Officials opened the doors of the new dining space in Shenkman Hall for dinner Sunday after supply chain issues pushed back its reopening for months. 

Douglas Frazier, the executive director of dining services, said the new space will include a breakfast station that includes cereals, bagels, self-serve waffles and other options that can be accessed throughout the day, as well as a “unique” Bowl Life, an allergy-free Pure Eats station, Teaching Kitchen, Carvery/Innovate, Grill, Sweet shop and a salad bar in a Friday email. According to documents obtained by The Hatchet last spring, a 54-seat market and juice bar will replace the space where Potbelly Sandwich Shop was previously located on Shenkman’s ground floor.

“Thank you for your patience and understanding as we transitioned these past couple of months through construction delays towards a full on-campus dining program,” he said in a statement last week. “We are excited that this spring that you will be able to experience a daily variety of healthy, convenient and, most importantly, affordable meal choices.”

Frazier said in the email that the dining hall can seat a total of 450 students and serve 1350 per meal period via a variety of table sizes in the email.

Officials originally planned to open the Shenkman and Thurston dining halls in the fall but delayed the reopening of both to winter and late in the fall because of “global supply chain issues.” Upon Shenkman’s reopening, student meal plans will transition from the current Dining Dollars program to a meal swipe program with unlimited and block plans based on a student’s class year in the spring.

Frazier said officials will be implementing a new meal swipe program upon the opening of Shenkman Hall that they originally planned for and announced in spring 2022 before temporarily shifting all residential students to using Dining Dollars for the fall 2022 semester during the delays opening Shenkman and Thurston vendors. He said a meal swipe allows students to enter a dining hall via a “swipe” of their GWorld card and eat as much as they want from various offerings before departing.

He said students can “swipe” into District House and order a “complete meal” from one of five in-house dining vendors using their GWorld card as well.