Image Courtesy of Claire Fisher/ One of the spaces in Hickey Dining Hall where students can choose from a variety of vegetables to individualize their salads
By Claire Fisher, Features Assignment Editor
In an ingredient-filled dining hall, students tap into their own creativity when it comes to creating meals. Hickey Dining Hall includes many pre-made meals such as soups and pizzas, but there are many spaces for students to make their own food decisions without even having their own kitchens.
Spaces such as the salad bar, omelet station, the weekly Taco Tuesday appearance and the Wolf Den, a location that serves ‘breakfast all day’, are ways students can eat similar meals without having to have the same flavor profiles as their friends.
The Wolf Den serves more expansive breakfast options during the week such as toast, sausage, hash browns and a variety of egg choices.
Keli Smith, a sophomore double major in criminology and psychology, favors the Wolf Den because of the bond she creates with the dining-hall staff. After a year of going to the Wolf Den, she and her friends have warmly been named, “the over easy girls,” after routinely ordering over-easy eggs.
“It made us all laugh because we all love the Wolf Den workers, especially Kyle. It was cool to see that they remembered us because of our orders,” Smith said.
Alexandra Beamish, sophomore early childhood and childhood inclusive education major, is known in her friend group for creating her own hummus with the salad bar ingredients. She uses chickpeas, mayo, blue cheese dressing and crumbles, and hot sauce as a dip for her pita chips
“Having an ingredient-based dining hall makes it easier for me to create meals that have nutrients and that fill me up,” Beamish said. “Since I eat mostly vegetarian, it can be hard for me to find full meals at the dining hall that are already made for my diet.”
Another great resource students tap into is the newly moved pasta station. Students can pick from a variety of meats and vegetables along with their pasta and sauce of choice.
“You know everything you are getting is fresh because they make it right there in front of you, ” Smith said. “To me it just tastes better and more fresh.”
Students also note that while they like the available choices, Hickey still has a ways to go to meet their needs.
“Having even more choices in the dining hall would allow me to eat the ‘five star’ food Hickey promises,” Beamish said.
Announced this week, Bonaventure’s dining Instagram account is hosting a month-long “Hickey Hacks” contest. Students can instant message their video submission of their Hickey creation to the account and be entered to win a $20 dining gift certificate.
The dining hall invites students to regularly fill out food surveys, found in napkin receptacles on the tables. Aramark, Bonaventure’s food service provider, also has a relationship with the university Student Food Committee, having bi-weekly meetings to address student cuisine concerns.
