5 coronavirus things: College turns to restaurant deliveries after cafeteria forced to close due to coronavirus infection

In this special edition of 5 Things, Food Management highlights five things you may have missed recently about developments regarding coronavirus and its impact on onsite dining.

Here’s your list for today:

Rust College in Mississippi has closed its only campus cafeteria after a worker there tested positive for COVID-19. The cafeteria has been cleaned but will remain closed for two weeks while the workers quarantine. Meanwhile, school officials ordered pizza over the weekend for the roughly 300 students on campus and the college then turned to local restaurants to deliver three meals a day straight to the dorms. School officials say the food is being offered to all students on campus whether they have a meal plan or not.

Read more: Rust College closes cafeteria after worker tests positive for COVID-19

Binghamton University (BU) is pausing in-person classes for two weeks after an increase in coronavirus infections on campus, with all on-campus dining switching to takeout only during the pause. Part of the SUNY (State University of New York) system, BU is just one of the SUNY schools to face COVID-related pauses in in-person instruction. SUNY Oswego and SUNY Cortland have had similar pauses while SUNY Oneonta stopped in-person classes and sent students home for the entire fall semester.

Related:Scratch cooking against the odds in Ojai (Calif.) Unified School District

Read more: SUNY Binghamton halting in-person classes for 2 weeks

A major issue in senior living is the loneliness resulting from COVID-related safety measures such as the closing of communal dining spaces, and the toll is beginning to mount. At one nursing facility in Colorado recently, residents waving signs with messages such as “I’d rather die of COVID than loneliness” and “We are prisoners in our home” staged an anti-lockdown protest across the street from the city’s largest hospital.

The protest against mandates that prohibit nursing home residents from seeing their loved ones was thought up, organized and carried out by the residents with oversight from their nurses and other staff members, who made sure the residents were all placed six feet apart and were wearing masks during the protest.

Read more: Greeley nursing home residents protest pandemic lockdown: “I’d rather die of COVID than loneliness”

After trying to deliver meals to district students with school buses and getting almost no participation, Southside ISD in Texas modified its delivery vehicle to resemble an ice cream truck and has almost tripled its participation numbers, from around 800 a day to 2,300. The district installed a speaker to its bus that plays the common melodies of an ice cream truck and that seems to attract kids and families to receive the meals being dispensed.

Related:American Express reopens on-site foodservice with increased grab and go, robots and apps

Read more: Ice cream truck? Southside ISD figures out a way to feed the district

The NFL’s Green Bay Packers will no longer accept cash at either the team’s Lambeau Field home stadium or at the Titletown District businesses they run. The team was planning a gradual transition to cashless before the COVID-19 crisis but decided to speed it up due to its fast spread in the community. Payment methods that will be accepted include traditional as well as tap-and-go credit and debit cards, Mastercard Nearby Mobile App, Apple Pay and Google Pay, but not checks.

Read more: Green Bay Packers no longer accept cash at Lambeau Field, Titletown District as COVID-19 precaution

Bonus: Sodexo launches coronavirus-compliant B&I concept

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]