Moravian’s Dining Department held its second Culinary Council meeting on March 6, allowing students to voice concerns and recommendations for improving dining facilities and operations.
A meal consisting of three types of mac and cheese, two types of popcorn chicken, and other toppings. Dessert and drinks were also provided to students who attended.
Operations Manager Brianna Croslis began the meeting by updating students about changes to Clewell Dining Hall and to The Star. At Clewell, several new staff members have been hired for the rotation of multiple chefs. Each chef can bring new and different meal ideas to students, providing more variety to the menu.
In The Star, with HUB demolitions fully underway, seats have once again been reconfigured. Changes in the seating arrangement will continue to be made as staff members observe the needs of the student body during reconstruction.
Iced coffee has been reintroduced and a spice rack has been added based on student feedback from the first Culinary Council meeting of the semester.
Retail Manager Dale Fisher also spoke. He began by addressing changes made based on feedback from the last meeting.
He informed students that portion sizes for the new Açaí bowls in DeLight’s Café have been improved and that if students still experienced issues they should not hesitate to ask an employee for extra peanut butter, banana, etc.
On the ordering kiosks in the B&G, an update to order sauce or cheese on the side has been made. New cheese options have been added for items such as wraps and Tender Melts.
To prevent confusion between the bleu cheese and ranch dressings, containers have been labeled. A recommendation to label other sauces such as BBQ and other similarly-colored sauces was made during this meeting, which Fisher said would also be completed.
New doors and a ramp were built into the B&G over Spring Break to prevent disruptions due to the HUB reconstruction. As of March 7, new doors with windows have been added to help with foot traffic, and as a new set of windows was installed.
Students raised concerns about the potential slipping hazard on the ramp when it rains, and Fisher informed students that an outdoor mat will be installed outside of the doors.
Fisher said he is considering implementing an “Open”/”Closed” sign to further mitigate confusion about the B&G’s operational hours. Once the new windows have been installed, Dining will determine if students are still confused about whether the B&G is open or not.
Dining continues to work on improvements to the Everyday app, such as uploading photos, adding more menu items, and updating the rewards system.
Students raised concerns about the customization capabilities of Starbucks drinks on the Everyday app that are not available on the kiosks in DeLight’s.
Vending machines on campus still do not accept Dining Dollars due to the card readers’ not accepting tap payments, only swipes. With the new Moravian IDs that were instated, students are unable to swipe their cards and utilize Dining Dollars. Dining has reached out to Sodexo, which informed them that a beta version of card readers with tap reading is in the process of being developed.
The next and final Culinary Council meeting of the semester will be held in April on South Campus.
