UNL dining centers implement take-out, mobile ordering ahead of school year

The University has made the changes to speed up dining center processes and avoid large crowds and lines as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

As University of Nebraska-Lincoln students make their way back to campus, returning students will notice many changes. Including those to dining centers.

“We had to space tables the six feet apart, we had to limit the number of seats at a table, we had to stop doing self-service,” says Dave Annis, the Director of UNL Dining Services.

As they move away from self-service, which has become increasingly popular in recent years, new concepts have been implemented to balance the new dynamic and help minimize person-to-person contacts.

“We’ve added take out orders to all the dining centers,” Annis says. “A student can now go through the line and choose to dine in or take a take out container.”

If students do choose to dine in, tables are disinfected after each use. Dining halls also now close every four hours to deep clean, per the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department COVID-19 guidelines.

Another major change this year is mobile ordering. Students can now use an app on their phones to order their favorite on-campus meals ahead of time and avoid the lines.

“You can have it charge equivalent to a meal or to your Ncard, so basically all you do is order it, it will tell you that is processing when it’s ready, you scan your receipt code and pick it up inside,” says first-year student Katie Lockyear from Kansas.

“It’s actually really nice not to have to wait in all the lines in the dining hall like last year,” says Alex Muenster, a junior at the university.

Mobile ordering can be used for restaurants in the Student Union as well as Selleck dining hall, which has been converted to a retail-type food court. Selleck’s “ghost kitchen,” which was supposed to undergo a multi-million dollar renovation this year, is offering seven different restaurants including a student favorite – Qdoba.

Renovations to the dining hall were put on hold due to COVID-19, but Annis says they knew they could use the empty space to bring more options to students.

Also new to most meal plans are ‘Dining Dollars,’ a reloadable balance that is typically used for smaller purchases. Now, they can be used at campus markets, most restaurants in the union, and at Husker Heroes sandwich shops.

“Creating these other spaces, and allowing students to use part of their meal plans at the Union, just gave students more venues to order from and hopefully that speeds up service and helps keep students happy,” Annis tells Channel 8 Eyewitness News reporter Marlo Lundak.

Finally, the university added late-night options at Harper and Cather halls. From 8:30 to 11, students can order pizza or chicken strips that closely resemble Raising Canes. All of it in an effort to keep students from leaving campus.

“Our late-night services and things like that, trying to keep students on campus keeps them healthy and keep us all here,” Annis says.

“It’s nice to see they’re taking extra measures to help us stay happy and satisfied and keep the quality of our experience here not just on the educational side but on the accomodation side as well,” Muenster says.

“I think it’s really awesome they’re trying to do this for the students and to cater to everyone’s needs, especially because there are probably students here that are a little more scared than others of getting the virus. It’s awesome that the university has really stepped up,” Lockyear says.