Students can typically rely on Thanksgiving as a holiday that remains constant.† For years, even the College has had its own established traditions.† This long-standing tradition was for many students more than just food. Kittredge Dining Hall was famous for the ambiance and at-home feel that it created for Thanksgiving diners. Vicki Patrello í11 commented, ìThe atmosphere was more homey and intimate than Lowry.”
Due to the closing of Kittredge, this tradition has changed.
Chuck Wagers, the director of food and dining services at the College has commented that Kittredge will not be opening to accommodate students at the Thanksgiving dinner this year.† The reasoning behind the closing of Kittredge stemmed from financial hardships the College is facing. The College worked to eliminate positions, not people, moving Kittredge staff to fill vacant positions in Lowry.† With Lowryís schedule full, ìthere is no extra staff now to open Kittredge for Thanksgiving dinner,” said Wagers. With Thanksgiving the most popular meal of the year, the staff hopes to make the meal as accessible as possible. Again, this means the tradition will be lost.
The dinner, which is scheduled to occur on Thursday, Nov. 19, is typically served buffet style to create that ìhomey” family style dining ó the dinner will this year be served through the utilization of the stations. The traditional foods, turkey stuffing, mashed potatoes etc., will be served at Basics, the Grille and the International stations. The Vegetarian station will be serving Thanksgiving style foods with a vegetarian twist. The Pizzeria station will switch to house artisan breads and local Amish cheeses. As usual, the Dessert station will house the popular pumpkin pie and will also be serving seasonal soft serve ice cream. ìBy offering the foods off of the stations as opposed to setting buffets in the dining room, we [do] not reduce our seating to accommodate the buffets,” said Wagers.
At maximum capacity Lowry seats 600 people and both staff and students have expressed concern over adequate seating. Coupled with the omission of the buffet style serving the dining service, the staff plans to open private dining rooms 247 and 248 as well as the Faculty Lounge from 4-8:30 p.m. to provide overflow seating to abate the problem. In addition, private dining rooms 249, 250 and 251 will be open for student use from 7-8:30 p.m. The opening of the private rooms and lounge will provide an additional 90 seats for diners.
Although some traditions will be lost with the closing of Kittredge,† Wagers speaks on behalf of the Dining services staff in saying, ìWe hope everyone enjoys this years Thanksgiving special.” Wagers reassured that the staff is doing everything they can to accommodate the students in every way possible in preparation for this long-standing tradition.
For more information please contact Chuck Wagers, Director of Campus Dining Services at the College at CWagers@wooster.edu.