Changes are being made all across campus, but it does not stop with infrastructure. Changes are also occurring in the dining halls and will continue to develop throughout the semester.
Every year during the spring semester, Creative Dining Services reviews comments and decides how to change moving forward, according to Todd Kurtz, food service director. The most notable change for this semester is that Knollcrest Dining Hall will be open from noon to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Knollcrest Dining Hall will also be hosting the Taqueria. Kurtz told Chimes “we’re looking to be a bit more accessible to students” by offering more hot food during lunchtime.
Along with the Taqueria being available for longer periods, the Grill at Uppercrust will also be available until 3 p.m. as well as the pizza bar in Commons.
Another change in Knollcrest is the decision to move The Zone — a section intended to host food free of the top nine major allergens — to the middle section of the dining hall. It will now be at one of the two Exhibition Bars, while the other will host global food. Kurtz said “there’s a growing need on campus to be able to serve a student safely and accommodate students.” He believes that by moving this section, Knollcrest will be able to do so more accurately.
Knollcrest is also now offering panini presses and a new item Kurtz and Estelle Bean, Director of Hospitality Operations, dubbed “The Knoll Roll.” According to Kurtz, The Knoll Roll is a “freshly baked sub roll that eats very fresh,” aimed to “try to give Knollcrest its own identity. . . and that identity being a good identity.”
Students may also notice that the walls in the dining halls are being painted, and the wooden flooring in front of the exhibition bars has been updated.
After hearing complaints about long lines during self-service last year, Knollcrest and Commons have been working towards a solution. Bean explained that the plan for this year is to allow students to self-serve. However, if lines begin to grow during peak times,“pivot midway and go to serving just to get that line down to where it was manageable, as soon as it was manageable we flipped right back to self-service.”
Creative Dining Services were not involved in this year’s raise in meal plan prices. However, Bean told Chimes that this is likely because “labor and food prices are continuing to be at the highest they have ever been. . . we’re still experiencing that very high inflation that. . . everybody else is.”
Students can expect more changes to the dining halls as the year continues. One of these changes will be the inclusion of a pizza and pasta bar in place of the second, less-used dessert room in Knollcrest. Kurtz says that he doesn’t “really see a value in having two of the exact same thing” and hopes that this will benefit the dining hall.
Joy Arem and Amber VanKeulen, two juniors at Calvin, are excited to hear that the pizza and pasta bar will eventually be available in Knollcrest.
However, VanKeulen says that “if they’re going to make changes, they should make the food better.” Arem chimed in to say “quality over quantity.”
Bean wants students to know that “we continue to welcome student feedback. . . we enjoy the students also being able to see the end result too.”
Kurtz also comments that “we absolutely take student feedback. We absolutely look at the surveys and any other feedback we get and figure out if change is possible, change is needed.” Students are encouraged to complete surveys at the end of the year and email [email protected] with any feedback.
