By: Frances Inabnet
With the completion of the new parking deck this coming fall, which will provide parking relief for students, Samford Dining will need to adapt to the inflow of new students.
“As the campus grows, we are having to think about a lot of capacity opportunities,” said President Beck Taylor. “What we are doing right now is coming up with some plans to ensure that we can attend to those high-volume times when we know that a lot of students will be sorting out their schedules and figuring out when is the best time to eat.”
To relieve some of the congestion in areas such as the University Center during those peak times, there will be more food trucks coming to campus to provide variety and break up crowdedness.
There are also plans to increase the capacity in terms of seating in the Bistro and in other vendors on campus.
Planning and coordination at the beginning of the fall semester is crucial as freshmen navigate their new schedules and lifestyles. Representatives from the Caf said that they have an effective strategy.
“The overflow will be available for the first three weeks, no meetings will be in there…We have plenty of room to add more tables…We’re going to adjust couches in the back and add some more seating there,” said Wade Walker, Director of Business Services.
Along with the addition of 140 more seats in the Caf, there are additional plans to utilize station space, incorporate more grab-and-go options and hire supplementary kitchen staff. The Global Kitchen station, including five other stations in the Caf, will be experiencing changes that will be beneficial during its biggest bottleneck lunchtime.
“There is only one line going through these stations right now, but coming in the Fall, we are going to split this station into two different sections,” said Thomas Varytimidis, General Manager of the Caf.
Adding more food options to current stations will ensure that the pace at lunchtime and other high-volume times is quickened. Certain stations will also be going through the process of rebranding, creating a greater variety of meals to fit what every student is craving.
“We are also going to rebrand our vegan station,” said Varytimidis. “The participation here is minimal, with only 10 to 15 swipes per day (…) There will still be all the vegan options, but we are working with our culinary team on how to rebrand this station.”
When college campuses like Samford’s continue to grow, it is the job of the authorities to make effective changes that will allow the student body to adapt.
“We are a growing campus. In my opinion, colleges and universities are either growing and thriving, or they are shrinking and dying. Samford, fortunately, is growing and thriving.” Taylor said. “We have to grow sustainably. We have to grow in ways that attend to the quality that students are expecting.”
As much planning has gone into this process, the staff of dining services feel confident with their proposed changes for this Fall semester:
“I feel extremely comfortable with what we are going to do.” said Walker. “We work real hard crunching numbers. A lot of data has gone into it, and we feel good about it.”
