BurgerFi is among the four new options that will become available to students on campus in the fall semester. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

The dreaded freshman 15 may become even easier to attain with the coming additions of new on-campus dining options for students.

Beginning in the fall, USF Dining will introduce four new locations to campus. These locations will include a BurgerFi, an additional Starbucks, a newly renovated Argos food hall area and Flip Kitchen, which will allow students to customize their own meals.

The previously operational Fresh Food Company in the Argos Complex will be the new home to Flip Kitchen.

Moving from 26 dining locations to 30, the new changes are based on student feedback collected in previous semesters.

Jessica Cicalese, the marketing director of USF Dining services, said it was imperative to include student feedback when deciding which food outlets to bring to USF.

“We have been in contact with different departments on campus such as Student Government and other university staff members to collaborate on what went into the space based on student demand,” Cicalese said. “We did a lot of research and took surveys on what students would like to see, such as vegan options or another coffee concept. That made us develop what would be going inside of Argos.”

Following a large request from students, the new dining locations will include more diverse options for vegan students looking to expand their palettes.

“With these new concepts, it’ll be broken down into more of a restaurant style so students can know if something is vegan just based off of the menu you’re ordering from,” Cicalese said. “Once you have been to The Hub, you kind of know how to navigate your way through the dining hall. You can see that there are vegan and vegetarian options, but there’s no dedicated ‘vegan’ station.”

Out of the four new locations coming to campus, the first will be a BurgerFi this fall, according to Cicalese.

After consistently receiving feedback from students regarding more burger options, BurgerFi will allow for gourmet style burgers to be served, according to Cicalese. BurgerFi will be located within Pinnacle Hall, a building in The Village.

Samantha Hall, a junior majoring in mass communications and an intern with the athletics department, said she is looking forward to the new lunch options on campus, especially BurgerFi.

“I’m excited to have a new option for lunch on campus,” Hall said. “Between classes and working on campus, I spend a lot of time here and having another option will be really nice for a midday break.”

Besides burgers and vegan options, USF dining is hoping to cater towards the growing coffee demographic on campus, according to Cicalese. According to Cicalese, these considerations will be reflected in the opening of a more centralized Starbucks closer to The Village, within Pinnacle Hall. The new opening will help spread out the coffee options across campus, coinciding with the already existing Starbucks within the USF library.

Opening its new locations this fall, Argos will allow for students to be able to use their meal plans and dining dollars at each location, according to Cicalese. An existing cafe named “Camille's Sidewalk Cafe” that is located in Morsani will be transitioning into another Einstein’s Bagels and a Caribou Coffee, all opening in the fall.

Austin McCarthy, a freshman majoring in nursing, said he is happy about the new coffee locations being spread across USF.

“I’ve drank coffee a pretty good amount during my freshman year, and I always found it inconvenient how spaced out the locations were,” McCarthy said. “With the library Starbucks and Einstein’s Bagels in the MSC as the only options to choose, it’ll be nice to have more options in further locations around campus.”

Although many of the new dining additions are food based, Cicalese said she hopes the new changes will help the overall student experience.

“Something we were looking to add within Argos was giving students variety in a space where they can hangout and work in collaboration spaces that we plan on having, or just normally hangout and eat,” Cicalese said. “We’re going to have three or four collaboration spaces that students can rent out or reserve and study with friends.”

New additions to Argos and other spaces receiving renovations in the fall are meant to help facilitate a sense of community, according to Cicalese.

“We’re going to have a cooking demonstration kitchen within Argos as well that student organizations can rent, and we’ll have our dietitian that can have cooking demonstrations in there,” Cicalese said. “It’s really just to bring a sense of community into a place where students can go and study, hangout and relax, but with food.”

According to Cicalese, the newly renovated Argos location will allow for a plethora of services. Wraps, bowls and smoothies will be making new additions to Argos dining. Students will also be able to purchase “on the go” necessities, similar to the on-campus P.O.D. markets, and they will be able to enjoy an on-site coffee roaster.

“We’re going to have some really good quality food and a nice place to hang with friends,” Cicalese said. “The dining space is only going to get better at USF, especially with the increasing number of locations.”