Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Texas A&M Dining Hall to Feature Automated Pizza Station

  • By Matt Jones
  • 02/10/22

Contract food service management provider Chartwells Higher Education announced this week that it is partnering with food automation company Picnic to provide an automated pizza assembly station to a college campus dining hall. The station at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, will be the first such product in the world on a university campus, according to a press release.

Benefits to the university include reducing potential food waste by up to 80 percent, improving food safety and handling, increased operational efficiency and freeing up dining hall staff members to attend to other duties.

“Picnic is incredibly happy to be partnering with Texas A&M as the first university to deploy the Picnic Pizza Station,” said Clayton Wood, CEO of Picnic and a Texas A&M alumnus. “As a former student, it makes it even nicer to see our station at home in Aggieland. Bringing the Picnic Pizza Station to Texas A&M is the first step of many innovations to come.”

According to the press release, the Picnic Pizza Station operates autonomously and provides a custom-made pizza for each order. The station loads the dough; applies sauce, cheese and other specified toppings; and loads them into the kitchen’s ovens. The Picnic station can create up to 100 pizzas per hour that can serve up to 400 people. The station was designed to increase productivity, decrease food waste and improve food safety.

"We've seen a significant increase in efficiency with the Picnic Pizza Station. What used to take three people now only requires one, which allows us to free people up to do other critical duties in the kitchen," said Marc Cruz, Chartwells Higher Education’s District Executive Chef.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • New Jersey Day School Opens New Science & Entrepreneurship Building

    Saddle River Day School (SRDS) in Saddle River, N.J., recently celebrated the grand opening of the new Dr. Kristen Walsh Hall of Science & Entrepreneurship, according to a news release. The school partnered with DIG Architecture on the 32,000 square foot facility, completed on a 17-month construction timeline in time for the beginning of the new school year.

  • Auburn University Debuts $224M STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex

    Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., recently opened its new $224-million STEM + Agricultural Sciences Complex, the largest research construction project in the university’s history, according to university news. The facility measures more than 265,000 square feet and brings six departments from the College of Agriculture and College of Sciences and Mathematics together under one roof.

  • UPenn Announces Completion of New Veterinary Education Facility

    The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Penn., recently finished construction on an 11,800-square-foot veterinary education building, according to a news release. The Gail P. Riepe Center for Advanced Veterinary Education is the first dedicated classroom facility at the New Bolton Center, a large-animal hospital and campus about 35 miles west of the campus proper.

  • Photo courtesy of Kraus-Anderson

    Concordia College Completes Memorial Auditorium Renovations

    Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., recently completed a $2.5-million renovation project to Memorial Auditorium, a news release reports. The college partnered with Kraus-Anderson for the project’s construction and ICON Architectural Group for its design.