Dining Services: What students need to know

Photo+credit%3A+Tori+Flick

Tori Flick

Photo credit: Tori Flick

Raistlyn Lehman

Whether it’s breakfast, lunch, dinner or desserts, the Dining Services at Robert Morris University can provide it all. Although dining services are a large part of every college student’s life, most students are not aware of everything they can do through the program.

“A lot of people don’t know that they can order catering and use their meal plan money,” says Lisa Rodgers, senior general manager. “There’s a lot of rooms on campus we cater to.”

The dining services offer more opportunities for the students at RMU besides catering. A new feature to the school year includes the Bravissimo. Located at PNC Colonial Café, Bravissimo is a recently added station that rotates with Bento Bowl.

“(I)n the past, we always had the same meal for lunch and dinner, and this year we have a different meal for lunch and a different meal for dinner which gives students more variety. So we added things like jambalaya or milkshake bar,” said Rodgers.

Two recently added options to the PNC Colonial Café are the Salad by Design and the breakfast bar, which will rotate with Colonial Carvery and the pasta bar on certain days. The PNC Colonial Café is not the only food stop offering new items this school year, Romo’s also has some new features for student.

Tori Flick

“On Friday, Saturday and Sunday we usually either had just something light or a snack, now we’re doing a full meal,” said Rodgers.

Another feature dining services offers are bulk items, or buying particular foods in large amounts by filling out a bulk order form. These food items can include cases of drinks, candy or anything the student might want. Bulk ordering items is not just for the end of the semester, it can be done throughout the whole year.

There are two ways bulking items can be done with the most popular way being by taking a case of a desired item to the cashier and buying it that way. Rodgers revealed another way students can bulk items.

“If you come down to the PNC Café, (go to) the cashier and ask for Chef Dan if you want something different than just the things we stock on the shelves,” said Rodgers.

Financial and Procurement Analyst, Sharon Silk, along with Rodgers, explained the new nutritional website RMU has created. This website is a way for students to not only discover the nutrition and allergy information in their foods, but also find out what menu items are vegetarian and/or gluten free.

“If you go into the current student section under quick links… It says dining services and in there it will bring you to the homepage. There’s a ton of information in there, not just the nutritional information but there’s hours, the weekly specials, so you can really plan your meals for the week because all of that information is in there,” said Silk.

Rodgers also mentioned that Dining Services are looking to hire students to work in the cafés here on campus.

“It’s a regular paying job, so it’s not part of work study or anything, but you’re paid by Parkhurst Dining. You clock-in, you clock-out, it’s a normal paycheck kind of thing. But we love students to work with us and we also give you a free meal while you’re working,” said Rodgers.

Silk wants to remind students that meal plan money can be used at the concessions stands during any football or basketball games, as well as down at the Island Sports Center at the Ice House Bistro.

For more information over dining services, students are encouraging to visit the Dining Services homepage or email dining services at [email protected].