NC State Dining has been working over the summer to create systems and implement procedures to maintain social distancing in dining spaces and optimize students’ dining experiences this fall, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shawn Hoch, senior director of dining and hospitality services, and Jennifer Gilmore, director of marketing and communications, have both been a part of the effort to make changes to dining at NC State.

Dining Locations

NC State will have three fully-operational dining halls this fall: Fountain, Clark and Case.

Fountain and Clark are set to open on July 31. Case will open on Aug. 10. All three dining locations will operate on a streamlined menu, offering the most popular items in each dining hall among students. Case and Fountain will have a home-plus model of dining, allowing students to get a simple, homestyle meal from the homestyle station along with an additional meal from another station, such as stir-fry or grill. 

Each dining hall location will have dine-in, take out and mobile ordering systems. 

Dining-In

Typically, a student has the option to dine in at one of the three dining hall locations on campus whenever they want. The dine-in experience for students will be slightly different this fall due to Wake County’s COVID-19 regulations. 

Currently, all dining locations at NC State are at 50% capacity and only 10 people are allowed to eat at a table at a time. Hoch highly encourages students to sit with pods of friends, suitemates or cohorts in order to reduce the possibility of transmitting COVID-19.

The restrictions mean students are not guaranteed the ability to dine-in every time they visit a dining hall in the fall. 

“If dining in is important to them, then don’t go at peak hours—between 6:00-7:30 p.m.—and also avoid crowds,” Hoch said. “We also have available outdoor tent space for additional seating.”

Outdoor tents with and without tables are strategically positioned around campus in order to provide additional seating for dining out, studying and other activities. A student can find the location of these tents by referring to the quick reference guide to dining. The guides were emailed out to students and will be passed out at the Wolfpack One Card distribution station in Talley Student Union and other points around campus. 

Takeout

The first time a student asks for takeout, the cashier will give them one free takeout container. Once the student gets their container, they will be able to fill it up as much as they want. They will also have the ability to select prepackaged goods and a beverage without an additional charge. 

The next time a student enters the dining hall, they will give the container back to the cashier and receive a clean container or a placeholder carabiner in return. The current carabiner system is replacing the token system used in the past and functions as a way to alert cashiers if a student has returned their one free container and is eligible for another one. 

If a student loses their one free container or the carabiner or forgets to bring either one to the dining hall with them the next time they try to get takeout, they will be charged $2.50— the price of a new container. 

Grubhub Mobile Ordering

Another change to the dining system for the fall is the addition of the mobile ordering system, Grubhub, to almost all dining locations on campus.

The purpose of ordering ahead is to decrease the volume of students in buildings. Grubhub is completely free for students if they use the app’s pickup feature. The pickup feature acts as a notification system to the dining locations that allow students to preorder food and reduce their time spent in the dining location. However, the delivery portion of Grubhub is not covered by NC State Dining and is an additional fee. 

Students must sign in to the app with their Unity ID to take advantage of the takeout option at dining halls. 

Gilmore stresses students sign in with their Unity ID and add their NCSU Campus Card to their Grubhub account, which will allow them to use their meal credits, dining dollars or All Campus funds whenever they choose.

Increasing Efficiency of Dining Halls

The dining hall management team is encouraging students to make menu decisions prior to entering dining halls, in order to reduce volume and promote social distancing.

“Ultimately what we are hoping to do is stir our guests to make decisions in advance to coming into the dining hall so when they come into the space, they are not […] trying to make a decision and get in the wrong line and just create additional bottle necks, which puts a lot of pressure on other students,” Hoch said.

Students can find each dining location’s current menu on NC State’s dining website or on the On Campus app. 

Another way in which dining halls are increasing efficiency is by reducing students’ customizability. Dining hall menus will feature fewer options in the fall in order to streamline the meal selection process. 

“They [the dining team] have a lot of data to point to the things that have a high favorability among students […] so I think that even though there are going to be less customizable choices, there’s going to be a lot of things where students look at and say ‘you know what, that looks delicious and I’m going to take that,’” Gilmore said. 

Eating with Dietary Restrictions

Director of Nutrition Lauren Smith has been working to ensure students with allergies and dietary restrictions still have a variety of foods to choose from. 

One part of Smith’s job is to ensure every location on campus has ample menu options which do not contain the core eight allergens. All NC State dining locations are required to flag and label if any of the core eight allergens are present in a dish and also have an alternative option available for students with that allergy. 

“I definitely encourage students to be their own advocate,” Hoch said. “If they aren’t sure about something, please ask. If they’re having challenges with their needs being met, reach out to us […] we are here to help our students navigate the spaces safely and to make sure that we have good choices.” 

Hoch encourages students to reach out to Lauren Smith via Well-Fed Wolfpack with any nutrition concerns.