With a wide variety of dining options available on campus, members of the Trinity community can enjoy different dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. With busy schedules comprising of classes and other responsibilities, it can be difficult to get the best dishes. To alleviate this, some dining establishments have opted to change hours of operations to better accommodate the hungry and hectic campus. This semester, students have taken advantage of the brand new extended hours at Einstein’s Bagels and the omelet station at Mabee Dining Hall. These changes were ultimately prompted by the visits of various directors from other universities.
“The directors from other universities came into Mabee and expressed how they had been doing this at other universities and thought it would be a good idea to do it here,” said Jana Kercheville, breakfast cook at the omelet line in Mabee. “So now we are open seven days a week, during the week from 7:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the weekends.”
Kercheville works hard to make sure each student is satisfied with the quality and taste of the meals the staff members prepare.
“We always like to take pride and passion in everything that we put out,” Kercheville said. “I would never put something out that I wouldn’t eat personally. Plus, we make sure people get what they want and always try to accommodate everybody.”
Kercheville also expressed a positive attitude about the Trinity Market, the farm-to-mouth approach implemented there and the ¡Por Vida! products are also offered across campus. These new features make cooking the food a more enjoyable process, while also exciting and intriguing students about alternative options for meals, she said.
“I think it’s great to use local produce,” Kercheville said. “People take pride in what they do.”
Last semester, Campus Dining hired a new chef, Miguel Morales, to oversee Mabee. He has been steadily implementing a number of positive changes to improve the dining services experience for all visitors. The alterations Morales has already made have been met with predominantly enthusiastic responses from students, faculty members and coworkers.
“He has made a lot of positive changes here with us and implementing a lot of new things, like our new infused water,” Kercheville said. “We’re making our vegetable and beef stocks from actual waste, food peelings and the like, instead of throwing it away, so that you don’t have all the sodium and added preservatives that usually go along with it. We are really trying to upgrade and make things better.”
While the time changes have generated senses of shock and satisfaction on campus, this is not the first time some of the various dining establishments have elected to alter their hours of operation based on customer availability.
“Last year, we had Freshii and Taco Taco open until midnight,” said Corey Borgerson, supervisor at Einstein’s Bagels. “On Sundays, Einstein’s Bagels is open until 11 p.m. and so is Grille Works. So those restaurants are open in the evenings for students.”
In addition to working at Einstein’s, Borgerson also helps out at Freshii and Taco Taco. The ability to work at more than one of the several on-campus restaurants has allowed Borgerson to gain a variety of experience in helping out hungry students.
“I’ve had a lot of experience here and it’s a really good place to work,” Borgeson said.
The larger variety of eating options on campus, especially when it comes to healthier food, has been welcomed by the community. There are also more opportunities to enjoy favorite meals at more points during the day; for example, the ability to enjoy a custom omelet at lunch rather than pick between pizza, burgers and salads may be more appealing to some.
“I think having added options every day is important so that students don’t get tired of the food that is being offered and will still want to eat on campus,” said Ruby Waddell, a junior English major. “I also think the omelet line and international dishes are more appealing sometimes because they seem more fresh than a lot of the other foods.”
With extended hours at Coates and Mabee, employees may see a greater wave of customers visit their establishments throughout the day for service. Older students who have found their amount of trips to Mabee dwindling may be intrigued to take a trip to the dining hall to have their favorite breakfast dish made at more accessible hours, while others may be encouraged to spend more time studying near Einstein’s than off-campus somewhere.
As the year moves forward, food service employees on campus hope that students will continue to enjoy the extended options available to them and make trips to eat on campus. They also hope other opportunities to improve the overall quality of their food present themselves when available so improvement may remain steady. The introduction of healthier food options, especially through the Trinity Market, will surely benefit members of both the Trinity and San Antonio communities who frequently eat meals at Trinity.
Students are encouraged to dine at both establishments when they are available.
