Eastern Washington University has added several new food-and-beverage vendors to its Cheney campus in an effort to keep up with demand for food services during the renovation and expansion of the Pence Union Building. 

Dining Services Director Dave McKay says as part of that effort, some vendors have been relocated, while others are new to the campus.

So far, he says, the Thomas Hammer Coffee outlet has been moved from its former PUB location to a smaller space within the campus’s JFK Library, and a new Einstein Bros. Bagel Shop was added inside Tawanka Hall. 

McKay says the 1,400-square-foot Einstein Bros. Bagel Shop includes space for storage and production, as well as a 48-person seating area. The new shop currently employs five people full time and more than 50 students who work part time. 

Additionally, McKay says the university is hosting several food truck vendors on campus, in Food Truck Plaza, between Monroe and Showalter halls. 

“All the food trucks that will be servicing our campus are members of Greater Spokane Food Truck Association and operate here through a vendor license agreement,” he says.  

While the trucks are scheduled to rotate throughout the year, currently there are three: Crate, Soup’s On, and Mac Daddy’s Gourmet Grub. Each truck offers its own specialty foods, with a 10 percent discount to EWU staff and faculty. 

As the Journal reported last October, the $31 million PUB project will include renovating the 120,000-square-foot building, located in the north-central section of EWU’s Cheney campus at 516 N. Ninth, and constructing a 4,000-square-foot addition.

McKay says the start of the PUB project last fall necessitated the closure or relocation of five of the campus’s main dining operations, including Baldy’s, Swoops, PUB Espresso, Eagle Express Market, and EWU’s catering services. 

“We’ve been able to relocate Eagle Express Market and catering, and we’re working to add an espresso cart,” he says. “But the reality is that the loss of the two production kitchens in Swoops and Baldy’s greatly impacts dining’s ability to produce enough food at peak operational times.”

As the PUB renovation project will continue into fall 2018, McKay says the dining services department already has begun looking at additional ways to counter the reduction in food services. 

These include restructuring its meal plans, increasing hours of operation at other open food service locations on campus, and adding more vendors to help support peak dining hours.

“It is our plan to seek support for these key time and major event periods through the use of community-based food vendors with mobile food trucks and/or outside operations capable of producing large volumes of ready-to-eat food delivered to our locations ready for service by dining service employees,” he says.