Campus Dining: Experience or New Dining Food Options

Southern University campus dining has found ways to make the dining hall experience more diverting. This semester they celebrated vegetarian day, Hispanic heritage month, and implemented fit Fridays. Campus dining has formed several interactive ways for the students to enjoy the dining facilities. “We plan to get some students to vote on a few different themed dining pop-ups to see what type of events they might like to see this semester as well,” stated Brandon Lindsey Marketing Manager at Southern University. There are currently about 100 active employees for dining services. That are prepared to actively serve the students. The Covid-19 protocols for the dining facilities are aligned with university policies for all campus dining faculty and staff.
On a normal day between Mayberry and Dunn Hall, the swipe transactions estimate to about 1200 students that visit daily. According to the Fall 2021 residential enrollment report, there are roughly 350 fewer students living on campus, compared to the 2019 school year. Naturally, this has caused a drop in student traffic. Student allergies are always taken into consideration. The South Region of Aramark Higher Education has a Registered Dietitian, Jill Hamilton, who leads training initiatives and is available to students. At the campuses Hamilton serves to help address allergy needs or concerns for students with allergies. “When I do eat at the dining halls or in the Union, the prices are sort of high for my food not to be good quality. We need more food options because I am willing to drive off campus if I know I will be fulfilled. As far as the dining halls are concerned, the food is a hit or miss and that’s unfair because we pay for expensive meal plans but the food is rarely of the same value. The food workers are sometimes nice but when it’s closer to closing they can be impolite. Also, the hours of operation should be extended, since most night classes get out late” stated student La Tavia Roberts senior AMTX major from Georgia.
The goal for the dining halls is to have minimal waste at the end of each meal period. Therefore, the amount of food is tracked producing and serving for each service. Utilization of technology to track this process enables accurate daily forecasting.
However, student Justice Clark a junior nursing major from Chicago stated, “the inconsistency of the quality of my food frustrates me. I don’t like how they wait to cook good food for special occasions. I would appreciate it if I could be confident in the dining halls no matter what. For instance, during homecoming, they had a nacho bar, and I told the staff how much I enjoyed it and that I would like to see it more. However, they responded by saying that it was just for homecoming. I was very disappointed by the response seeing that I am a consumer who pays over 1500 dollars for a meal plan.”
Dining services have implemented several safety and sanitation measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as adding a cleanliness metric to customer feedback platform. This allows the customers to rate cleanliness levels on a scale of 1 – 10 at any dining location on campus. And faculty is sent alerts to notify any concerns or issues in real time. The dining halls have a nutrition strategy that continues to be, “driven by the belief that cultivating an environment filled with an abundance of wholesome, fresh, nutritious foods is the single most important thing they can do to create a culture of health and wellbeing, “stated Brandon Lindsey, Marketing Manager.
The Plant Forward initiative is central to the healthy menu innovation. The initiative created more than 300 new plant-based recipes. Lindsey believes that the work in that area continues. Campus Dining has had handcrafted grain bowls, vegetarian option area, and plans on continuing to offer and promote more healthy alternatives going forward as items become available.
Subsequently campus dining now offers marketing internships. As positions are available, they’ll make an announcement via social media outlets, email blast to students, and post visual aids around campus to inform students of any openings available. Students can also visit Aramark.com/careers and search for our location where job postings are made available.
According to Brandon Lindsey Marketing Manager, “we continuously have themed dining events and pop-ups being planned in both dining halls for the upcoming months and semester. For example, some exciting events we have in mind are a seafood boil dinner, a late-night breakfast, and a rib night just to name a few.” Campus dining has several events planned for the semester that the students can enjoy.