{"id":2452,"date":"2017-10-04T19:37:27","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T23:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoodcomstudies.com\/theblueandgrey\/?p=2452"},"modified":"2017-10-04T19:37:27","modified_gmt":"2017-10-04T23:37:27","slug":"whats-new-in-the-dining-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/04\/whats-new-in-the-dining-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s New in the Dining Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Elena Rowe<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dining\u00a0halls are the \u201chub\u201d of the college life\u00a0where students\u00a0can\u00a0socialize, eat,\u00a0and take a break during a\u00a0long\u00a0day of\u00a0classes.\u00a0While\u00a0enjoying our food, we sometimes fail to realize that a lot of planning goes on behind the scenes\u00a0in order for\u00a0us to enjoy a meal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jennifer Curtis,\u00a0director of\u00a0dining\u00a0hall\u00a0facilities,\u00a0explained\u00a0the process of\u00a0Hood’s\u00a0food preparation and the many changes that have occurred over the past few years. Curtis, who has worked at Hood for the past\u00a0three and\u00a0a half\u202fyears,\u00a0has made\u00a0sure\u00a0significant change\u00a0has occurred.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor the most part, we are feeding students for four years and we are constantly trying to make\u00a0[food items]\u00a0different,” she said.\u00a0\u202f\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With that being said,\u00a0much\u00a0feedback\u00a0from\u00a0students\u00a0has\u00a0allowed\u00a0introduction of new food items\u00a0as well as changes in how the food is served.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Multiple\u00a0changes\u00a0have\u202foccurred\u00a0under Curtis\u2019 tenure. This includes the stir fry\u00a0next to the grill in the regular serving line,\u00a0and the introduction of the Delicious Destinations table which has been\u00a0popular with students. With\u00a0many\u00a0students on campus, Curtis also wanted to incorporate more vegan or vegetarian dishes since some students cannot eat anything containing\u00a0meat.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A\u00a0recent event\u00a0that has\u00a0become popular is \u201cDining\u00a0With\u00a0The Director,\u201d a\u00a0casual dinner in the seminar room where students\u00a0can\u00a0meet\u00a0and\u00a0share\u00a0ideas\u00a0with\u00a0Curtis\u00a0about improvements and potential changes to their dining hall.\u00a0The next meeting\u00a0will be held Thursday, Oct.\u00a012.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Students are encouraged to\u00a0express their ideas of any future changes at the dining hall. With these ideas and new changes, Curtis hopes to make students continually healthy and happy\u00a0with\u00a0college\u00a0dining.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many students from\u00a0various\u00a0grade\u00a0levels have\u00a0different\u202fopinions\u00a0on\u00a0the food offered\u00a0at Hood. Freshmen\u00a0Khyja\u00a0McCray, Breanna Brown and\u00a0Ermia\u00a0Jeanty\u00a0feel that the food was good at the beginning of the school year but feel that some food items need more seasoning and the Delicious\u00a0Destinations\u00a0\u201cislands\u201d need more options that\u00a0students\u00a0can\u00a0enjoy. In contrast,\u00a0Khyja\u00a0enjoys the\u00a0meals\u00a0from\u00a0different cultures,\u00a0“especially the Korean menu\u201d,\u00a0and the staff, who she finds friendly and attentive.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey always remember my name,\u201d\u00a0she remarked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown and\u00a0Jeanty\u00a0observe the dining hall is\u00a0clean,\u202finviting,\u00a0and a good opportunity to meet new people\u00a0every\u00a0day.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sophomore Mackenzie Clark feels that while the food can be\u00a0tasty\u00a0sometimes, she feels\u00a0that\u00a0following a few suggestions can make a consistently\u00a0positive\u00a0dining experience for students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the suggestions I have is to have a home-cooked meals suggestion box,” she said.\u00a0“Students can put suggestions of what\u00a0they\u202fare\u00a0used to eating at home in the box and the dining\u00a0staff \u202fmake\u00a0it for\u00a0everyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She also feels that\u00a0kitchen staff\u00a0shouldn\u2019t\u00a0make\u00a0the same food items for both\u00a0lunch\u00a0and\u00a0dinner.\u00a0However,\u00a0she\u00a0enjoys\u00a0the dessert items\u00a0offered.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sophomore\u00a0Tykera\u00a0Pratt\u00a0feels\u00a0that food is\u00a0decent\u00a0and believes it is the same setup from last year. Junior Dorothy\u00a0San \u202fagrees. Since she was a commuter\u00a0for her first two years, she didn’t\u00a0come to the dining hall.\u00a0Now,\u00a0as a resident,\u00a0she comes more\u00a0often,\u00a0enjoys\u00a0the food options\u00a0and\u00a0feels that\u00a0the dining hall has\u00a0ample\u00a0variety.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Senior\u00a0Baridakara\u00a0Nwilene\u00a0enjoys the breakfast and lunch\u00a0options,\u00a0but\u00a0also feels the dining hall needs more options for Delicious Destinations.\u202fGenerally,\u00a0students seem to enjoy the dining\u00a0hall and its food, but feel\u00a0that a\u202fgreater\u00a0variety\u00a0of\u00a0options could\u00a0improve\u00a0the college dining experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elena Rowe\u00a0 Dining\u00a0halls are the \u201chub\u201d of the college life\u00a0where students\u00a0can\u00a0socialize, eat,\u00a0and take a break during a\u00a0long\u00a0day of\u00a0classes.\u00a0While\u00a0enjoying our food, we sometimes fail to realize that a lot of planning goes on behind the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-lifestyle","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2453,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452\/revisions\/2453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblueandgrey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}