Web Food

Dining Services is cooking up something new that allows students to order food over the Web.

Soon it will be easier and more convenient for students, faculty, staff and Waverly community members to order food, Director of Dining Services Margaret Empie said.  Students will not have to put their studying or plans on hold as long just to go to one of the various eateries on campus to stand in line and wait for food.  They will soon be able to order that food online and quickly pick it up.
 

Starting tentatively in late February or early March, Dining Services will implement Web Food.
“As a student, you will be able to log in from any computer into our system, and order your lunch or food or whatever you want in the Den, Konditorei and the Zesty Orange. You’ll be able to pick a time, and when you get there it will be ready,” Empie said.
 

 Students can pay with points or a credit card when they order online.         

The order has to be placed at least 20 minutes ahead of pick-up.
 

“If you order online, and it’s not a meal transfer, you’ll order your beverage and the whole meal down to if you need ketchup packets.  It’ll all be on there. It’s not convenient if you can’t just pick it up and go,” Empie said.
 

Empie said this presents the menu in a different way.  She hopes people will become more aware of how  many choices there are.
 

Between the three places, the menus are different.  “A lot of people say there isn’t enough variety. I encourage them to take a closer look,” she said.
 

Another thing Web Food provides is the chance for students to sign up for meal transfers online.
 

“That’s an area that students get a little frustrated, because it is so manual, because you have to show up and sign up for it, when the whole point of it is to be convenient,” Empie said.
 

The meal transfers will be set up a little differently.  There will be so many people per 10 minutes, and the number of people that will be able to sign up for meal transfers is slightly more than the number that can currently sign up.
 

Students also will not have to sign up a day ahead of time.  They can sign up more than a day in advance or the day of the meal transfer.

“You’ll be able to order 30 minutes ahead if there is a spot left and it will automatically take away that meal from the board plan,” Empie said.

Through Web Food, students will pick out just their entrée and if they are dining in or taking out, and then, they will choose the rest of their meal when they arrive to pick it up. Once an online meal transfer transaction is finalized, the student cannot use the meal anywhere else on campus.

“Students get upset, because people sign up and then they don’t show up.  I think this will solve that problem, and it will make it so the people that really want meal transfers will get them.  So I’m kind of excited about that.  It’s something that I’ve wanted to fix for years,” Empie said.

Printers and computers needed to make this work have been shipped. Right now, they are getting everything set up, and then there will be a small group that does some dry runs.

“System-wise and computer-wise, we have that figured out, now we just have to figure it out work-wise in each eatery.  Like if an order comes through where is the stuff going to be,” Empie said.

With Web Food being implemented, there still won’t be meal transfers in the Zesty Orange, because it is costly to transfer food from the main food area to places that are across campus.  Staff would have to transfer all of that food by cart. 

“It’ll be just like any other new thing you do, you have to work your way through it so you don’t make mistakes. People wouldn’t appreciate that, especially when they are in a hurry,” Empie said.