Heritage Halls students will not have the option to dine in the new Heritage Central Building in the fall. (Savannah Hopkinson)
BYU Dining Services fed up to 1,800 EFY and summer camp teenagers each week this summer.
Those staying at Heritage Halls dined in the new Heritage Central Building. The food is prepared on the first floor, then served cafeteria-style on the second floor.
“We designed it for throughout” said BYU Dining Services Director Dean Wright. “We actually have served 1,400 in 45 minutes, so the whole design is made to get huge crowds in and out.”
Heritage Halls students, however, will not have this dining option in the fall.
The dining facility for EFY was walled off at the end of summer and the ballroom used for seating will be opened to Heritage residents. The commercial kitchen downstairs will run at full capacity during fall and winter semesters for BYU’s Food-to-Go catering operation.
Heritage Halls students have two traditional campus options to buy groceries within walking distance.
“You can go to the Creamery on Ninth, which is a small, but basically full-service grocery (or) you can go up to the Creamery Outlet store which is on the north end and is a blend between a convenience store and a grocery store,” Wright said.
A third option is the innovative Heritage Creamery Express, an unmanned micro market in Building 14 in the heart of Heritage Halls.
“It’s like walking into a vending machine, but it has gallons of milk and pounds of hamburger,” Wright said.
The Heritage Creamery Express is open 24 hours a day.
“If I’m a student and I’m in a pinch and don’t have a car, what kind of items do we need to carry?” said Wallis Rothlisberger of Dining Services. “You’ll see things like ibuprofen and cough medicine on down to just your basics like eggs, oil and sugar.”
Heritage students can access the market with their ID cards.
Azucena Gutierrez, an 18-year-old freshman living in Heritage, plans to cook most of her meals at her apartment.
“It was mostly the cheapest for me,' Gutierrez said. 'Whenever I need it, I can go to the Cougareat for lunch or dinner when I don’t have time to come home.”
She said if there were a dining facility at Heritage, she wouldn’t use it much because it’s cheaper to cook for herself.
JT Macedone, an 18-year-old freshman from Lehi, said when he’s tired of cooking he goes to the BYU Creamery on Ninth to get a hamburger because it’s close.
But Heritage residents still use the Heritage Central Building.
“There are study rooms in the corridors that students can sign up to use,” said Paul Barton of Residence Life.
There is also a ballroom and small kitchen that can be scheduled for ward groups, student activities and Heritage Halls programming. The building also houses Heritage Halls office space, custodial and maintenance, according to Barton.
Heritage Residence Life and BYU Dining used focus groups, surveys and experience to design the building and meet the needs of Heritage students and EFY participants.
“It was truly a coordinated experience,” Wright said.