Holy Cross Dining Services Lauded for Outside-the-Box Concept

It should come as no surprise to the Holy Cross community that dining services' chicken parmesan and its chicken & broccoli alfredo are the most popular dishes on campus. So much so that, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, "Chicken Parm Night" would happen roughly once a month and droves of students would wait in line for this highly anticipated meal.

But with excessive crowds not permissible in the pandemic era, Holy Cross Dining had to find a creative way to continue offering its favorite dishes while keeping congestion in the dining hall at a minimum. So they combined the idea of takeout with that of a meal kit to create take-home meal kits. 

The outside-the-box concept became an instant hit with the students and an easy extension to the Kimball to Kitchen Grocery Program, which offers students an easy and convenient way to do their grocery shopping right on campus using their dining dollars.

Holy Cross Dining Director Linda Nardella told Food Management in a recent article that one of the main draws of the meal kits has been that, while some of the ingredients are fresh, others are pre-prepared, making this an user-friendly option even for cooking novices. "[Students] don’t have to do a whole lot of cooking, but enough to feel like they can take ownership of the dish," Nardella says.

To read the full article, go to Food-Management.com.