overall clearly outweigh the critical ones.
 

Of course, we also see the criticism and take it seriously. The survey confirmed that there is room for improvement in some areas. One key point — and at the same time the most challenging issue for us — is value for money.
 

At the Mensa, we operate in a highly complex area of conflicting demands. In principle, running a Mensa at a university is a loss-making operation. With our offering, we fulfil a social responsibility by supporting students and providing them with a balanced, healthy, and affordable lunch. Unlike other catering businesses, our goal is not to generate profits. However, in order to maintain our offering, we do need to at least cover our costs in the long term. Raising prices is always the last resort for us, and one we want to avoid wherever possible.

At the same time, our costs are rising, while we do not want to lower our standards in terms of quality, choice, and sustainability. This dilemma is also reflected in the survey results: regional products, sustainability, and organic products are important to many guests, but for most, price is even more important. What is interesting here is that roughly the same number of respondents are willing to pay a higher price for a climate-friendly offering — 39% answered “yes” or “rather yes” — while 40% answered “no” or “rather no”.

Since we want to avoid both raising prices and cutting back on quality as much as possible, we are constantly adjusting the many other small levers available to us. Above all, however, we need one thing: as many guests as possible.
 

In recent years, like other Mensen, we have seen a decline in the number of meals served. This makes the situation even more challenging. The fewer meals we serve, the harder it becomes to maintain a varied, affordable, and high-quality offering. Conversely, the more guests eat regularly at the Mensa, the greater our scope to further develop, improve, and eventually expand our offering. Only by selling enough meals can we maintain what we offer.

And that is why we know: we need to become even better so that even more people enjoy eating with us. Your feedback helps us do this and, alongside numerous other criteria, feeds into the continuous improvement of our Mensa.
 

We will keep you updated on the measures we derive from the survey. Until then, we would be delighted to welcome you to the Mensa so you can see our offering for yourself.