Liberty Dining Offers Several New Dining Options for Students

Whether students lack time in their schedules or desire to avoid large crowds, Liberty Dining is offering a variety of ways for students to obtain food  this semester.

This spring, Liberty University announced its partnership with Grubhub, the food delivery and pickup app.

Students can now order food on the Grubhub app and pick it up in person at many of the dining locations across campus. Senior Christian Ellington gave his thoughts on the service.

“I appreciate the school adding Grubhub as an option,” Ellington said. “Having the option to order and pick-up the food to-go frees up a lot of my time,” Ellington said. “I hope it stays for post-COVID Liberty.”

Nearly every on-campus dining location is available on the Grubhub app. A current omission from the app is Chick-Fil-A, but Liberty Dining is working with Chick-Fil-A and Grubhub to add the location to the list of options.

Ryan Wheeler, the marketing manager for Liberty Dining, believes that the app will encourage students to order ahead, reducing the number of people waiting at dining locations and helping to maintain social distancing and capacity requirements. 

Doc’s Diner and the Food Court at Reber-Thomas have also introduced major changes this semester, in order to combat overcrowding.

Hilltop Pizza is now a takeout line for Doc’s, where students are able to order from the menu to-go.

Students can now order their food to-go.

The Food Court at Reber-Thomas now has an express line. Students have the option to fill up a box with food and take it elsewhere on campus.

Wheeler said the dining team is making changes on how to handle dining events.

“All of our events this year will be going virtual. This year we’ll be doing a good bit of online trivia nights. We’ll be doing cooking classes and things of that matter,” Wheeler said. “We want to provide something safe, that students can still do and to have social community.”

Planned events will likely take place on Zoom. Wheeler and the Liberty Dining Team have discussed ideas including classes on knife-cutting technique, Pixar trivia and seminars on how to prepare healthy dishes. 

Wheeler encourages students to be flexible with all of the changes Liberty Dining introduces this semester. He said that foot traffic patterns and the ways that people obtain food are changing on a near-weekly basis. Wheeler has firsthand experience from being a Liberty student, something he draws upon to make beneficial changes to Liberty’s Dining program.

“I completed my bachelor’s and masters at the University, and I’ve enjoyed my opportunity to serve here with Sodexo,” Wheeler said. “I feel like because I did my degrees here at Liberty, it helps me to best know our campus culture.”

Wheeler emphasized the importance of student feedback. A student recently inquired about mint bowls being added in the Food Court at Reber-Thomas, a suggestion the dining team is now implementing. 

Feedback is encouraged and can be left at https://liberty.sodexomyway.com. 

Luke Randle is the Asst. Feature Editor. Follow him on Twitter at @lukeandrewr.

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