By DeAnna Giles
Story updated at 10:51 AM on October 1.
After almost a year of carryout dining, students can enjoy a meal both inside and outside with friends. While The Diner and 251 North diner provide outdoor dining, the South Campus Dining Hall is still in the planning phase for one.
The new outdoor dining space at the 251 Diner, near the Denton Community, opened Thursday afternoon. Students who take advantage of the outdoor dining grab their food indoors and walk outside, sitting under huge white tents.
Students are taking advantage of the outdoor dining option. Among them are Layla Reeves and Ruth Fekadu. The two freshmen were eating at The Diner last Thursday.
“It’s nice to smell the fresh air while eating and [the] outside is more spread out,” Fekadu said.
“The inside is crowded, so I feel more comfortable eating outdoors,” Reeves, a freshman kinesiology major, said.
Quynh Nguyen, an associate professor of epidemiology at UMD, said outdoor dining is safer than indoor dining.
“As public health people, we’re more supportive of outdoor dining because it’s going to be a bit less risky than indoor dining given the ventilation,” Nguyen said.
Outdoor spaces are less risky than indoor spaces because there is more ventilation outside, reducing the amount of airborne contaminants, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Nguyen said UMD students have been “health aware” throughout the pandemic.
“They are practicing safe behaviors, they’re recognizing different risks, and I think that administrators and businesses respond to that,” Nguyen said.
Dining Services hasn’t been able to offer outdoor dining at the South Campus Diner because it needs to be a safe exit in case of an emergency, Bart Hipple, the assistant director of communications for Dining Services, said.
Dining Services has been thinking about how to provide outdoor dining for a while, Hipple said.
“The whole point is to provide students with a spot to eat outdoors,” Hipple said. Dining Services hopes to serve the best food possible and promote the Maryland community, he added.
The Diner and the 251 North diner will continue to provide outdoor and indoor dining, while South Campus Dining Hall will remain indoor dining only.
“People know there’s big value in sitting down at a table,” Hipple said. “We see ourselves as a place where the community gathers and the community enjoys our hospitality.”
Featured image: The outdoor dining tent at The Diner on Sept. 25. Photo by Joel Lev-Tov.