UTRGV’s Dining Services makes changes

Freshmen Nicholas Smith, biology major, (left) and Aaron Williams, mechanical engineering major, leave the Campus Dining Hall with their bagged lunch in search of a place to eat on Wednesday on the Edinburg campus. Students are not allowed to eat in the Campus Dining Hall due to a recent policy that has the students with meal plans picking up their food to go. NATHAN GARZA/THE RIDER PHOTOS

UTRGV Dining Services is taking precautions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of last Wednesday, students who have meal plans will continue to use the Campus Dining Hall services on the Edinburg campus. The Campus Dining Hall has temporarily prohibited all dine-in options and will only provide to-go containers to limit the person-to-person contact, according to Robert Cantu, executive director for Business Auxiliary Services.

To sanitize, Dining Services will frequently clean and disinfect surfaces with a suitable chemical disinfectant. All employees have also been instructed on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and they have reinforced policies requiring employees to stay home if they are not feeling well, according to utrgvdining.sodexomyway.com.

“The format now is to be able to eliminate points of contamination,” Cantu said. “Anybody who had a cough, and this has been going on for over two weeks, if they had a cough, they were sending them home. If they report a fever or anything like that, they’re just keeping them away.”

Sodexo’s culinary team is also developing alternate menus and serving options in case there is a decrease in food supply. According to its web page, the provider’s food supply chain is well stocked and it does not currently expect any supply chain disruptions.

“These are changing times,” said Letty Benavides, associate vice president for Campus Auxiliary Services. “So, we are having to kind of assess and adjust really quick. With respect to seating at El Comedor [on the Brownsville campus], they are limiting the number of seats that are actually available so that we can honor the social distancing protocols.”

In order to maintain a safe environment for the students, El Comedor only allows one chair per table and there are only 26 tables. The dining area has removed about 50 chairs.

Miranda Vick, an English senior who works as a copywriting student assistant for the School of Medicine, said now that the Campus Dining Hall is limited to takeout, she is going to have to look for other places to eat.

“I was really planning to go to the dining hall,” Vick said. “So, I don’t know what I am going to do. I feel bad for those students who don’t have a lot of options.”

Currently, the Edinburg Campus Dining Hall will be open during the following times:

Monday through Thursday

Breakfast: 7:30 to 9:30 a.m.

Lunch: 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Dinner: 5 to 6:45 p.m

Friday through Sunday

Brunch: 10:30 a.m. to 1:30pm

Dinner: 5 to 6:30 p.m.

In Brownsville, The Grill, which is inside El Comedor, will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. All other dining locations or services are closed.

For more information, visit utrgvdining.sodexomyway.com.