Expanded Loyola Luncheon Up and Running

New Luncheon Serves up to 300 Students

The Concordia Student Union’s grand opening of the revamped Loyola Luncheon experienced a two-day delay last week.

“We tried to do the best we could to get the Luncheon up and running as fast as possible,” said the CSU’s VP Loyola and Advocacy Hassan Abdullahi. “But I don’t foresee any more delays with the Luncheon.”   

The initial reason why the five-day-a-week free lunch service began operations on Wednesday, Oct. 27 rather than its scheduled date of Monday, Oct. 25 is because the industrial-sized oven—part of the $80,000 overhaul to the kitchen—arrived later than expected.

“When it did arrive, they were missing a cable, so they couldn’t hook it up,” said Morgan Pudwell, the CSU’s VP sustainability and promotions. “So we just had to wait for facilities management to get all the right supplies to make sure it was working.”

Following the installation issues, proper training to operate the oven was scheduled for the Luncheon staff.
“Small technicalities that could have been overlooked by the university and construction team weren’t,” said Abdullahi.

Pudwell said the expansion made to the Loyola Luncheon will free up space for the kitchen to serve upwards of 200 to 300 students at full capacity, and that the new appliances are meant to accommodate the employees at The Hive to make the process run more smoothly.

“[The chefs] will be able to spend a lot more time on food preparation and cooking and a lot less time on cleaning, moving things around or manoeuvring on a small stove,” said Pudwell.

The new appliances are part of renovations that will also see a sustainable, student-run café slated to open at The Hive in January 2011.

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 12, published November 2, 2010.