Oswego State Auxiliary Services announced the temporary closing of the commissary starting April 15 for reconstruction and upgrades, affecting meal variety in the dining halls for the remainder of spring semester.
The inventory will be downsized, and meal rotations will be reduced to a three-week cycle instead of a five-week cycle for the rest of the semester. Auxiliary Services will have limited space to hold ingredients for menu items. Food items will include finals favorites like chicken patties as part of the three-week rotation.
The commissary, where the college stores most of its food items, is going to be upgraded to increase efficiency. Due to small freezer doors, tow motors with pallets do not fit through the doors, causing Auxiliary Services truck drivers to handload every case into the freezers and coolers.
The renovation will include larger doors, allowing pallets to be placed directly into the freezer, making the process efficient and safe. The freezers and coolers will also be enlarged for storage space. There will be mobile coolers and freezers in use during the reconstruction period, which will be parked in lot 7 near Romney Field House.
“The freezers are very outdated. A freezer should run below zero to hold food. …We’ve got some that get up to around 13-14 and stay,” said Ruth Stevens, director of Resident Dining. “They stay frozen, but optimal freezer temperature would be zero for us in storage. The coolers run consistently around 40 degrees.”
This change will affect items from the bake shop as well, causing alterations in some menu offerings. This includes the donuts, which will be bought premade but decorated in-house. The bake shop will temporarily operate from Pathfinder Dining Hall for the rest of the semester and move into Littlepage Dining Hall for the summer. The bake shop will return to normal in the fall semester. Other changes include removing paper poster menus from the dining hall.
“March was the last one for this semester … because of the changes cycling through the menu, but also time, we opted to not print April or May,” said Sandy King, administrative assistant of Dining Services. “We’re going to focus online, to the app.”
The renovation is going to cost Auxiliary Services and Oswego State about $1.2 to $1.3 million or more, which will include a ramp and bathrooms that meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The renovation should be complete in three months.
Photo by Maria Pericozzi | The Oswegonian
