Dining Services is offering sushi to students at the Lions Pride Market through a partnership with a local St. Charles business.

Nancy Tinker, the Director of Dining Services at Lindenwood, said that Lindenwood is receiving fresh sushi from the restaurant Sushi Boat to provide students with more dining options.

“We know that students are very happy with that and it sells out almost every day,” Tinker said. “We’ve added six different types of sushi, and we’ve teamed up with a local restaurant that is just down First Capitol Dr., Kingshighway. Students can go visit their location or they can buy it here on the meal plan. Like I said, it’s been very popular.”

Tinker said that the school takes precautions to ensure food is safe to consume by going through businesses that have been inspected by the Health Department and by keeping the options fresh.

“With sushi, our biggest priority is that it’s made fresh that day, it’s delivered, and we really don’t want to carry over anything to the next day,” Tinker said. “Our orders are strategically based on hopefully hitting a good number that will sell out that day.”

Tinker said that this is not the first time Dining Services has offered sushi in the dining hall. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Evans Commons Dining Hall offered a wasabi display case that would sell out almost daily.

“We knew sushi was very popular we just didn’t have a good location,” Tinker said. “I’m sure with the expense you know we couldn’t do an all-you-can-eat sushi in Evans, and down here it’s pretty centralized as to where it could be.”

Along with sushi, Tinker said that Dining Services is attempting to add other options for variety in students’ meal plans. 

“This semester, we’ve had Rootberry which [are] vegetarian options which come right now in four different varieties and we can switch up and add more of a variety to that,” Tinker said. “They are available in the meal plan.”

Tinker said that Starbucks also switches out items on its menu about every two months, and Qdoba will be doing two-week specials for students to purchase with their meal plans. 

“Qdoba is now doing a special that runs usually a two-week time frame, we started in the last week of December and it seemed to be popular,” Tinker said. “Right now we have a three-taco get-a-free brownie special that all comes with the meal plan. It’ll rotate two weeks to be a new special and then after that a new special.”

This semester, Tinker said that Lindenwood will be doing a Spring Break Contest through Pepsi that gives students the chance to win a Spring Break trip and prizes. There will also be a sampling of new drinks, including Sierra Mist, for students to try and give feedback.

Tinker said that Dining Services also will be holding Food Committee Hearing meetings to allow students to voice their comments about dining services. Those wishing to participate should RSVP and will receive a free lunch for attending.

“Once a month we have a Food Committee Meeting,” Tinker said. “We do try to get it out on social media and if any students have any comments or suggestions of items they would like to see in any of our locations, it’s a good avenue to come get a free lunch, and talk about how we can make some improvements or changes to the food program in the Fall or even later in the Spring if possible.”

Dining Services posts announcements about the Food Committee Meetings and access to RSVP to them through their Instagram page: @ludiningservice.