5 coronavirus things: Free school meals extended to overseas U.S. military bases

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:

Students at most overseas Department of Defense Education Activity schools will receive free meals for the rest of the 2020-2021 school year under the USDA’s recent extension of the Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option waivers, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service has announced. The free meals will start to be available Nov. 2 at grab-and-go locations and schools operated by the Defense Department School Food Authorities and parents who had paid for their children’s meals in the fall will be refunded for meals purchased from August through October.

Read more: Free school meals program extended to students at schools on US military bases overseas

Appalachian State Campus Dining has closed three campus dining locations and laid off at least 60 student employees, but Chancellor Everts said that the full-time, permanent staff who worked in the closed facilities were reassigned to other areas on campus, according to Pam Cline, director of Campus Dining.

Related:5 coronavirus things: Georgia State closes Perimeter campus dining halls for rest of fall

“We are a receipt-supported operation,” Cline said. “Unfortunately, with fewer students, faculty and staff on campus, we cannot currently sustain the operations of our three least-patronized dining facilities.”

Read more: App State closes three dining locations, lays off student employees

The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) has advised all students to complete a 10-day shelter in place starting Nov. 12 before leaving for Thanksgiving break, which begins Nov. 20 and after which students will not return to campus but will finish classes remotely through the end of the fall semester on Dec. 5. During the shelter-in-place period, Pitt "will take measures, such as moving to take-out only dining and closing certain high-risk activities and spaces," according to spokesperson Kevin Zwick.

Read more: Students advised to shelter in place for 10 days before Thanksgiving break, can still attend in-person classes

UCLA spent more than $5.3 million on non-travel football meals in fiscal year 2019, more than four times as much as any other Pac-12 conference school—and more even than Ohio State ($3.4 million) and vastly more than defending national champion Louisiana State ($381,000), according to this Los Angeles Times analysis.

Related:Hospital’s curbside meal program adds retail dining business

UCLA officials counter that spending comparisons are misleading because many high-end programs have athlete-specific dining halls and shift overhead and operating costs for those facilities into other parts of the budget. The spending on food has not so far translated to on-field success as the UCLA Bruins football team has gone 7-17 in the past two years.

Read more: UCLA football remains success-starved, but no program is eating richer

Per capita spending is up considerably among the fans permitted to attend World Series games at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, the newly opened home of the Texas Rangers that is hosting the 2020 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays. Entering Tuesday night’s Game 6 that the Dodgers won to clinch the series, fans were spending twice as much on food and drink and four times the typical numbers for retail over a regular-season Rangers game at their old ballpark, Globe Life Park, said Casey Rapp, general manager for Delaware North Sportservice, the team’s concessionaire.

Read more: Series Caps Strong at Globe Life Field

Bonus: Chicken soup for the school food service soul: 10 feel-good social media moments

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]