USD Dining steps up their game in face of mounting challenges

Enhancements include Grubhub partnership and other policy changes

COLIN MULLANEY / ASST. NEWS EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

When students showed up for the Fall 2021 semester, it is safe to say that they were willing to expect the unexpected. But even so, few expected the brand new phenomenon of the “freshman (negative) fifteen.” 

In addition to walking miles a day to class for the first time in a year and a half, most students once again became responsible for finding their own nutrition between classes, and soon discovered a taller order than they had anticipated; not all forces aligned or made it easy to get food in a timely, convenient manner.

As advertised by makeshift signs taped up at cash registers, dining locations on campus faced challenges in scaling back up to their pre-covid capacity. Fully reopening required the hiring and training of several new dining staff, which, in turn, contributed to longer wait times and an increased likelihood of mistakes requiring revision. 

USD sophomore, Daniel Rosales, noted the initial difficulties in scaling back up operations.

“At the beginning of the year, they seemed unprepared for the influx of students. There were long lines since day one at the SLP and at Tu Merc,” Rosales said.

Students who waited in line for a sandwich at Tu Mercado during the first several weeks of class could expect a wait time upward of half an hour just to place an order, with no guarantee of the quality of their purchase. For many, this wait was simply untenable, given the demands of their academic courses and narrow windows of opportunity, leading some students to go hungry during midday.

Furthermore, as noted in a previous edition of The USD Vista, information regarding dietary restrictions was noticeably absent at several dining locations, causing concern among the university’s vegetarian and vegan populations. 

In response, USD Dining Services updated its notices and placed several large signs concerning the available food alternatives.

Rosales believes that other positive changes took place, besides better dietary information.

“There’s a lot of new hires, and I’ve seen a lot of new people working. Productivity seems like it has gone up, where the training has started to pay off. It got a bit chaotic at times, but I think it’s starting to pick up and hit a groove now,” Rosales said. 

What may have gone unappreciated by students, however, is that said difficulties are not exclusive to USD at present. 

In an article written for The Chronicle of Higher Education, a newspaper for college faculty and student affairs professionals, Lindsay Ellis examined the underlying causes of similar struggles at Indiana University and found that long lines and wait times are occurring on a national scale.

According to Ellis, via the U.S Department of Labor, “The nation’s colleges and universities employed half the number of food-service workers in August [2021] relative to the average for that month from 2015 to 2019.” 

Less food-service workers available for hire could be a result of ongoing national labor shortages, which place additional strains on worksites already burdened by COVID-19 measures and loss of revenue. In addition to hiring and training, many locations have experienced difficulty in retaining new dining employees, whether due to fears of working in close proximity to high student traffic, or possibly due to fears regarding the vaccine requirement at most public universities.

Longer wait times in stores of all varieties were further attributed to the nationwide supply chain crisis, in which a backlog of goods are still waiting to enter the nation’s ports, sometimes for days on end. 

Ellis pointed out that, “If a supply chain is a series of interconnected links, then a glitch or adjustment in one spot can cause ripple effects up and down the line.” Therefore, “the long wait for a burger isn’t the fault of one dining hall, one warehouse, or one vendor,” rather the system as a whole failed to work in unison.

In response to these nationwide stressors, USD Dining Services recently rolled out promotions of its partnership with Grubhub, according to Auxiliary Services marketing and licensing director, Loryn Johnson.

Similar to ordering online through the GET app, Grubhub enables students to purchase meals well in advance of their desired lunch time, with several added benefits in addition to bypassing the lines, according to Johnson. 

“The brand new Grubhub partnership started this fall. When USD students link their Grubhub account to their ‘Campus Cash’ account they may then order via the Grubhub app and pay with their ‘Campus Cash’ across the US,” Johnson said. 

Students also gain access to Grubhub Plus, which provides free delivery, and registration comes with a special promo, according to Johnson.

More information is available in an email sent to students last Tuesday, Oct. 19. 

Finally, students who are still struggling to meet their dietary needs, because of financial or personal reasons, can always make an appointment with the USD food pantry and Torero Closet at the Hahn University Center (UC 116). 

No student should go hungry, and can instead contact Jelitsa Fonseca or Dr. Cynthia Avery via email at         usdfoodpantry@sandiego.edu, or call (619) 260-4588 with inquiries about enrollment in the program.