UHCL Patio Cafe closed until in-person instruction resumes
University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) is currently operating remotely, but the Patio Café, managed by Chartwells, closed officially as of May 16 and will not reopen until the decision is made to resume in-person instruction.
When the campus moved to remote operation as a result of the spread of COVID-19, the Patio Café remained open with enhanced safety protocols to serve the UHCL community and Hunter Hall residents.
The modified safety measures included to-go meals, no self-service, associates wearing masks, utensils and publicly touched services sanitized every 30 minutes, separate working groups with a deep clean between shifts, social distancing measures for the dining team and guests, cash-less transactions only, and associates changing gloves and washing hands every 30 minutes.
Before the temporary closure, on-campus populations, namely Hunter Hall residents and essential personnel, were given have access to the Patio Café.
“Student Housing and Residential Life continues to work closely with Chartwell to meet the daily needs of students living in Hunter Hall,” says Matthew Perry, director of Student Housing and Residential Life. “Chartwell has done a great job in including us in the conversation and making adjustments to hours of operation and offerings, based upon daily usage.”
During the period of limited operation, Chartwells also donated excess items to Hunter Hall as well as a few items to UHCL’s Hawk Pantry.
“The current health crisis has impacted us all in a big way,” says Alexcis Mendoza, Chartwells’ district marketing manager of the University of Houston System (UHS). “Despite the uncertainty of this unprecedented situation, our dining team will continue to serve on the frontline so that the UHCL community is happy, healthy and nourished.”
In addition to continuing to serve the UHCL community, UHCL’s dining services joined efforts with others in the system to help serve the surrounding communities.
“The teams from UH Dining, UHD Dining, UHCL Dining and UHV Dining have all come together to donate over 650 ‘Thank You’ bags to front-line UH System workers, have packed and scheduled delivery of 200 shelf-stable Matter Boxes to K-12 schools in the area, have donated approximately 10 lbs. of snacks to the Hawk Pantry and plan to continue giving to the community whenever possible,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza confirmed that any additional perishable items that were not utilized and had expired were disposed of due to food health and safety reasons.
“UHCL Dining is proud to serve this campus community and wants to extend our love to the students, faculty, and staff at the University of Houston-Clear Lake,” Mendoza said.
