University of Delaware Dining Services, managed by Aramark, has adapted its operations this fall to provide safe dining environments that enrich and nourish lives where students will be living and learning on campus.

Dining Services’ reopening plans have been developed in accordance with the guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state of Delaware and the University, along with Aramark’s EverSafe platform with Jefferson Health, designed to provide a new level of safety excellence aimed to help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and provide the most hygienic, safe environments for employees, customers and guests.

Students living on and off campus, as well as faculty and staff, are welcome to dine on campus. Pencader Dining Hall and the P.O.D. Market on Laird Campus, along with the Trabant Food Court in Trabant University Center and The Nest’s Tasting Grounds and Marketplace, in Morris Library, will be open. The hours of operation for these dining locations are available on Dining Services’ website.

Pencader Dining Hall will provide the option to dine in or take food to go. To manage the flow and critical check points, guests will be asked to use designated entrances – the Main Entrance for dining in and the Terrace Entrance for express to go. When taking out food, it should be consumed or reheated within one hour of pickup. After one hour, any remaining leftovers need to be discarded.

To help students make a decision on meal options across campus, they will be able to view the occupancy of Pencader Dining Hall. Dining Services has partnered with Density, a real-time people counting solution, to provide this information online and near the main entrance starting Wednesday, Aug. 26.

To help facilitate contactless service, the required method of dining from the restaurants in the Trabant Food Court and Tasting Grounds in The Nest will be mobile-only ordering and pickup using campus dining in the Grubhub app. For those without access to the app, ordering kiosks will be available in Trabant University Center. Instead of waiting in line, members of the campus community should order ahead and pick up their food. Meal plan participants can also add their UD ONEcard to the Grubhub app to pay with points, Flex or meal exchange. The typical service fee of 59 cents will be waived on all University of Delaware campus dining orders.

Meal exchange in Trabant Food Court has been extended this semester to include both lunch and dinner, Monday through Friday, at all restaurants.

Students living on campus, who are required to have a meal plan, have been automatically assigned the 14 Weekly meal plan and have until Tuesday, Sept. 15, to change it. Students living off campus are eligible for any meal plan being offered this semester. Meal plans can be changed or selected using the Dining Plan Change Request form in UDSIS.

Dining Services has also expanded two of its existing partnerships to enhance the benefits of having a meal plan. Good Uncle is a food app that delivers food on and off campus. This fall, students can add any value of Good Uncle Dollars to their meal plan and use them right in the app to have food delivered to Good Uncle drop points. Students can eat on campus and cook at home with Dining Services’ partner, Home Chef. When selecting a meal plan, students can also purchase a $120 voucher for fresh, weekly meal kits, sent to their campus address.

Additional precautionary measures this fall include temporarily pausing the use of personal reusable cups, mugs and containers throughout all dining locations, as well as its $7 Fridays walk-in meal deal in the dining halls.

Any questions or concerns about dining on campus this semester can be directed to the Dining Services office by email at diningservices@udel.edu.