This semester, AVI Foodsystems has implemented several dining changes, including combining kosher and allergen-free options into one dining hall, moving Fourth Meal to Stevenson Dining Hall, and changing the weekly allowance of meal swipes.
Clarity, Oberlin’s only allergen-free dining hall, stopped serving students this semester when Fairchild House, the residence hall in which Clarity was located, closed for renovations. Allergen-free dining options are now offered instead at Heritage, the College’s kosher dining hall.
“The main concern going into the change was making sure that we could source the specialty ingredients from the Clarity program in kosher form,” District Manager for AVI Foodsystems Joe Jacobs said. “So far, we haven’t had any issues.”
Dean of Residence Life Mark Zeno said Oberlin decided to combine kosher and allergen-free dining options based on what had worked at other colleges and universities that use AVI.
College fourth-year Eli Ramer, who serves as Housing and Dining chair on Student Senate, said he had not heard any concerns from students about lack of kosher or allergen-free options on campus.
“The greater concern is the lack of options directly available on South Campus,” Ramer said. “Having Clarity as its own dining hall was certainly a great asset to us. So, it is an unfortunate situation that it did close, but I think as long as the food and allergy needs of all people are still met … I think it’s a good solution.”
Starting this semester, Fourth Meal has also moved from the Rathskeller to Stevenson Dining Hall because of the current limitations of the Wilder Hall kitchen, the impending construction for the Campus Dining Master Plan, and the lack of a late-night dine-in option. The Wilder Hall kitchen was not conducive to preparing Fourth Meal for up to 500–600 students on some nights, according to Jacobs.
“This was discussed in the Student Advisory Committee last year as we toured the kitchen and storage areas to better understand the challenges of continuing to operate all the dining programs in Wilder Hall,” he said. “With the impending Wilder renovations, it just made sense to move the program now and prepare it for a larger space with a hybrid dine-in or take-out option.”
Furthermore, the number of meal swipes students can use are now capped weekly. The GoYeo Meal Plan allows up to 28 meals per week, the Gold Meal Plan allows up to 21 meals per week, and the Cardinal Meal Plan allows up to seven meals per week. This change was enacted to ensure that students have meal swipes throughout the semester and that they don’t run out of swipes before the semester ends.
Starting this year, Stevenson Dining Hall and the Rathskeller offer new hours for dining. Stevenson Dining Hall has extended hours of operation from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, in addition to the new Fourth Meal which runs until 11 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Rathskeller will now be open 7:30 to 10 a.m. for breakfast and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for lunch and dinner Monday through Friday.
Ramer said he was optimistic about the changes that were being made to dining on campus and happy with how Residence Life has included students in discussions.
“I’m excited for the future,” Ramer said. “I think that Dean Zeno has a pretty good vision and they’re trying to set up their [Campus] Dining Master Plan … I do appreciate the amount of student involvement that they’re including. They’ve [decided] to have separate housing and dining committees this year … and I’m looking forward to working with those groups to try to shape that future. I hope that the level of student involvement for the future of housing and dining overall stays consistent because we are the people that are affected the most.”
