Spring quarter changes in Stanford Dining

This spring, Residential & Dining Enterprises is making two changes to where and how students can gather for meals. The changes provide a new opportunity for students to build community and reduce the amount of trash, food waste and cost associated with the university’s to-go meal program.

EVGR Dining

EVGR Dining has expanded to include the EVGR Pub and outdoor patio space for lunch and dinner.

Students may now serve themselves from the buffet in the current EVGR Dining space and then select beverages and sample new dishes from the Tasting Table in the Pub space. Undergraduates and graduate students may use their Stanford Dining meal plans, Cardinal Dollars or credit cards to purchase meals.

The EVGR Pub will offer a pub menu Thursday through Sunday evenings until midnight. The Pub accepts Cardinal Dollars, Meal Plan Dollars and credit cards.

Why are we doing this?

An important element of Stanford’s undergraduate residential living experience is the opportunity to build community around shared dining. This has been a challenge for undergraduates living in EVGR-A because of the distance to their neighborhood dining halls. The Pub’s indoor seating and the adjacent outdoor patio provide the spaces necessary for this type of gathering in a more convenient location.

Sustainable dining

Beginning April 11, all dining halls, including EVGR Dining, will sunset to-go meal boxes for students. The relaxing of COVID protocols allows us to return to our pre-pandemic practice of inviting students to enjoy all they care to eat in the dining hall. Personal containers or plastic bags to take food from the dining halls will also be discontinued.

The COVID-19 meal delivery service for students in isolation and to-go meals for students in quarantine will continue as long as necessary.

Continuous dining is available from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. in Lakeside and AFDC. Students whose schedules (class, practice, sports, etc.) or medical or religious reasons prevent them from visiting a dining hall during a meal period should contact their dining hall manager for assistance.

Why are we doing this?

For much of the pandemic, to-go meals were the best option to continue serving students on campus while complying with local and state public health mandates. However, one significant challenge of the to-go meals has been the amount of landfill trash, food waste and additional cost associated with the to-go meal program.

This academic year alone, more than 1 million to-go containers have been used, and the additional cost for containers and waste hauling has been substantial.

We have heard from many students concerned about this, and we agree this is not sustainable. Now that the public health environment has improved, we are pleased to return to reusable plates and flatware for meals in the dining halls and EVGR Dining. This is consistent with R&DE’s commitment to sustainability and supports the university’s zero-waste goals.

R&DE thanks students for their understanding and support of the reasons for this change and the need to return to the long-standing, traditional, in-person program that allows students to build community over meals.