Have some strong feelings about Barnard’s switch to Chartwells Dining Services? Join the club.

As you have probably heard in recent weeks, Barnard’s sudden switch to Chartwells Dining Services amidst numerous complains against the previous dining provider, Aramark. Barnard’s Student Government Association sat down with Chartwells to dish out (hahahaha) some of the issues that have come up with the new dining provider.

Chartwells brought along their own powerpoint and kicked off the meeting by first breaking down the chain of command at Chartwells corporate and Barnard-only staff. After breaking down managers and workers, they tackled the topic everyone really wanted to address: the plates. The Hewitt Plates. Finally, as of October 28th, the small plates previously used in Hewitt will be traded in for 9 inch plates due to many student complaints in recent weeks. That’s right people, we got our big plates!

They went on to explain their other big news: Chartwells has partners with the Food Recovery Network to begin donating leftovers from Hewitt Dining Hall and Diana Center Cafe to shelters, churches, and community centers in the area; at the 500 Degree station in Hewitt a pasta bar is being introduced soon, as well as a Hewitt smoothie station; The Food Pantry at Barnard Hall will be opened in the coming months; and Five Dollar Fridays at Diana Center Cafe and Liz’s will be introduced, with items that typically go for $6 or $7 will be reduced to $5 on Fridays.

In order to tackle the horrible wait times in Diana Center Cafe, Chartwells has made efforts to hire and staff more employees around meal times. They are creating an express pizza line for pepperoni and cheese only, that will have those two options on stock at all times so students don’t have to wait in line and can instead just walk up and grab what they want — but for those wanting a choice with more toppings, you’re going to have to wait. They are also considering setting up kiosks at the entrance of Diana Center Cafe to pre-order food and pick it up anywhere from 8 to 10 minutes laters. Innovation that excites. Chartwells is trying to implement the usage of the Boost App in Peet’s, a mobile app to express order coffee to be picked up.

dining via Bwog Archives