Exciting changes are coming to Stevens Dining this semester! The recent announcements detailed a revamp of the UCC marketplace, updated dining hours, and the creation of new sustainability programs.
Multiple surveys of the student body last school year found that students would like healthier options. These same surveys also found that Happy Appy—the UCC marketplace’s Asian-style restaurant—was not as popular as the other venues. Thus, this year, Happy Appy has been replaced with a new restaurant: Pom & Honey, described by Stevens as a Mediterranean-healthy bowl station. Beyond being a healthy alternative, Pom & Honey also comes with several halal options, another food option that was previously missing from the UCC.
Another change coming to the UCC is an improvement to Piccolo Italia, the UCC’s Italian option. Both the sauce and the pizza dough have gone through several adjustments over the summer in order to improve the consistency of the pizza. Beyond that, the menu will now also include flatbreads and a monthly rotation of pizza, sandwich, and flatbread specials, as well as biweekly pasta specials. September’s pizza, sandwich, and flatbread specials will be Buffalo Chicken Pizza, Hot Italian Beef & Provolone Sandwich, and Fresh Mozzarella, Plum Tomatoes, and Fresh Basil with Balsamic Drizzle Flatbread, respectively.
All of these changes were tested multiple times over the course of the summer break on office workers and students on campus. According to Madison Goslin, Senior Marketing Specialist of Stevens Dining and the administrator for these new changes, the falafel was approved by Sara Klein, Vice President of Student Affairs — and self-described falafel aficionado, as being quite good.
The surveys also asked students about their dining patterns and preferred locations in order to better set dining hours for the coming semester. In response to feedback, Pierce Dining Hall will open later but will have extended late hours on weekends. Additionally, Pom & Honey will remain open until 10 p.m. every night.
Dining is rolling out several new quality assurance and sustainability programs. The most prominent of these is that sodas in the UCC will now be packaged in cans instead of bottles. This “SIPs” program furthers the university’s focus on sustainability, by increasing the use of recyclable materials and reducing plastic waste. Changes in the past have included moving away from plastic containers towards compostable paper containers for takeaway and the UCC. Compost trash disposal will also be installed in the UCC kitchen.
Stevens Dining continues to make an effort to improve options while preserving environmental sustainability and operational efficiency on campus. How much the general student body likes these changes will be seen over the next few weeks as the new semester begins. Go try out these new options today!
