Campus News

Bethel Food Ser­vices Adapt to Keep Stu­dents Safe

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MISHAWAKA—As Bethel pre­pared to bring stu­dents back to cam­pus, one of the ar­eas to re­ceive the high­est scrutiny was cre­at­ing a safe en­vi­ron­ment for eat­ing. The Din­ing Com­mons un­der­went a se­ries of changes, in­clud­ing added food guards, re­duced seat­ing to al­low for so­cial dis­tanc­ing, hir­ing ad­di­tional work­ers to serve food to stu­dents, pack­ag­ing sil­ver­ware in pro­tec­tive sleeves and re­work­ing the swipe sys­tem so stu­dents could swipe their own cards and limit any con­tact with the cashier. 

Ac­cord­ing to Jerry White, CFO and vice pres­i­dent for ad­min­is­tra­tion and fi­nance, one of the biggest changes was bring­ing meal swipes to Suf­fi­cient Grounds. Stu­dents can use a meal swipe Mon­day through Fri­day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., for the sand­wich or salad of the day with two sides and a drink; meals are also avail­able at Suf­fi­cient Grounds on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days from 5-7 p.m. 

“That’s prob­a­bly why we’re not see­ing ca­pac­ity is­sues in the Din­ing Com­mons,” White said, of the ex­tended hours. 

White said while the staff will oc­ca­sion­ally re­mind stu­dents to fol­low mask and so­cial dis­tanc­ing guide­lines, they are trust­ing stu­dents to fol­low the rules and look out for them­selves and each other. 

“We’re count­ing on stu­dents to self-reg­u­late, for a large part,” White said. “They’ll re­mind peo­ple at times; es­pe­cially masks, we re­ally want them to wear masks.” 

One of those poli­cies in­volves the signs on ta­bles; the signs in­form stu­dents how many peo­ple can sit at each table and stu­dents are asked to lay down the signs when they leave the table so it can be dis­in­fected be­fore any­one else uses it. White said this can be easy to for­get and he en­cour­ages stu­dents to help each other out. 

“My ap­pre­ci­a­tion goes to stu­dents tak­ing this se­ri­ously and do­ing a good job in fol­low­ing the guide­lines,” White said. 

White does­n’t en­joy the rules ei­ther, but he knows it’s im­por­tant to fol­low them. 

“This is re­ally kind of a bum­mer to be in this sit­u­a­tion, but we re­ally need to keep our so­cial dis­tanc­ing to stay safe and healthy,” he said. 

For Sherri Hess, food ser­vice man­ager, the fo­cus is on pro­vid­ing a safe en­vi­ron­ment that feels as fa­mil­iar as pos­si­ble. 

“Our main goal is to make sure we can still pro­vide great ser­vice as we have in the past and try to main­tain as much nor­malcy as we can,” Hess said. 

She said they are dili­gently work­ing to fol­low the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol guide­lines and one of the most im­por­tant things stu­dents can do to help is re­sist the temp­ta­tion to move ta­bles and chairs closer to­gether. 

“As in­con­ve­nient as it can be, we ask peo­ple not move the fur­ni­ture,” Hess said. “We’re do­ing every­thing we can to make sure we don’t get shut­down, so we have to fol­low those CDC guide­lines.” 

They also ask stu­dents to wear masks any­time they are not sit­ting down at the table and eat­ing, even if they’re only leav­ing the table to get a fresh drink. 

“No­body en­joys wear­ing a mask, but we do it be­cause it’s the best op­tion right now,” Hess said. “Any changes we’ve made are solely for the pur­pose of every­body’s health.” 

Hess en­cour­ages stu­dents to talk to her or other em­ploy­ees if they have any con­cerns or re­quests. 

“There are a lot of things we’ve had to elim­i­nate or change but most of the stuff that you would want or that you’ve seen in the past is still avail­able,” Hess said. “You just have to ask for it.” 

Hess said they are look­ing for more stu­dent work­ers at all three lo­ca­tions: the Din­ing Com­mons, Suf­fi­cient Grounds and the Acorn. If they can hire more work­ers, the Din­ing Com­mons may be able to bring back cer­tain items they’ve had to elim­i­nate, such as soft serve ice-cream. 

An­other change is the re­tire­ment of Jim Metherd, gen­eral man­ager, af­ter serv­ing Bethel for 13 years; cur­rently Jen­nifer Moritz is serv­ing as in­terim gen­eral man­ager. 

The Din­ing Com­mons is also plan­ning to hold some events in the com­ing months, such as a karaoke din­ner on Sept. 24, a foodie rev­o­lu­tion on Sept. 30 where stu­dents can vote for cer­tain foods, sweep­stakes, trivia events, and a cityscape in Oc­to­ber that will fea­ture the cul­tural foods from a spe­cific city. 

Hess said she hopes stu­dents will reach out to them if they have any ideas for spe­cific food or events. 

“We’re al­ways open to sug­ges­tions,” Hess said. “We want to make this an en­joy­able ex­pe­ri­ence for you guys -- we want to hear from you.” 

For the lat­est up­dates, fol­low Bethel Din­ing Ser­vices on so­cial me­dia. 

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