Future Dining at Chestnut: Cultivating Reciprocity at Chestnut Dining Hall
The Innovation Hub has partnered with Food Services at Chestnut Residence to consult directly with students about their dining hall experiences. Through this project, the Innovation Hub facilitated opportunities for dialogue with the student Residence community to build an ongoing partnership for future change.
Fall/Winter 2021-2023
How can we improve student dining experiences?
Food Services approached the Innovation Hub in the fall of 2021 seeking support to design impactful student consultation and co-design for the future of Food Services operations at Chestnut. To learn more about the ongoing student needs at Chestnut, we conducted a series of student-led feedback sessions and interviews. After collecting and analyzing feedback, we developed a report designed to aid in planning collaborative community dialogue events at Chestnut in fall 2022. These fall events utilized a co-creation approach to facilitate opportunities for Chestnut residents and Food Services to collectively imagine the future of Chestnut dining.
KEY FINDINGS
The future of dining at Chestnut Residence is built on reciprocity between students and staff
- The Power of Choice
- The Capacity to Act
- Security Enables Respect
- Making Memories Together
- Everyone Belongs
From our co-creation events, we learned that students are keen to help make the dining hall space inclusive to the needs of all students and to reflect the diversity that already exists in the student body. Fostering the relationship can give both staff and students a greater sense of belonging at Chestnut, where both parties feel acknowledged and respected by each other.
The Power of Choice: Students spoke of the need for flexibility around where and when they can eat based on other commitments and factors in their lives.
The Capacity to Act: Student responses demonstrated their need to control their own schedules and eat meals at times that were convenient to their schedules.
Security Enables Respect: Both students and staff expressed their desire for spaces to safely and confidently communicate their concerns and requests about Chestnut dining.
Making Memories Together: Students highlighted that when staff are approachable and reliable, reaching out to staff members is easier.
Everyone Belongs: Students expressed that feeling included is an important part of life at Chestnut and an even more important part of the dining hall experience. Students expressed the need for Chestnut to feel like their home away from home.