We are very excited to be able to welcome you to campus! As you’d expect, we’re implementing some serious sanitation and service measures to ensure you can dine with us as safely and comfortably as possible. We’ll go into those in more detail later.
While COVID-19 safety is a key priority, it is not our only one. We still believe that food has an important role to play in individual wellness and in building culture and community here at Roger Williams. Our chefs will still be cooking from scratch, using fresh local and seasonal ingredients that meet our sustainability standards. (We were thrilled when the Humane Society of the United States ranked Bon Appétit the #1 food service company, the only one with an A+ grade, in their recent Food Industry Scorecard!)
In addition, you will continue to find abundant plant-forward, vegetarian, and vegan options as well as ones that are made without gluten-containing ingredients every day. If you have a food allergy or other dietary restriction, we will work with you to ensure that you can enjoy plenty of delicious food, safely, with us. Please fill out a form on Hawk Link to share you allergen or dietary needs information and learn about our full Allergen, Celiac Disease, and Dietary Needs program here. Our Executive Sous Chef Derek Jolie will be in touch!
FAQs for Roger Williams University
So basically, how is dining going to work?
To accommodate our residential meal plan students while reducing density, we have the following preliminary plan for the Bristol campus in place:
- Upper Commons, Baypoint, and the Outdoor Dining Tent, our three residential dining areas on the main campus, will place offer on “take-out” service.
- A thermal temperature scanner in Upper Commons will take the temperature of each guest prior to entering the cafe. Students whose temperature reads above 100.3 will be directed to step to the side while we re-scan for a second temperature read.
- All residential and retail settings will provide contactless meal plan validation via swipe or purchase payment through the GET mobile app as standard operating procedure at points of sale/entrance.
- All students must download the GET mobile app, select Roger Williams University, and sign in with your campus login information. GET mobile directly links with your campus ID, enabling a digital ID barcode to swipe at all of our contactless stations. You can also add funds to your University account and place food orders for Lower Commons and Law School Cafe
- The Outdoor Dining Tent has been installed on the SAAHP Quad for students only. Serving lunch and dinner, beginning Aug. 26, students may use their meal pass at a food court under the tent as well as bring takeout food from Lower and Upper Commons. This venue will operate into early October and will then be replaced by equivalent service operating from within our Fieldhouse in the Campus Recreation Center for the remainder of the semester.
- The School of Law facility, The Bistro, will be reserved for RWU Law students and employees as well as University employees for lunch. Additional seating will be provided outdoors and appropriate capacities for the dining room will be established and posted.
- Employees may use the mobile-takeout service from Lower Commons or the Bistro in the School of Law; employees may bring food back to their offices or dine outdoors, but not under the Quad tent.
Our Dining Reopening plan includes extensive employee training with a focus on personal health screening, wdorkplace safety, facility management and cleaning procedures, mask and glove wearing, and COVID-19 operating appropriate production and handling standards. Regular scheduled temperature checks of employees by managers during shifts and frequent COVID-19 testing will be integral to our virus mitigation planning.
Each residential and retail facility will have clear directional flow plans and signage to minimize contacts.
What’s happening with the meal plans?
Dining meal plans will be consolidated into three plans – A new 230 Block Plan, the 125 Block Plan, and the Commuter Plan. The new 230 Block Plan will offer 230 residential meals along with 180 Hawk Dollars. Our unlimited meal plan has been removed to mitigate repeat use of our now four separate residential dining locations (Upper Commons, outdoor dining tent, Lower Commons, and Baypoint) during the same meal period to continue to promote social distancing. The 230 Block Plan was designed to adequately provide our students with the meals they need while on campus for the entirety of the semester. The plan will also come with three Bonus Meals to use for yourself or another on-campus student; no off-campus guests will be allowed in the cafes. Take-out service will be offered at all of our dining locations, however for guests who choose to dine in our cafés we request limiting your dining time 45 minutes and regulating your visits up to the servery to two to reduce crowding and exposure. The 125 Block Plan and Commuter plan will still be available to students who qualify based on their housing arrangements.
What’s the deal with masks and seating?
We’ll be wearing masks while serving you.
Face coverings are a key tool in preventing exposure and containing spread of the virus. RWU requires face coverings in all classes and in public spaces where individuals are closer than 6 feet away. All campus community members will receive a washable face mask. Exceptions for medical reasons may be requested through the RWU Accessibility Services, accommodating with the use of a face shield or other acceptable preventative material.
In our dining café’s, we will have some directional wayfinding to reduce crowding — and masks can be removed only while eating. We are offering takeout containers to encourage people to dine outside the café.
For those who choose to eat in, seating has been reduced by about 50%. There will be plexiglass partitions at each table, and sanitize-me/just-sanitized signs indicating a seat’s status for you. Please do not rearrange furniture or remove plexi dividers.
Contact Tracing is crucial to maintaining the health and safety of our RWU Bristol campus. Each residential dining table will be labeled with a table number and QR code. We ask all of our guests dining in-house to pledge to maintain a log of where they have dined and with who for 15 minutes or more every time they dine at any of our café’s.
What’s happening with the self-serve salad bar, desserts, condiment station, soda station, etc?
We’re happy to serve you! All self-service items are being reconfigured to be served by our staff.
- Salad bars and dessert stations: All salad bars and desserts will now offer pre-packaged popular salads and desserts.
- Condiments: Ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, soy sauce etc. will be offered in packets.
- Silverware: Reusable silverware for dining in or plastic to-go silverware will be provided with each meal.
Can I still get Made Without Gluten-Containing Ingredients meals? Where have the packaged gluten-free items gone?
MWGCI and gluten-free items will be available in each café, by request from behind the appropriate station. For example, the deli and grill will have GF breads and GF pizza crust will be served daily. All previous self-service options will still be displayed and available for guests, just served from behind the line.
I am vegan/vegetarian, where do I look for items?
We will have vegan and vegetarian options available throughout the cafés, always incorporating these into our regular menus for all stations.
So … what’s going to be available where and when?
View all current café hours and menus here
- At the Lower Commons you will find:
- The Lower Commons will be available for residential meals for lunch and dinner.
- All orders can now be placed and paid for online via GET Food app (found in the app store or Google Play under GET Mobile). Orders will be available for take-out at your desired time and payment can be made as a meal plan “swipe,” Hawk Dollars, Unicard Points, or credit card/Apple Pay.
- Cash will not be accepted at any location however funds can be added to your Roger Williams ID card online at GET Funds or at the Lower Commons ID Office.
- Residential meals will be available from opening (11:00 a.m.) until 8:30 p.m. After 8:30 p.m. the Lower Commons will continue to offer a retail dining menu accepting Hawk Dollars, Unicard Points, or credit card.
- All self-serve stations will be removed including the salad bar, soups, and bulk condiments. Salads will be available in our Grab & Go coolers and condiments will be given in packets.
- Seating will be spaced out to only allow for a maximum of eight people per table and the required spacing between tables.
- At Global Café:
- The café will continue to serve your favorite Starbucks menu
- Any self-serve options will now be pre-packaged
- At the Law School Café:
- Orders can be placed and paid for online via GET Food app (found in the app store or Google Play under GET Mobile) and available for take-out at your desired time.
- In-person orders will also be accepted.
- At the Hawk’s Nest:
- The café will continue to serve coffee, smoothies, and Grab & Go meals
- Any self-serve options will now be pre-packaged
- Café Express:
- This location will be closed for the fall semester
- C-Store
- A full service coffee menu will continue to be served
- Grocery, refrigerated, and frozen items will also continue to be available.
- At Baypoint
- Lunch at Baypoint will remain al a carte ordering along
- We’ll be expanding our seating areas to nearby common areas and the outside courtyard to provide social distancing
- All self-serve and bulk items will now be pre-packaged to go (i.e. salad bar, condiments, desserts)
What other COVID-19 safety measures are Bon Appétit dining staff taking?
- All dining employees will wear masks and gloves at all times.
- All staff are going through COVID-19-specific training designed by sanitation experts and updated regularly as new issues emerge. Topics covered include proper disinfection, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), physical distancing protocols, and more, and are integrated with food safety and sanitation protocols.
- Team members wear “I’m Trained” buttons to let you know they’re up to date on all safety measures.
- A café supervisor will be designated for each meal period to maintain physical distancing by guests and to ensure staff follow cleaning/disinfection protocols and schedules.
- Separate workspaces for food preparation will allow for required safe physical distancing (6-ft rule) between colleagues.
- Amped-up cleaning and sanitation schedules with clearly detailed procedures that meet or exceed all local guidelines and national best practices. This includes frequent disinfection of high-touch surfaces, including wiping down tables and seats between guests, disinfecting all highly touched areas such as door handles every 20 minutes
- Pre-shift wellness screenings for employees in alignment with local regulations, which include no-contact temperature scans and daily interview questions.
- Decision tree and step-by-step action plan for unit managers who have employees who are sick or who may have had contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19.
I have a question you didn’t answer! Who can I ask?
Contact Stephanie Keith