As the school renovates the Dining Commons, community members are growing accustomed to the new location and setup in the Ford Food Court (FFC). The new space has presented some difficulties for Dining Services and Safety & Security staff, who have been working hard to overcome them.
The temporary modular kitchens, which are located in trailers attached to the FFC, are fairly disconnected from the main servery. Mr. Mike Webster, general manager of dining services, said, “Everything’s become more challenging because we’re more spread out, and the FFC is far from the main building.” Ms. Lyn Weber, the executive chef, joked, “I think we’re all walking at least 15,000 steps a day!”
The new kitchen setup has reduced capacity as well. Mr. Webster explained, “We used to have a lot more storage, so we’ve had to downsize quite a bit, but the kitchen space as a whole is adequate.”
The Dining Services staff, however, are not the only department affected by the changes. Safety and Security has had to increase shifts to cover more hours at the crosswalk.
Mr. Randy Killmer, campus safety and security supervisor, said, “The FFC became our top priority. Personally, I’m only just recently catching up on stuff that went to the back burner during that rush. Things were planned out well, and we were able to hire some extra staffing to fill the newly created hours at the crosswalk.”
Other challenges have emerged in the past months. For instance, due to the unreliability of the temporary dishwasher provided with the modular kitchens, Dining Service has been alternating between using disposable and ceramic plates. Mr. Webster said, “We’re constantly trying to fix these problems.”
The school’s Facilities team has played a critical role in the transition to the FFC. The plumbing, carpentry, and electrical departments continue to work to support the dining facility whenever technical difficulties arise.
Work in the FFC doesn’t differ significantly from day to day, but staff are tasked with much more on-the-fly problem-solving. Mr. Webster said, “In the old dining hall, we could anticipate issues and knew already how to fix them. Not so much with the FFC.”
The space used by students has met with widespread approval. Mr. Webster said, “Though we had a short timeline for building the FFC and the infrastructure has been difficult, the dining space is nice. All in all, it’s been a good transition.”
When asked about the new dining experience, Philip Lee ’26 said, “I don’t think the food quality has declined at all. It’s just the longer walk that has been tricky.”
