The Spring Hill College cafeteria is open for the fall semester, but there are some drastic changes to the service and operations.
This semester, the SHC cafeteria is only offering to-go dining service. Kevin Abel, Vice President of Student Affairs, announced the closure of in-person dining in the cafeteria, McKinney’s and Einstein’s in an email on Aug. 18. He wrote, “This is an important change in operations due to the difficulty of enforcing distancing in our dining facilities.”
Students are required to wear masks and social distance in line. The staff manually serves the food, utensils, condiments and drinks to students to avoid the spread of the virus.
Cashier Pat Square expressed some concerns about student behavior in the dining hall, “I still think that they aren’t distancing in line when getting their food.” Also, worker Michael Lutin noted that some students are not wearing their masks.
In previous semsters, the dining hall could be seen filled with students hanging out and socializing with friends during common hour. However, this semster, students struggle to socialize with each other because of these new restrictions. Their only options are to eat outside or in their dorms.
Junior Anna Pellerin talked about how different the cafeteria atmosphere is this semster, “It’s where my friend group meets to talk and just hangout.” She mentioned that, “if one of us is there, odds are we’d find someone else and that is not happening nearly as much. I am seeing people a lot less which in part is what the COVID restrictions want, but at the same time it sucks because we are in college you know,” she said while looking down.
Some students have expressed their concern about the environmental effects of using so many to-go supplies. The containers, utensils and cups are all made from styrofoam or plastic. “I use one of the utensils and I throw the rest away,” Pellerin said.
General manager of SHC food services Alex Tholl talked about a more environmentally-friendly idea. “The original plan was to implement an Eco To-Go container program,” Tholl stated. This idea would implement reusable, hard-plastic to-go containers. Due to COVID-19, the plan halted, but Tholl said that they want to push it forward.
The cafeteria is open between 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. on the weekdays and from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on the weekends.
For more information, visit shc.campusdish.com/COVID19Information.
