Indoor Seating to Begin in Residential Dining on October 13
It’s happening – indoor seating is returning to residential dining! We hope this helps ease congestion and improves your experience at each meal. We know that many of you have never experienced indoor dining, and even those who have may need a refresher on certain policies and practices. In addition, several new policies have been enacted to ensure the health and safety of our community.
Who Can Eat Indoors?
- Vaccinated students with a dining plan, by meal swipe only.
- Dining Dollars, Flex, credit cards or guest swipes will not be accepted.
- Vaccine-exempt students with dining plans must continue to take their meals to go, per the Key to NYC executive order (see below).
- Be prepared to show proof of vaccination in accordance with New York City Executive Order “Key to NYC.” We recommend you download the NYC COVID Safe App or the New York Excelsior Pass to speed up the process. You can also show your vaccine card or a photo of your card. A Reopen CU green pass is not enough.
- Swipe in, grab your food, and take a seat! You can re-enter the servery at any time during your meal for seconds, thirds, or more.
- Masks aren’t required when you’re eating but must be worn when entering and exiting the dining hall and when getting food from the servery.
- Choosing to dine-in means eating your meal in the dining room – you can’t fill a to-go container when you leave.
You can still take a meal to go if you’re on the run or plan to eat elsewhere. With indoor dining open, we return to our standing practice that students may only take one to-go container: either the Columbia Dining reusable eco-container or a 50-cent compostable container.
You may be used to taking multiple containers to go. This was permitted while indoor seating was closed to help you manage during extraordinary circumstances. Now that indoor dining is open, and students have unlimited access to the servery when eating indoors, we have returned to our standing practice of one single to-go container. Remember, you can’t eat in the dining hall and then pack a to-go container.
Furnald, Low, and Hamilton tents will continue to serve as spaces for outdoor dining. Heaters are being installed in preparation for cooler temperatures. Following heater installation, these spaces will be considered “indoor” and “Key to NYC” vaccination regulations will apply.
New York City Executive Order “Key to NYC” requires COVID-19 vaccination for indoor food services. Since vaccination is required for our campus community, we know you’ve met this requirement. However, to remain compliant with New York City law, we are required to verify vaccination status. You will be asked to show proof of vaccination (and identification) as verification when in the dining halls or any of our campus retail locations.
Based on the Key to NYC executive order, unvaccinated individuals may not eat indoors at food establishments.
- Food scraps at our indoor locations are automatically sorted and composted through our operations.
- If you take your food to go, look for stations on Hamilton Lawn or Furnald Lawn to compost food waste or compostable containers and for recycling and garbage.
We're excited to reintroduce reusable containers at our residential dining halls. Learn more about how to collect and maintain your container.
- In addition to the dining halls and retail units, you can also get grab-and-go meals from Chef Mike’s Market in John Jay dining hall or visit our pop-up lunch spot at Faculty House.
- Take advantage of our vendors on Flex.
- Visit Barnard Dining locations across Broadway.
Our team is here to provide you with great food and service. We know there have been lots of changes due to COVID-19. Let us know if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions about how we can make your experience the best it can be this year.