Northwest announces changes with new dining hall contract

we have so many that do it. It’s a testament to our community that they don’t mind some of those little hurdles.”

Maryville has many volunteer opportunities that give back to the community, some including Lettuce Dream, New Nodaway Humane Society, Maryville High School, Ministry Center and North Star Advocacy.

Lettuce Dream is a social enterprise that provides career and community opportunities and inclusion for people with disabilities. New Nodaway Humane Society seeks volunteers who can help with putting more animals to be adopted and put into homes. The Maryville High School takes volunteers in almost every department, sports and extra-curricular activities to keep activities open. The Ministry Center looks for volunteers that can help in the food pantry or with donations. North Star Advocacy provides direct and indirect volunteer opportunities that allows community members to provide support.

In 2022, an estimated 23.2% of Americans, more than 60.7 million people, formally volunteered with organizations between September 2020 and 2021. In total, these volunteers served an estimated 4.1 billion hours with an economic value of $122.9 billion, according to AmeriCorps.

Last semester, the Northwest student body was informed the dining hall contract with Aramark would be coming to an end, announcing a contract with Sodexo Operations LLC Feb. 8. Students should expect some changes coming to campus next academic year.

Northwest has agreed to a seven-year contract with Sodexo and an optional two-year renewal. The new contract is bringing many changes to campus, such as restaurant options and meal plans.

Forest Village Apartment residents will be required to purchase a meal plan. The available plans will be an all-access plan, 14 swipes per week or 10 swipes per week. Off-campus students will be offered a customizable meal plan.

People around campus have varying views on this change like Mooyah employee Christopher Ray, freshman Billie McCoy and sophomore Olivia Dorman.

“I mean I’m sad about it because (Mooyah) is the only build your own burger place in town, but it’s not really up to us on what we can do about it,” Ray said. “It’s a new company coming in, and they’re going to be the ones that decide what businesses will be here.”

The new restaurant options include a Buffalo Wild Wings To-Go replacing Mooyah and a “ghost kitchen” with MrBeast Burger and Qdoba. A ghost kitchen is a restaurant that prepares online orders for delivery to customers.

“I am quite excited,” Dorman said. “I mean, I more prefer Buffalo Wild Wings than what we have right now.”

Campus will also now have a Kiwibot, an automated delivery robot, to deliver MrBeast

Burger and Qdoba.

Sodexo expects to meet student expectations regarding daily needs, wellbeing and engagement on campus, according to its website. It plans on doing this with improved allyship and communication.

In Missouri, there are over 27 million acres of farmland and nearly 100,000 operating farms, each with its own purpose and products. Many farms across the state contribute to farm-to-table restaurants like William Coy’s in Maryville.

Mitchell Cosby, the owner and head chef of William Coy’s, started his culinary career at a farm-to-table restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri. He was then offered the opportunity to create a farm-to-table in Maryville.

“After working there and seeing the quality of the food and just the difference in myself from eating that way for so long, I decided that’s the only way I would cook,” Cosby said.

The idea for William Coy’s sparked from a school project Cosby had while in culinary school. The name pays homage to his brother, William, who passed away when Cosby was 17 and Coy was his grandfather’s name.

Since its creation in 2018, Cosby has worked with many farms for supplies. When first looking for suppliers for the restaurant, he started with just driving around looking for farms.

“I was just driving around the country looking for houses without power lines, and I would stop in and I’d be like ‘Hey, you guys sell produce?’” he said. “It was really just like kind of a grassroots campaign getting out there