COVID-19 Ideation Resources for College and University Dining

Since March of this year, Envision Strategies and Ricca Design Studios have been in conversation with our clients and friends in at least 33 campus dining operations. From community colleges to the Ivy Leagues, we’ve explored the ideas, challenges and concerns surrounding the COVID-19 epidemic and looked at which changes are being considering for the Fall 2020 semester and beyond.

At this stage, there are still a great many unknowns; a lot of the cornerstone decisions that will shape the final plans haven’t yet been settled by state and school authorities. Our hope is to continue to update this resource page as more concrete plans are established.

In the meantime, it’s important to review your own internal planning for blind spots and to search out fresh perspectives. It’s in that interest that we’ve created this resource.

This page is intended to be a collection of ideas and concerns we’ve heard directly from foodservice operators. We’ve anonymized the data and, where applicable, have designated “some” and “most” as indicators that point to the general popularity of a concept or how frequently we heard the idea being implemented.

We’re constantly updating the list with new or changing information – if there’s an idea that we haven’t captured here, please shoot us a message and let us know so we can add it in!

Here’s a quick breakdown of the general categories covered here:

  • Meal Plans
  • Service Planning
  • Menu Planning
  • Technology
  • Customer Service and Facilities Considerations
  • PPE
  • Transparency Efforts
  • Biggest Worries and Challenges

Meal Plans

Most of the operators in the group are considering some sort of shift in their meal plans.

Some of the ideas discussed included:

  • Not reducing their meal plan prices from their current levels, but not increasing their prices (yet).
  • Concern that COVID-19 will be used as an excuse by some to be exempted from the meal plan requirement.
  • Considering loosening restrictions on freshman meal plans and allowing them to opt into a lower tier.
  • Considering allowing freshman access to retail dining currently limited to upperclassmen.
  • Moving away from unlimited to weekly plans to lessen the impact should another refund be necessary.
  • Allowing meal plan holders to take 2-3 meals at a time, or pick up breakfast for the following morning at dinner to reduce crowding/lines at service points.
  • Shifting away from declining balance plans and unlimited access plans, and consider a return to a 21 or 14 meals per week plans.
  • Roll all meals and retail dining dollars forward from fall to spring to allow for accumulated meals in lieu of refunds.

Discussions around Declining Balance/Retail Model:

The declining balance model seems relatively well-suited to handle the challenges of COVID-19 with regards to convenience and quick service; however, there is a concern about the financial implication of the switching from AYCE model to a retail model. Also:

  • Declining balance seems to provide more flexibility for the operators to potentially lower the price of meal plans, raise the perception of the perceived meal value, incorporate food trucks and local restaurants and establish new commuter plans (for operations that don’t currently have one).
  • Retail allows for an easier pivot to newly established options (like food trucks and residence hall outposts).

Discussions around Off-campus and/or Commuter Plans:

  • Some are considering not offering on-campus meal plans to off-campus customers.
  • Some feel they have to offer off campus plans for financial and future relationships. For the next academic year, how could they ‘win back’ those commuter students if they don’t attempt to provide the service this year. They feel that it would be financially devastating.

Service Format

  • Self-service options in all-you-care-to-eat (AYCE) locations have been discontinued and are being replaced by served stations, takeout of prepackaged meals or delivery.
  • Services of beverages is particularly challenging. Some operators are planning to add beverage attendants and use existing dispensing machines. Others are considering switching from soda dispensers to soda guns operated by a beverage manager. Still others are switching to 100% canned or bottled products for the foreseeable future.

Other plans include:

  • Limiting entry with lottery tickets, reservations or by number capacity at both AYCE and retail locations.
  • Having ‘To-Go’ only service in a variety of options, including full meals prepackaged and hot/cold lockers.
  • Establishing outposts in residential areas or residential dining halls where meal plan holders can pick up their meals. Meals could be served hot or cold.
  • Planning to move entirely to grab-and-go, driven in part by local governmental restrictions or recommendations.
  • Looking into food lockers for both hot and cold usage as part of retail dining.
  • Planning to establish remote popups for bottled beverages.
  • Creating new virtual marketplaces with declining balance retail points.
  • Concentrating on physical solutions such as plexiglass barriers, sanitation stations, physical distance barriers, air curtains, etc.
  • Exploring the idea of ghost and commissary kitchens. Some are taking time to package concepts into branded delivery options that are narrow in focus, but deep in possibilities (e.g., hot wings, chicken fingers, etc.). These concepts will address not only comfort options, but also health and wellness. Cooking the food in a centralized location also allows for smaller locations to be established around campus as finishing stations or just service outlets.
  • Forming grocery and meal kit strategies around outposts in residence halls, academic buildings and other areas around campus. These plans include groceries for those who can’t afford the time or expense of going to a store, meal kits with the entrée of the day, and breakfast foods to keep students from having to go to the cafeteria.
  • Looking into mobile app order, reservation and delivery systems.
  • Looking at robot delivery systems. Those who have it are ecstatic, but some question whether robots can work efficiently with a foot of snow on the ground.
  • Providing cold and/or reheatable meals delivered to a student’s location, both on and off campus.
  • Establishing or doubling-down on "dark" convenience stores or fulfillment centers that don't offer a walk-in retail area, but exclusively use mobile and web for the ordering and delivery of products.

Lots of discussion around limiting menu and ingredient variety to compensate for the expected gaps in the supply chain. Fewer ingredients mean fewer interruptions. Also being discussed:

  • Converting food/salad bars into service stations or use of prepackaged items.
  • Whether pre-packaged meals should be purchased as-is or packaged in-house. However, if packaging is done in-house, questions arose about the type of containers used, availability and affordability of recyclable or compostable containers.
  • Limiting their menu to items that will carry well, such as pasta, soups and stews.

Technology

Delivery app options either used or considered in our discussions:

Virtual queuing

  • Hangry – uses QR codes.
  • Qless – virtual waiting room.

POS Systems with online ordering and payment:

  • Toast
  • CS Gold – a CBORD product.
    • Concerns expressed:
      • On-campus hosting.
        • Prohibitively expensive.
        • Reliant on student management.
      • Cloud hosting through Atrium
        • Customer service issues.
  • Agilysis POS

Population Density Tracking:

  • Density.io
  • In-house scan card tracking developed with campus IT team.

Micromarkets – 24-hour self-serve:

Customer Service and Facilities Considerations

Physical distancing is being integrated into all queuing and dining locations, including floor markers, plexiglass barriers, reduced seating and table dividers including installing measures to control the flow of people through the facilities using tactics such as “one way in, one way out.”

Other solutions include:

  • Expanding mealtimes (10am – 4pm, for example).
  • Expanding time between classes to allow for safer travel.
  • Eliminating continuous service to allow for cleaning periods.
  • Considering the “Harry Potter Model,” which assigns students into a “house,” such as their residence hall or academic group. This group would then do everything together, including walking to classes and eating meals.
  • Eliminating the checker/cashier position especially in AYCE and moving exclusively to line management roles such as pursuing contactless POS systems. Some are eliminating cash transactions altogether or eliminating all debit transactions to avoid use of PINs.
  • Intentionally highlighting the safety efforts of on-campus dining in contrast to off-campus restaurants developing strategies to address an increase in student anxiety on campuses that are already highly charged competitively, including dealing with eating disorders.
  • Installing mobile, touchless sanitation stations in dining areas and around campus. Some are installing hand washing stations at dining entrances and exits. Interestingly, some are utilizing on-campus research students to produce hand sanitizer.
  • Planning around whether to take temperatures before allowing students to enter a dining facility, but most are waiting on guidance from administration before assuming that it will fall under dining’s responsibility.
    • Of those planning to take temperatures, there are a number of outstanding questions that are being discussed: will this be self-reported, or will there have to be a dedicated employee? Will these processes need to be HIPAA compliant? What temperature is a fever from an HR perspective? Who is in charge of enforcing compliance with new policies?
  • Investing in thermal scanners, although many think they are cost prohibitive and/or raise privacy concerns.
  • Installing plexiglass barriers at all contact points.
  • Reserving space for isolation locations by keeping a full residence hall offline for quarantine, reserving local hotel rooms, leasing housing to local hospitals for medical staff isolation, some are taking classrooms offline as a physical distancing waiting area for advisors and counselors.
  • Looking into electro-static sanitizing systems for receiving deliveries, although some worry that it wouldn’t be practical for dealing with large deliveries and full pallets.
  • Rotating employee teams as isolated groups to avoid a general outbreak in the staff.
  • Some highly recommend to carefully consider what card stock to use for contactless payment cards. They advise to choose in consultation with a banking partner, in a Visa-approved quality, as some card stocks tend to fall apart faster than others.
  • Expectations that programs around food insecurity will grow in use over the next few months. Some food pantries are already experiencing heavy traffic, even with campus closed for early summer sessions.
  • Producing videos to set student expectations for topics such as how to use the dining space, what the new traffic flows look like, how to use the POS system or app, etc.
  • Establishing new tented areas around campus to encourage social distancing during extended times between classes.
  • Establishing permanent hand sinks at each building’s entrance and exit.
  • Moving to all disposable dishware, driven in part by local governmental restrictions or recommendations. “Public health trumps sustainability for the moment.”
  • Some say no china and no trays, while others are confident that the warewashing equipment can sufficiently sanitize.
    • A problem expressed about rewashables centers around whether enough student employees will return to the kitchen to keep up with demand, and whether their limited warewashing equipment in smaller spaces can handle increased pushthrough. This is also an effort to protect the dishwasher employee from exposure to multiple guests.
  • Some report that sourcing paper goods is becoming more of a challenge, even after switching back to plastic and Styrofoam. A few have stockpiled goods, but still don’t have enough for the full semester.
  • A few concerns were raised about compostable containers.
    • They’re expensive, and prohibitive at scale.
    • Hot food doesn’t hold very well in compostables.
    • Even if you could source enough compostables to service the entire campus, the result would overwhelm the waste management teams who are already having a hard time figuring out how to compost across all channels.

PPE

For Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), there is a range of engagement.

  • Requiring masks and gloves for staff, with some adding washable facemasks as a required part of the uniform. Some are utilizing on-campus textiles groups to use on-hand supplies of woven material to fashion custom masks.
  • Providing surgical N95 masks to employees at POS stations or other areas where they come into direct contact with customers.
  • Requiring masks for moving in or out of residence halls or classes or for anyone coming in from off-campus.
  • Most want plastic face shields and disposable gowns, but find them cost prohibitive. Some are using on-campus labs to 3D print face shields.

Transparency Efforts

There will be a focus on educating students and their parents on all safety measures put in place. Most promote the idea of sanitary showmanship and characterize the process as needing to be both overt and authentic, to consistently demonstrate what processes are in place and not just putting up a sign. Other ideas were:

  • Changing sanitation equipment from traditionally hidden to boldly highlighted.
  • Establishing a designated safety manager with a highly visible uniform so that students know with whom to talk about safety concerns.
  • Working up new messaging to compensate for the shift away from community-driven value system towards one of convenience and safety.
    • These messages are generally as follows: ‘This is the unknown and the situation is fluid; there are going to be supply issues, so be prepared for variability; we’ll try to be consistent, but when focused on quality and safety and a good experience for you, it won’t look the same day to day; your safety is our priority’.
  • Generating new codes of conduct and community living contracts for the new dining policies.
  • Maintaining communication with housekeeping partner to establish consistent transparency procedures.

Biggest Worries and Challenges

Here is a quick list of some of the biggest worries and challenges that are keeping operators up at night:

  • Managing department finances. Reduced meal plan revenue, meal plan refunds, reduced or no retail and catering revenues, increased supply costs, and new costs related to COVID-19 solutions.
  • Keeping staff safe for both mental and physical health, especially in programs with a large percentage of vulnerable individuals.
  • Maintaining the quality of offerings. But with new hurdles come new opportunities to better serve and delight customers: how to best identify and leverage new opportunities.
  • Customer buy-in and compliance. Getting students on board with the new changes is infinitely better than forcing compliance. Some mentioned concerns regarding the ability to monitor or limit student activities outside campus. Parties and “Greek-Life” were of particular concern.
  • What if we need to shut down again in the fall?

The Wrap-Up

If you’ve made it all the way to the end, thanks for hanging in there! What did we miss? Has anything listed here changed?

If you’d like to contribute or be part of our next Roundtable Sessions, please send us a message and we’ll be happy to add your voice to the mix. Don’t worry, it’ll be anonymous… this list is compiled from conversations with more than 50 professionals from all levels of college and university foodservice and auxiliary services, and there’s still no way that we’ve caught it all.

If you’ve gotten any new ideas from this resource, please share it with someone else in the industry. Together, we can all help each other through one of the hardest challenges our industry has had to face!