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A number of changes are coming to QuinnipiacDining across all three campuses. 

“We’re adding an entire new vegan [and] vegetarian food station called Harvest,” Chuck Couture, resident district manager of QU Dining said.     

Harvest will be an addition to Quinnipiac’s main dining hall, Cafe Q. The new station will be next to G8, the allergy free station. 

“This station offers a plant forward menu for our vegan and vegetarian guests,” QU Dining’s monthly newsletter said. 

Two stations in Cafe Q have made additions. The salad bar and the Chobani yogurt bar have expanded to add variety for students. 

Cafe Q is expanding the salad bar to a new wing within the cafeteria. Couture said they’re aiming to finish the addition by Aug. 22, just in time for students arrival. 

Last spring, one of the Student Government Association’s initiatives was to add an acai bowl station. Since then, QU dining has been working to add acai bowls as a dining option for students. The Chobani yogurt bar is expanding so that frozen acai is available to create their own bowls.

“Sambazon is the brand and it’s certified organic and fairtrade acai,” Morgan Watson, marketing director of QU Dining said.

There will be changes made to other dining options on the Mount Carmel Campus too.

The Bobcat Den, known to students as “The Rat,” is home to daily dinners, entres and pizzas, but one of these dining options is changing. 

“Where we normally do the pizza, it’s going to be chicken sandwiches,” Couture said. 

The chicken sandwiches are apart of a new dining option called Absurd Bird. 

The QU Dining newsletter describes Absurd Bird as “hand-breaded, hormone free, steroid free and antibiotic free chicken. Fried in non-GMO, trans fat free canola oil and topped with our signature mouthwatering butters or a delicious sauce.”

While the food on Mount Carmel is changing, York Hill dining will stay the same.

“We’re focusing on opening up strong with what we changed last year and then working with the school to have a great pub,” Couture said.

Couture said that construction for the pub on York Hill began on Monday but doesn’t know when it will be open to students.

“So that’s the big change at York Hill,” Couture said. “We’re going to have a late night pub menu available certain nights of the week.” 

The North Haven campus is changing their beverage options for guests.

In September 2017, the Mount Carmel campus added a licensed Starbucks to the upstairs Student Center. Now, the North Haven campus is adding Starbucks coffee options as well. Starbucks brewed coffee has eliminated Peet’s coffee. The coffee choices are changing after the overwhelming popularity of the Starbucks on the Mount Carmel campus. 

North Haven offers Starbucks cold beverages and made to order coffee drinks, according to the QU Dining monthly newsletter.

When it comes to food, the North Haven campus added a Chobani yogurt bar and expanded the salad bar, similar to the one found on the Mount Carmel campus. 

Expanding food choices aren’t the only changes QU dining is making, they’re also launching an app. The app, Boost, will be available and ready for use in mid September. Boost will allow students to order their food straight from their smartphone. 

“We’re going to test it at Au Bon Pain, here in the main cafe, and students will be able to go on and place an order for pickup, just like you would order Panera,” Couture said.

The app is designed to work around students’ schedules.  

“Students can use their meal plan and login at 9:00 a.m. and order what you want for lunch at 12:30 and pick it up at 12:30, ready to go,” Watson said. 

QU Dining is also making an effort to go green. Plastic straws have changed to paper straws and paper bags have replaced plastic ones. 

The latest monthly newsletter was released on Monday and included the dining changes happening across all three campuses.