As the only operating dining hall during the pandemic, Everybody’s Kitchen (EVK), located next to Birnkrant and New Residential Colleges, feeds students who live in on-campus housing. For the residential dining hall, the real challenge has been protecting students and staff from COVID-19 outbreaks.
As of Feb. 20, USC has reported positivity rates of 0.8% for students and 0.3% for employees. As long as people still rely on campus dinner, EVK staff will continue to make every meal safe and comforting.
According to Erik Russell, associate director for residential dining, the current EVK hourly schedule consists of around 20 employees working on site while the total number of employees was approximately 150 prior to the pandemic.
“In normal course of operations, we would have student workers, but currently we do not,” Russell said. He added that while the USC campus used to have 3 active dining hall venues, feeding close to 10,000 people a day, now only EVK is open. The 7-day-a-week dining hall is currently feeding under500 people a day.
Feeding fewer people is by no means an easier task. During the pandemic, EVK staff are constantly improving safety precautions, following the direction of the USC health department.
Senior Manager of Everybody’s Kitchen, Carlos Perez said that employee testing has recently changed to a weekly schedule. Currently, all EVK staff are getting COVID-19 tested once a week; however, testing frequency was as needed or directed by the university or health care provider before the change.
All employees have also taken training regarding COVID-19 health and safety expectations via Trojan Learn. 6-feet physical distancing is required at workstations and employee’s break areas. All staff members wear gloves and PPE at all times during shifts, including a face covering and face shield. Handwashing is required every 15 minutes, said Perez. Sanitizing after switching tasks in food preparation areas is mandatory as well.
At the moment, EVK only serves takeout meals for pickup outside of the dining hall, where it has physical distancing markers. Eco-friendly compostable to-go containers and bags are sealed for customers along with packaged desserts, cutlery kits, and bottled beverages.
Robert Bacon, a virtual peer mentor and RA for Cowlings and Ilium Residential College is one of the few students in on-campus housings. He has received meals from EVK during the pandemic.
“They updated a lot from the fall semester, where food would just come in brown paper bags and now they use sealed clear bags so you can make sure your order is correct,” Bacon said. “It makes me feel a lot safer about eating the food because of the way it’s packaged.”
The menu at EVK is generally established well before it is implemented. Russell said the conversation generally starts a year prior to the fall launch. The culinary team would make a first draft based on the set standard of two proteins, two starches, three vegetables and one vegan option every day. The revised draft would go to dietitian Lindsey Pine for approval from the safety aspects. After running the final menu through the purchasing department, Russell makes the final approval and sends it to programing to form a complete menu for each dining hall in the summer.
“It’s a three-week rotation, but we kept running into student’s feedback about menu fatigue especially coming into the spring semester. So the last round of menus we added a fourth week in to add more variety,” Russell said. “Students can get in touch with us through our residential dining website. A lot of times students would reach out to our dietitian or they’ll tell managers at the venue level.”
Portions and variety are still some of the primary concerns from customers. “As a resident on campus, I have to be tested twice weekly for COVID-19. The testing spot is near EVK so that’s why I go,” Katrina Meng, a sophomore linguistics and psychology student, said. “I definitely want more food and also more variety in drinks. They used to have milk and juices in the beginning of the pandemic. But now they only offer water and soft drinks.”
Now, students can order meals from EVK through the Grubhub app or at the dining hall.
“[Grubhub] can be a lot better, to order more than one meal at a time, you have to order them all separately. It feels bad for me to have to order five different times if I want two of these and one of that until the things are matching,” Bacon said. He also said EVK was serving breakfast in the fall semester of last year but is no longer doing so. He would love to see the dining hall bringing breakfast back.
As for now, residential dining is waiting on directions from the University on plans for vaccinations and opening. From the COVID-19 vaccine rollout strategy USC published on February 5, LA County announced the distribution vaccine is moving to the first group of Phase 1B. Group 1B includes the broad category of education workers. Within this group, USC is prioritizing those working on campus who are public-facing and working in close contact with others. Hospitality staff will be invited in first among the 1B category. USC also anticipates a full reopening of on-campus activities in the fall, with some facilities opening at limited capacity in the spring semester.