The New Dining Hall Dilemma

Colleges and universities are scrambling around , trying to figure out how to have classes this fall. Many, like Harvard, have cancelled until 2021 or 2022. Yet there are some that will be open.With it comes all sorts of problems, especially in the dining hall. What's to be done? How will students eat in  the new normal that awaits them? There are a few plans set in place.

Jane Black,a well known food writer, wrote this interesting piece for today's New York Times Food section.where students are going to eat in another month is a true concern. Many campus dining halls will be operating at reduced capacity with restrictions set in place. Gone are the salad and make your own taco bars. If the campus keeps the first, it will be limited in ingredients to keep the line moving. Masks and gloves will be mandatory everywhere  Big universities as Rice  in Houston , Texas will have daily temperature checks along with reducing staff. The Bon Appetite Management Company ,a food service firm operating at more than one hundred campuses including Furman University in North Carolina, Portland, Oregon's Reed College , the University of Chicago and M.I.T.  is using robots in the kitchen. They did this before the pandemic, installing automatons at schools across the country. There are Blendid robots that have made smoothies, "Sally" that whips up salads and a so-called pizza ATM that can whip out a hot pie in three minutes.

Yet there are directors of dining services that will try to bring some fun to eating and meal time. Garett DiStefano, , food director at the University of Massachusetts already has two food trucks and mobile kitchen. The last serve student favorites such as burgers and grilled cheese. he plans to expand those menus along with creating additional options like a falafel bar under a tent outdoors. Another campus food service, Sodexo, another food service giant will be offering another form of robot, basically a cooler on wheels. It delivers meals and snacks from such student hangouts as Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. Dorm eating will be popular. Ethan Hodge, an Asian studies major at Furman, stayed at the campus when it closed. its' classes.He couldn't leave because his family is homeless and he had no where to go. His college apartment was the safest place to be for him. He and roughly eighty other students picked up prepared food at the dining hall. as the student population dwindled , there was reheatable and prepared meals. They also ordered groceries on line so they could cook their own meals.

This fall will be interesting as campus scramble to open. The dining situation will have varied ones. Will they work? Hopefully so.