Kitchen Closing for Renovations at Health Center

Food service will operate out of temporary space in the Food Court dining area for six to eight weeks starting Monday.

Rendering

The new, U-shaped salad bar will replace the old salad bar and features soup and bread offerings. (Rendering provided by Sodexo)

Rendering
The new, U-shaped salad bar will replace the old salad bar and features soup and bread offerings. (Rendering provided by Sodexo)

Big changes are coming to the University of Connecticut Health Center Food Court.

Starting Monday, the area that houses the food and beverage service stations, salad bar and cash registers will be closed for an estimated six to eight weeks. Sodexo, the Health Center’s food and nutrition services vendor, says the area will undergo renovations that will provide a new dining experience by streamlining the serving areas and providing additional menu items.

In the meantime, Sodexo will operate a temporary servery out of two sections of the dining area weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends and holidays. Offerings will include self-serve hot stations, grill items, premade salads, sandwiches, a dessert section, and coffee and bottled drinks.

“Please have patience with us, because in the end you’ll be very happy with what you see and what we have to offer,” says Kathy Reznik, director of food and nutrition.

New features will include:

  • A cash register at the entrance for “Grab & Go” items
  • Pizza area with additional offerings of calzones and single-serving casseroles
  • Redesigned grill area that will be larger and enable faster service
  • Two separate deli areas offering panini, wraps and sandwiches
  • A larger salad bar with more room to maneuver around it
Temporary Serving Area
A diagram of the temporary serving area.

“The salad bar is going to be the most impressive,” Reznik says. “We’re taking out the coffee station, the other hot center island, and the old salad bar, and putting a new, U-shaped salad bar in its place, with soup and bread offerings. The best part about it is, we can stock it from the inside without getting in the way of our customers.”

Third-shift employees can fax orders and pick them up in the main kitchen on the ground floor.

A diagram of the temporary serving area and renderings of the new Food Court areas are available at http://nursing.uchc.edu/Dietary/docs/Food_Court_Renovations.pdf.


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