Students can expect to see some big changes coming to the UTM food court this fall.
Sodexo, UTM’s food service provider, has released guidelines to their phased approach for dining safety in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The phased approach includes touchless entryways, online ordering, cashless payments, and delivery options in order to limit contact between students and dining staff.
Sodexo’s phased approach also offers service during quarantine to students experiencing symptoms or diagnosed with COVID-19 as part of their phased approach, but will not be used at UTM this fall.
Dining areas will have limited seating capacity, and floor markers to encourage social distancing. In an effort to encourage food safety, self-service options will be eliminated with the exception of beverages.
According to Thomas Oehler, General Manager of UTM Sodexo operations, employees have undergone additional training to ensure student safety is a priority.
According to Sodexo, there will be expanded options for carryout orders, including prepackaged options, and “delivery where feasible.” According to Oehler, there wasn’t enough time to register with a third-party app for delivery and online ordering for the start of the fall semester, but they are hoping to offer those services by the spring semester.
There won’t be any dining in the food court, and the cafetera will operate at half capacity, or roughly 120 seats.
“It will definitely be a change for the students, we hope that we’ll get cooperation in terms of understanding what we did”, said Oehler.
Chick-fil-A will not be serving breakfast at the beginning of the semester.
“We anticipate, at least at the beginning, actually Chick-fil-A won’t be open for breakfast, it will be open for lunch and dinner, and we may add breakfast at a later date”, said Oehler.
Oehler explained that students could use the Bite app to check what options are available ahead of time.
“You’re able to view the menu at any of the various stations so they (students) know where they’re going once they get to the cafeteria which will hopefully expedite the process,” said Oehler.
Students won’t be able to place custom orders using the Bite app initially, but ultimately should be able to do so.
“The technology came out too late for us to implement, I anticipate as we get through this semester and see how things go, we might implement that at a later date,” said Oehler.
There will be a floor supervisor to manage capacity in the cafeteria and to enforce social distancing regulations.
Sodexo employees are required to wear PPE and follow CDC guidelines, there will also be an extensive program for cleaning and sanitizing the food court and cafeteria.
“We will obviously be encouraging social distancing by the stickers we’ve got on the floor, there will be some directional arrows going down this week to give people an idea of where they’re supposed to go”, said Oehler.
“I think everybody coming back to campus has had a few months to live with alot of change in their lives, so I think these changes won’t be particularly shocking,” said Oehler.
For more information about dining options on campus this fall visit https://utm.sodexomyway.com.
