5 things: Colleges face dining program issues as spring term begins

Each Friday Food Management compiles a list that highlights five things you probably missed in the onsite foodservice news that week and why you should care about them.

Here’s your list for the week of February 8:

COVID-quarantined students at University of California-Berkeley report receiving sub-standard, damaged and inadequate meals from campus dining. They acknowledge that the department is prompt in delivering substitutes once a complaint is lodged but wonder why it has to come to that so often to get a quality meal. Another report cited other difficulties with dining at the campus—which is closed to in-person instruction for the spring semester—such as a complex badge system interlaced with extensive testing that controls who can and cannot enter campus dining halls, and a policy, apparently no longer in effect, that prohibited students from leaving their dorms to obtain food other than from “a kiosk located outside their residence hall”.

Read more: Quarantined students describe abysmal food conditions, allergen violations

UC-Berkeley isn’t the only campus struggling with providing adequate campus dining service, or at least dining service that satisfies student expectations. Reduced dining venue hours, long lines and technical difficulties have frustrated students at Rider College in the first two weeks of the spring semester while a new reusable takeout container policy confused students at the College of New Jersey. Mobile ordering problems have cropped up at Brown University while Ohio University rolled out a new mobile app to ease long dining hall lines and at SUNY Oswego, long lines in freezing temperatures forced the school to reopen a dining hall that had been planned to remain closed all semester.

Related:5 coronavirus things: Aramark U.S. food/support service unit revenue drops 45% in Q1 of FY2021

Wake County Schools in North Carolina announced new school dining rules as students began returning to school buildings for in-person classes. They including students not being allowed to take their masks off until everyone in their area is seated at least six feet apart with food packages open and ready to eat, at which point everyone removes their masks at the same time to start eating. They are prohibited from socializing or talking with others while their masks are off and they need to put their masks back on as soon as they finish eating.

Read more: Wake schools lay down new lunch rules to limit coronavirus spread

Related:5 coronavirus things: Catering firms and robots fill the need in a remote work and learning world

FM Top 50 firm Legends Hospitality reported record game day spending of more than $212 per capita across food, beverage and merchandise sales at Super Bowl LV in Tampa’ Raymond James Stadium. The average game-day food and beverage spend was $132, a new Super Bowl record, as was the per cap game day merchandise spend of $80.

Read more: Legends sets hospitality sales records at Super Bowl LV

The negative impact of COVID on office worker dining reached a new low recently when it was announced that the French Labor Ministry will allow employees to eat lunch at their desks in order to contain the spread of the virus, a practice previously forbidden under the Code du Travail, France’s labor code. Previously, any company allowing employees to eat lunch at their desks was subject to a fine if discovered by the inspectors who enforce the labor code while the employee in question faced unspecified disciplinary action.

Read more: France’s Latest Covid Measure: Letting Workers Eat at Their Desks

Bonus: Chefs to Watch: How UNC Health’s Mike Teasley is nourishing his customers and team

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]