College dining trending: Mobile food carts, a dining hall renovated to meet to-go needs and curbside groceries

This month, New Mexico State University and Sodexo partnered to test mobile food carts running on electricity. The program was inspired by the shift to outdoor dining that the coronavirus pandemic spurred. With that pivot, NMSU grabbed the opportunity to safely serve students with The Stache, a food cart from a family-run Colorado company that runs on an electric charge and can be set up near and far to socially distance with breakfast, lunch, pop-ups and snack breaks.

And, in upstate New York, the latest campus dining hall renovation (completed just before the pandemic) turned out to be built for the shift in on-premise dining. SUNY Plattsburgh renovated its last dining hall with more of a focus on to-go options and merging campus dining and campus housing.

“The template came about pre-COVID, but there were things we were focusing on—signature sandwiches, portability—that fit so well into our ‘new normal,’” said Christopher Mihalyi, resident district manager with Chartwells at SUNY Plattsburgh.

We also saw trending stories on curbside grocery pickup at Cal State Los Angeles, build-your-own options returning safely at Texas Tech and how to feed quarantined students on Food Management.

Take a look.