COVID-19 has changed a lot of things this semester, with the Great Hall being one of the most affected parts of campus life.
A major change that many students have liked is the switch from Chartwells to Creative Dining Services. Many students have said that Creative Dining seems to be able to make better food. Anna Claborn ’22 said, “They [Creative] are doing the best they could considering there is a plague and the food is better than last year. There seems to be more varieties with the food and the way that it is prepared. Things are super hard and different this year, but Covenant has been doing the best that they could do.”
For COVID-19 safety precautions, the Great Hall changed the entrances so that students do not exit the same way they enter. This allows everyone to be able to stay apart from each other. There is a Plexiglas safeguard on the desk where you are supposed to scan your card so that the people who are behind the desk are able to be safe from all the people that are coming in. There are also three hand sanitizing stations in the dining hall, as opposed to just one by the homestyle food line last year.
At the beginning of the semester there were social distance markers so that when students stood in line they could all be safely distanced. These markers are no longer in Carter Lobby but are still present in the Great Hall. The new system seems to be working, as multiple students report that the line does not feel as long as in previous years.
The dining hall workers also have Plexiglas shields to protect them, and they now serve the food as students move through the lines. The workers all wear masks and gloves, and they try to keep all the food separate and make sure that we are all safe and maintaining distance.
There are to-go boxes so that students can take food out and eat somewhere else. Bagels for breakfast have been wrapped in plastic wrap and kept separate. Students now have to ask for butter or cream cheese and other toppings that they might want to put on there. Creative Dining also got rid of the waffle maker. Students are not able to make their own waffles anymore. Creative Dining changed the cereal choices provided and they got Kellogg brands of cereal. They got rid of some of the cereal choices that they had before like the Lucky Charms.
Another new system in place is outdoor dining. The pool is now a tented seating area with lights in it so that students are able to sit there when it is dark and eat. The outdoor dining has about 23 tables with at least 8 chairs on each. This makes it so that students can come out there and eat and enjoy the weather when it is nice out.