What do students order when delivery robots come to campus?

As FoodService Director reported last month, Sodexo recently teamed up with tech company Starship Technologies to bring a fleet of food delivery robots to George Mason University. Through the service, students at the Fairfax, Va., university can place an order via app and observe the robots’ delivery journey (typically no more than 15 minutes) in real time. But what has the outcome been so far?

An additional 1,500 breakfast orders have been placed and delivered since the robots came to campus in late January, according to a joint press release from Sodexo and Starship Technologies.

Initially, the dinner daypart was the one that saw an influx of orders, Starship Technologies told the Washington Post, so much so that school officials were forced to stop taking orders on the robots’ first day to prevent deliveries from taking place too late at night.

However, breakfast later became the meal that saw the biggest uptick.

To promote breakfast delivery at the latest campus to receive its robots, Northern Arizona University (NAU), Sodexo will give the student who places the first robot order from Einstein Bros. Bagels free breakfast for the rest of the school year. More than 30 delivery robots debuted at the NAU campus in Flagstaff on Monday.

As at George Mason, orders are placed in conjunction with students’ meal plans and command an additional delivery fee of $1.99.