Not long after Dan Papuga took the job as Unit Director at Northern Illinois University’s (NIU) Neptune Dining Hall, he found himself facing an unexpected and major challenge. Like nearly every other organization in the country, his job became to figure out how to transition services because of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
A food-service industry veteran who spent 35 years at a contract company, he came on board to slow down a bit in the final years before retirement. But now he had to figure out how to safely serve three meals a day (and two on weekends) to NIU’s on-campus students. NIU is a Division 1 school with about 18,000 total students with most living off campus or commuting. In normal times, his dining hall serves upwards of 2,500 meals daily to 3,500 on-campus students, other students with meal plans, and faculty.
Fortunately, NIU had adopted a carry-out meal service before the pandemic started because of student requests (but using a competitor’s container). Only about 10% of meals were carried out at that time. “When the pandemic kicked in, we had to go to carry-out only and on-campus student numbers went down by about 80%. We had to rethink our meal programs and get people in and out as quickly as possible,” Papuga said.
He also realized he needed more containers and a brand that provided different benefits. The containers needed to have multiple compartments to give students more choices in one container. They had to be sturdier and retain heat better. “We went with MyGo because it met all of our requirements,” he said. “With the original containers, we assumed students were eating their meals more or less right away. So we were looking for something stronger that would hold the heat better because now students eating on campus didn’t have a place to go. They had to go back and eat in their rooms, not in common areas. Some kids had to walk across campus.”
The rollout of the MyGo Containers went smoothly. NIU started its program with 2,500 MyGo containers and are phasing out the other containers as they wear out. By the fall semester 2021, Papuga expects to be using MyGo exclusively.
The dining services department absorbed the cost of the initial MyGo purchase, but as the program expands when more students return, they will assess a small annual surcharge of around $5 to each student to cover the cost of an individual container. Replacement costs will become part of the NIU food services budget.
The containers are in use at the two dining halls currently in operation at NIU. “Since we had the initial reusable container program in place, we were able to add the MyGo containers and phase out the older ones as we needed to. Right now, we probably have at least 90% of them still in use,” Papuga said.
Deciding how to have students return containers, the department landed on giving students an initial key fob that started the exchange process. Students hand over the fob to get a container and get a new fob with every return. At the beginning of every semester, students also receive a welcome packet containing a key fob to get their first MyGo, salt and pepper shakers, silverware, a reusable straw, and information about how to trade a used container for a clean one.
An added bonus for busy college students — they aren’t expected to clean the containers. “At first,” he said, chuckling, “many students were conscientious and brought back clean containers, but as time passed, fewer clean MyGos came back.” The resilient polypropylene means that there are few instances where the NIU staff can’t clean a container, no matter how it comes back. With their high-temperature dishwashers, the things that normally lead to tossing one are smells, breakage, and damage from too much time in the microwave.
For Papuga’s team, little has changed with regard to their workload. For cooks and production people, it’s still pretty much the same process. Front-of-house set up and processes work well with the MyGo containers and service staff likes that, right now, they only have one container to deal with behind the line. NIU will return to more dishes for eat-in meals.
The only workers really affected, he said, are the dishwashers because the containers have to air dry. NIU is managing the air-drying process by using drying racks created specifically for MyGo containers. Papuga has a large physical space, so managing the racks is easy. The company makes a large rolling rack that holds about 60 of the large rectangular containers and the Neptune Dining Center has several so they can be rotated. “As the containers come out of the dishwasher, we place them on the racks. We have a shutdown period in between meals services, so we can make sure the containers have the 30 minutes needed to be completely dry. Then we can stack them up for storage,” he said.
Papuga sees the MyGo program becoming permanent and expanding. “It’s cost efficient, and we don’t have to deal with as much disposable paper,” he said. “It won’t be mandatory after we open back up, but I see it working well even when students can eat in the dining halls.”
The carry-out program is convenient for students, faculty, and his team. Students can grab a meal in between classes and take it with them if they have short breaks around mealtimes.
Faculty appreciate it, he said, because they can have a meal in their offices or outside. They appreciate the selections and affordable prices, but sometimes prefer a quiet moment where they are not eating with students.
The impact on the environment can’t be understated. NIU has also abandoned disposable drinking straws, uses reusable canvas bags, and provides reusable flatware; plastic is available only upon request. “When we look at our kids, and now my grandkids, there’s only so much you can put in landfills,” Papuga said. “By starting programs like this, we can really make a difference in the environment. We’re trying to reduce what goes into the trash.”
View MyGo Containers™ on Cook’s Direct.
We also have a print version here: Northern Illinois University & MyGo Containers™ Case Study.
