AUBURN, Ala. (EETV)- Due to Covid-19, Auburn Campus Dining added food lockers to Foy Hall to keep employees and costumers safe.
Auburn students will be able to pre-order their food to 'Foy on the Fly,' a locker pickup station located in War Eagle Food Court. This system will stop students from entering buffet lines and reduce possible exposure to the Virus.
"This year, we've had to innovate," said Glenn Loughridge, director of Campus Dining at Auburn. "No one likes the situation that we face, but sometimes these negatives end up being positives because it pushes us to think outside of the box," said Loughridge.
Students will have the option to place an order on Grubhub, a popular food delivery service, and send them to Foy on the Fly. Ninety Percent of standard campus dining options are open to choose from. Once the food arrives at the locker, it will be locked with a code to keep other students from stealing it. "They put their code into the food locker. It lights up. It flashes. And they're able to grab their food and go," said Loughridge.
Food on the Fly is just one of the multiple new security measures implemented to keep students safe. Auburn has also established meal dividers and glove stations that allow students to collect gloves without touching the surface. The dining hall is also changing out utensils every 30 minutes and provides hand washing stations in front of the dining areas.
The self-inflating glove suspender is one of Loughridge's favorites. He stated, "It's actually really cool—so, the glove inflates, you slide your hand in, and you can use that glove to go and grab food off of the line without ever having to touch the utensils."
When talking about the situation, Loughridge said, "we've taken some extraordinary measures to make sure that we can still do what we do. The most important part of dining in the community that you get from sitting together, having a meal. So, the steps that we've taken are to try to maintain as much of that community as we possibly can while safely social distancing our students."
Overall, Auburn is going out of its way to keep students safe while still keeping them social. Loughridge claims that Auburn is in a constant stage of adjustment due to not following past trends.
In the future, the university is looking forward to its new online dining hall, with 800 seats and all-day access in the future. The station will have 11 different stations, to give the students a "high level, artisan experience."
