By Victoria Mims
With Valentine’s Day being just around the corner, many people may be thinking of last minute ideas of something to get for their special someone. As college students, sometimes it’s harder to get out due to schedules being so busy.
This year for the first time ever at William Peace University, the dining hall decided to do something different and special for Valentine’s Day. Students were able to place orders of whatever they would like between cupcakes, cookies, and chocolate strawberries.
On Friday, Feb. 12 there will be special Valentine’s Day dessert in the dessert area and candy will be given out at the register. Either way, students will somehow be able to experience Valentine’s Day in the dining hall rather they ordered something or not.
Orders were to be placed by Friday, Feb. 5 at 5:00 p.m. and students who ordered will be able to pick up their items on Friday, Feb. 12 by 5:00 p.m. Prices ranged from $2.50-$23.95 depending on the quantity that students wanted. A total of 14 students pre-ordered items from the dining hall for Valentine’s Day.
Terri Ratliff, the General Manager of WPU Dining Services, believes that there would have been more purchases if the timing was different.
“We needed to cut off orders on Monday the 8th of February in order to get the ingredients in on our food delivery truck and have our baker make them,” said Ratliff. “February 8th was the first day for in-person classes so more students would be on campus, but we could not extend it due to timing of getting everything in to make the items.”
Although some students may not have been able to order in time for Valentine’s Day, they still have some things to look forward to. The dining hall will have extra items made at the register for sale for those students who missed the pre-order opportunity. Better late than never!
So should we expect there to be Valentine’s Day pre-orders again next year?
“We would definitely do this again if the situation was conducive to having a good turnout. Timing of the holiday, do we still have restrictions due to COVID, do we have time to market the sale appropriately?”
Belk Dining has aimed to give WPU students the best Valentine’s Day experience even though the circumstances have definitely been different. Maybe pre-orders for Valentine’s Day will begin to be a tradition at WPU for not only Belk Dining Hall, but for students as well.