Getting food at the York Hill dining hall can be a slog. Sometimes it takes upwards of 10 minutes to get a plate of eggs and bacon on an average weekday morning.
The quick and easy thing to do in this situation is blame the dining hall staff. But it’s not their fault, nowhere near it. Anyone looking beyond their field of vision can see there is a catastrophic understaffing problem in that facility. During a dinner rush, workers can be seen jumping between stations in an effort to serve everyone, and obviously, that’s going to be slow.
To combat both of these issues, Quinnipiac Dining made one of its best decisions in a long time. This past weekend, the York Hill dining hall converted two stations to self-serve instead of requiring a worker to attend the area at all times. It should remain this way permanently.
Prior to this change, the only areas that were self-serve were the salad station and the hot bar which offered access to chicken tenders and french fries. Now students can serve themselves all the pasta they want at their own pace. The other self-service option is Pom and Honey, where students can treat themselves to a station that rotates its meals over certain periods of time.
This leaves the workers to focus on the popular sandwich and pizza stations, tasks that actually require their full focus and attention.
The only logical step up from here is to make as many self-serve stations as physically possible. Breakfast still isn’t self-serve, but that seems like a change that can be made easily.
These stations not only make maneuvering the dining hall a quicker process, but it can change how students are charged for their food. The stations where students serve themselves are charged by the weight of the filled container, not a fixed price. This means that you pay for what you want and no longer run the risk of being charged full price when a worker gives you a skimpy scoop of scrambled eggs.
This is an example of a simple change that can make a great impact on campus dining. The department should be pleased by that and start thinking of more ways to improve the experience across all three campuses.
