The J-TAC

Issue date: 9/11/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Ashley Cambanis The new dining hall serves up to approximately 1,800 students, faculty and staff each day.

Along with the new building, there have been many other changes students may have noticed to dining choices.

"This facility is just amazing. It's beautiful; it's open. It's new and everything has changed," said Director of Dining Operations Becky Bolte.

This larger dining facility is serving up to 1800 people per day.

As far as locations, there has been increases in the amount of choices students have when choosing a place to eat. Besides the dining hall, there is also the Italian café, serving students smoothies, ice cream, pasta and pizza, and Outtakes Convenience Store in the same building.

"Outtakes is wonderful. I love it," Bolte said. "It's just a beautiful and well-put-together store. You don't think '7-11' when you go into Outtakes. The concept we have there is the Outtakes Food To-Go and that's the pre-made salads, sandwiches and soups that are all done in-house, fresh everyday and the parfaits, the fruit cups and things that you can grab and go if you're in a hurry and don't want to stand in line for the dining hall. The rest of the items there are pretty much considered meal replacements or snacks. Having all the microwavable items for all the students for their dorms, We have the little mac-and-cheese bowls and Hot Pockets are hot items there."

There has also been several changes to the way student meal plans work. They are now block plans, so students can decide how to use their meals and when.

"Not only did the facilities change, the concept, the new operation hours. Then you have the meal plan and it is like a whole brand new world and realm as far as living on campus. The first thing with the meal plan is that it is a block plan so you have it for an entire semester. It does not roll over week to week," she said.

Previous the students were only allowed to use a certain amount a meals a week and only six per day.

"The second part of it is that they can use that anywhere, any place, anytime. Most meal plans are set up for just the all-you-can-eat facilities and there is points or something like that you use at the retail. Well, here we only have the meal plan so they can use the meal plan at the Food Court. They can use it at Outtakes. They can use it at Suave Café. They just have a retail equivalency at the retail locations and at the retail locations, it is not that you can only have this or you can only have that, if it goes over that retail equivalency you have the choice of either using another meal plan swipe or paying cash or using your credit card for the remaining amount."

The hours in which facilities operate have also changed. The dining hall is now open on the weekend where as the food court is not. The dining hall is now open later in the evening, but it does not open until 9 a.m. for breakfast. The food court has a breakfast buffet for those who need to eat breakfast early that opens at 7 a.m. until the dining hall is open. For late night options the Italian Café is open until midnight during the weekdays.

For more information about Dining Services, visit www.tarleton.edu/~diningservices or call 254-968-9445.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools