Dionte Berry
Features Editor
dberry11@murraystate.edu
After COVID-19 robbed the Oakley Dining Room of a semester of opening, it is reopening with new regulations, a diverse selection of meals and students ready to get real world experience.
The dining room has an annual opening every spring semester, but in 2020 the hopes of opening were dashed by the pandemic and the shutdown of Murray State.
However, under the leadership of instructor and director of the didactic program in dietetics Josie Bryant, the Oakley Dining Room is resuming services, and students have opportunities to actively practice meal planning.
Last year, students had one practice meal and started preparing for the opening of the Oakley Dining Room after spring break, but students weren’t able to finish their meal management project because of the COVID-19 shutdown.
“Meal management, also known as NTN 422, is the capstone course in the nutrition program, so all seniors take this course in the spring and it involves a lot of the components they have learned from the beginning of our program,” Bryant said. “It combines basic nutrition food labels, quantity food production, food science, leadership and management.”
Students come up with their own meal plan and the entire class comes together to execute each project one at a time while the Oakley Dining Room is open.
Unlike in past years, students in the course have had to adapt their operations to fit COVID-19 safety regulations.
Those who’ve purchased meals in the past have been able to enjoy them in the dining room; however, now the dining room only operates as a pick up and many meals are also being delivered on campus.
“Delivery and pick up are the new things for 2021. In times past we have had diners come into the Oakley Dining Room and have been able to seat 40 people, but because of the pandemic we had to change the way we serve people in our community this year,” Bryant said.
Students in the course have also had to go through a certification process in order to be Servsafe managers which means they are certified in food safety, handling and preparation.
Despite the extra hoops to jump through, the course still retains its purpose of giving students a chance to put their knowledge to practice.
“The experience is that they create their own meal, which they have started planning this winter,” Bryant said.
The students started by picking a theme and recipes they’ll want to make in order to personalize their food. They had to come up with recipes for an appetizer, entree, sides and two dessert options.
“After they develop their theme and pick recipes, students then make a menu that creatively describes the food and makes it an experience,” Bryant said.
With COVID-19 being a variable in their service, there has been an emphasis on packaging, which students also get to choose.
Along with exercising the aspects they have learned about meal management during many of the other classes, Bryant also wants students to see all of the small details that go into planning.
“The biggest takeaways from this project is that students get to see all of the details and how they matter so much when you are executing a project,” Bryant said. “They also actually get to see the outcome of their meals, which they are evaluated for by customers.”
Among the students who have created a project is senior dietetics major Carlota Salas.
Salas prepared her meal to be served on Wednesday, March 17, and decided to pay homage to her culture and Venezuelan roots.
“The meal I am going to prepare is ‘A Trip to Venezuela.’ When choosing my theme, I considered three things: originality, difficulty level and nutritional value,” Salas said. “Originally I am from Caracas, Venezuela, so I drew inspiration from my native cuisine because it fulfills all of those requirements.”
The meal Salas prepared is significant to her not only because of its cultural meaning, but because it was further inspired by her youth and what she ateas a child. She has seen it as an honor to serve a piece of her culture to those at Murray State.
After spending the last few months working on her project, Salas is excited to be executing her meal alongside her classmates.
“My classmates are also a great support system and I could not do it without them,” Salas said. “We have helped each other every step of the way and it’s been really fun cooking alongside them.”
Salas imagined how her capstone course would be throughout her time at Murray State, and never expected anything like COVID-19. “Throughout my undergraduate, I got to see how the senior classes elaborate their meal projects and I started dreaming about mine, but with COVID-19, everything is different,” Salas said.
Seeing that last year’s projects were cancelled, Salas considered the possibility of her own capstone project being drastically changed or cancelled.
However, Salas is thankful that Bryant has found a way to restructure the class so they can still operate and abide by COVID-19 safety guidelines.
“Bryant overcame many challenges, like finding all the to-go containers and supplies, maintaining morale and creating an online paying system,” Salas said.
Bryant is proud of her students and their ability to adapt to a new format of service and operation.
“I am tremendously proud of our students for working so hard [and] being flexible and adaptable because doing some type of restaurant with new guidelines during a pandemic is no small feat,” Bryant said. “I hope they have fun with the project, because I know they have earned it.”
A full line up of meals and links to make reservations and pay can be found by searching “Oakley Dining Room” in the search bar at murraystate.edu.