After spring break Lloyd’s Marketplace in the Keene State College student center will offer a new take out option for students from 7:30-11:15 p.m.
With this new service students will be able to order and pay for food using an app on their phone and pick it up without waiting simply by showing their school ID.
According to Josef Quirinale, the general manager of Sodexo at Keene State College, this new option has been in the making for about seven months.
“Through the GET Mobile app from CBORD students can add funds to their Owl Card,” he said.
Now, he explained there is a new GET Food app that will allow students to order food from their phones.
Taylor Thomas / Student Life Editor
He explained, “Anyone with KSC ID can go on the GET Food app and use their funds to order food online, pay for it and have it ready in about ten to fifteen minutes for them to pick it up at Lloyd’s.”
He said students will be able to pick up their ordered food from the Themed Cuisine area since it’s just opened for lunch.
Students can use their meal plan dollars, dining dollars or owl cash to pay for their food at Lloyd’s, according to Quirinale.
“This app is available in the Playstore, you just search CBORD GET Mobile,” Rebecca Hunt, the staff dietitian who also runs the owl card office, said.
“This just became an app and we jumped right on the bandwagon as soon as it was available,” she said.
Quirinale explained that KSC is one of the first schools to take advantage of this app for on and off campus students.
As for why they added this new service, Quirinale said the dining staff is always looking to students for recommended changes.
“We’re always looking for ways to make the meal plan and food services more flexible and actually provide greater service for our students while still staying in the confines of the budget that we have,” he said.
Quirinale continued, “It adds a different dimension of how [students] purchase food and if they’re in a hurry it will help.”
He added, “Students nowadays like doing a lot of things online . . . And I think that having an app like this is a great thing because students don’t want to stand in line.”
First-year students Matt Luttrell, Eric Donovan and David Rothfarb agreed that this is a great idea that they will definitely take advantage of.
All agreed they will use the new service at least twice a week.
“Coming here after a long day – sometimes there’s a line back to the register and it’s like, I don’t want to have to wait in this right now,” Rothfarb said.
“You can get it quick before or after class,” Donovan said while waiting for his food to be ready, “I wouldn’t be waiting here right now if I was able to use it.”
All three said since students won’t have to wait it will fit better with students’ busy schedules.
All three also agreed they would be willing to pay a bit more to not have to wait.
According to Quirinale there would be a slight upcharge to order food online but “no more than a quarter.” Quirinale said he also believes this service will cut back the lines that sometimes form in the small space of Lloyd’s.
He said that they hope to eventually expand the hours this is available to students but wanted to start the program off with a schedule they knew they could handle. He explained, “It gets very busy in [Lloyd’s], sometimes the lines get really long, unfortunately we aren’t instituting this program for the entire day, because this is a trial beginning we are going to offer it from seven thirty to eleven fifteen [p.m.]”
He continued, “Seven-thirty is a hot time because students are getting out of class between seven-thirty and seven forty-five and the DC is closing at eight o’clock [p.m.], so students feel like they might not have enough time to go to the DC – even though they do.”
He explained that although the wait time will only be about ten to 15 minutes between ordering food and being able to pick it up, it will be a limited menu.
The online menu will include the most popular items according to Quirinale, such as quesadillas, chicken tenders, burgers, wraps and pizza.
Senior Julia Robison, who lives on campus, said she thinks students will like this new service and take advantage of it.
“It’s easier and better than standing in line,” she added. “It will give students more time,” she said, “and it will be easier because I already do everything else on my phone.”
Sophomore Ricky Liscio said that although he only gets food from Lloyd’s a few times a month he would be willing to pay more to not have to wait in line. “It’s easier, you won’t have to go and wait and the line can get pretty long,” he said. He also added that as a student it sometimes gets hard with scheduling, so he can see this helping busy students.
As for future changes to the dining options at KSC, Quirinale said there are always changes in the future but it really depends on what the students want.
“It all depends on what they recommend within reason,” he explained.
He said some new additions to the KSC campus dining options may be a unique vending option in the new residence hall or the addition of a food truck for a late-night dining option.
Taylor Thomas can be contacted at tthomas@kscequinox.com
