Under the Elm Tent
Kaylee Gong & Ellina Kim / The Exonian
By ISABEL EVANS, EMI SOUTHGATE, MEGHAN TATE ZEE, AVA TRUONG, and ANDREW YANG
We’re sure you’ve seen that large white tent in the middle of McConnell Quad. You know, the one that smells like grilled chicken and the occasional Exeter Bar? Well, that’s the new addition to our campus: The Elm Tent. The Elm Tent was added for this semester as a temporary replacement for Wetherell Dining Hall, which is currently under construction. In the past few weeks, Exonians have had many mixed opinions on this substitute “dining hall.” Is this outdoor dining space a logical solution to the crowds that swarm Elm? Does the Elm Tent serve different food from Elm Dining Hall? Do we like the outdoor space? In the following paragraphs, you will read the opinions on the Tent from students, faculty, and Elm Tent staff.
Faculty make up a large part of the Exeter community, often carrying out food to accommodate their schedules full with students and grading. The Elm Tent has proved to be an efficient and comfortable method and place for this tight schedule.
After COVID-19 popularized carrying out food and eating in an isolated space, many teachers prefer this new method of outdoor dining, as it includes the social aspect of a dining hall, but is centralized outdoors.
Drew Gatto, a library staff member, said, “The Elm Tent offers a happy medium where I can enjoy the social aspects of dining with others in an area that’s ventilated and less congested.” The outdoor aspect of the tent is especially convenient while the weather is appealing. Gatto continued, “I think that the Elm Tent offers a great option for outdoor dining during a time of year when the weather makes being outside generally pleasant.”
With the new lunch schedule, the lines are expected to be less congested. However, this is not proving to be exactly true, as there is still a rush around noon as those with free blocks and those who just got out of class all head to the dining hall. This is another reason why the Elm Tent may be appealing, as it offers easier coming and going.
“The Tent is pretty useful in the center [of the Quad], especially because Elm is pretty small and usually packed,” said prep Leo Kim. “The Tent really allows us to spread apart, find more space. I like to go to Elm, but when it’s too packed, I usually go outside.”
Another factor in the tent is the difference between the indoor and outdoor food. Some features are not available outdoors, such as the soft serve, and the food may be different due to the limitations of the food being stored outdoors.
According to Gatto, “food items which are commonly served outdoors – grilled chicken, burgers, fries, etc. – have become more prevalent and the daily menus (especially at lunch) are more streamlined.” He continued, saying that despite this difference, “the food quality in the Elm Tent is just as good as it’s always been indoors.”
Kaylee Gong & Ellina Kim / The Exonian
The Tent seems, for the staff, to be a good alternative, despite some problems, that allows for similar and equal functions for our school’s dining experience to Elm Dining Hall. Joel Hervitz is the lead food service worker who has been working at the Academy for three years. “I’m the type of person who loves being outside, so this is a fun change of pace for us in dining,” Hervitz stated. Later, Hervitz added about how the tent and the new schedule help with the traffic of students in the dining hall, “In the past, it’s been pretty difficult for dining staff to take on all the students all at once when they get out of class. So a staggered lunchtime is really going to help us in dining.”
Megan Reid is with PEA dining services for her sixth year and is working in the Elm Tent alongside Hervitz. She believes that the Tent is a convenient substitution, but has a few minor issues. She stated that “there’s the challenges of ants and bees and flies,” and also the Tent does a great job with “getting the food there, keeping it hot, and offering the variety that they have on the Elm Street dining.”
Lower Chris Spencer also mentioned the ant issue at the tables in the tent: “I went there only a couple times, but I realized that there are so many ants there on the seats, and there are only two lines, so they might as well have kept Grainger open, because it’s the same number of hot lines as before.”
The addition of the Elm Tent affected students and faculty in different ways. Some enjoyed eating outdoors while some others didn’t. Some prioritized getting food fast over getting a wider variety of food while others thought the opposite. From this, we notice a variety of student and faculty preferences when it comes to dining in Exeter.
With the construction of Wetherell coming to an end around the end October, it’s worth wondering and observing how our lifestyles would change after the completion of this year-long project. Would Elm become the second choice? Would people value location or facilities more? How would this affect the lunch lines?
