Rollins College Dining Services survives Hurricane Milton

Hurricane Milton, which made landfall on the west coast of Florida less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene, cut a swath of destruction as the strongest tropical cyclone worldwide this year so far. Milton is the second-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded over the Gulf of Mexico, second only to Hurricane Rita in 2005. 

The Sodexo dining team at Rollins College served one last meal before evacuation, but that was just the beginning in helping the community start to rebuild.

A steady presence before the storm hit, the dining team got to the heart of caring for students with that final meal service on Tuesday at 5 p.m. The team then created care packages with nonperishable food items for students to take. The care packages were specifically designed for students relocating to shelters, ensuring they had enough to sustain them through the storm.

During the storm, a group of six brave dining associates rode it out at the Rollins Hotel, doing the crucial tasks of checking in on equipment and assessing any potential damage to the dining facilities. As soon as it was safe, the team was ready to get dining services up and running again. 

“Once the storm passed, a skeleton crew from Dining Services returned to campus to feed the support teams working behind the scenes, including members of Facilities and Campus Safety. But their mission extended beyond simply maintaining operations,” according to a statement from Sodexo. “The team remained focused on student well-being, knowing that their efforts to restore normalcy would be vital to students’ sense of security and comfort when they returned.”

When the college reopened, Dining Services quickly picked up with operations, beginning with a “welcome back” brunch for students and staff. “For the dining team, it was about more than just providing meals—it was about fostering a sense of community and care, offering students comfort after a stressful time,” the statement said. “Their rapid response demonstrated the resilience and dedication of Rollins Dining in supporting not only the logistics of campus life but also the physical and emotional well-being of their students.”