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You may think that the design of the cafeteria is an unimportant aspect of your educational institution, but it plays a big part in the success of your students and staff. It can have a huge impact on how students perform and how much they enjoy their stay at school. Your cafeteria needs to meet the needs of students and staff alike.
It’s important to make sure that you don’t just put together any old cafeteria design. This is not only bad for the environment but could also be dangerous for your students and staff. A poorly designed cafeteria can cause problems such as food poisoning, poor hygiene practices, and even violence among students.
From perfect space planning to picking the right NPS cafeteria tables for convenient sitting, improving school and college cafeterias involve several factors. However, once you have designed that ideal cafeteria for students, it’ll play a fundamental role in the overall development of students.
If you’re wondering how to improve the cafeteria on your school or college premises, you’re in the right place. Here are the top tips to elevate your cafeteria.
Space Planning
To determine the size of your cafeteria, you’ll need to consider various factors, such as the number of students who eat in the cafeteria each day and whether it’ll be used for special events. Additionally, you’ll want to consider how many students would be trying to eat at one time and adjust your space accordingly. There’s a general rule that says one person needs three square feet of space, so use that as a starting point for your calculations.
Another important consideration is creating intimacy within the cafeteria. One way to achieve this is by selecting furniture that creates smaller, more private dining areas rather than having long tables with benches or chairs. For example, choosing round tables and chairs can create small “rooms” where groups of four to six people can sit together while still giving them their own space.
Maximize the space inside of your cafeteria by considering all available options when designing it—this includes spaces both above and below eye level! When planning an area where different food stations are located throughout the room, consider placing tables around these stations so that there’s enough room for people to stand and wait without getting in others’ way; this design also encourages social interaction among those waiting in line since they won’t feel like they’re being crowded out by everyone else standing around them.
Green Features
Green features are products or services that are environmentally friendly, which means they have little to no negative impact on the environment. If you’ve ever been told to “go green” before, it probably meant you needed to clean up after yourself. The true definition of “going green” is doing things that benefit the environment and reduce your carbon footprint.
When you go green in your cafeteria, you’re making positive changes for the environment. For example, buying eco-friendly cafeteria furniture can improve the air quality inside your college’s building because it won’t release toxic fumes into the air. Other examples include using reusable dishware and displaying nutritional information about menu items so students can make informed decisions about what they eat.
Going green doesn’t have to mean going all out with expensive energy-efficient appliances; there are some simple steps any food service operation can take toward improving their environmental impact while saving money at the same time. The key is being intentional about how every decision affects sustainability efforts.
Better Serving Line Design
When designing a serving line, keep the following things in mind:
- Your serving line should have enough food stations for all of the menu items to maximize speed and efficiency. For example, if you’re offering baked macaroni, green beans, and red velvet cake for dessert, there should be three stations on the line, one each for each dish. You can also put out small bowls of condiments on the table so that students don’t have to wait until they get up to the serving line to add ketchup or mustard to their hot dog.
- It should enable kitchen staff to keep plated meals hot until they are served. To achieve this end while still moving diners through efficiently, it’s best to make sure students are given their trays at the beginning of the serving line. Additionally, it may help if you install heat lamps over each food station so that no matter how much time has passed between receiving a tray at the start of the line and getting back up with their tray full of food at its end, their food will still be warm by then.
- Don’t put any barriers between your kitchen and dining room. While people often think that all kitchens need walls around them, we recommend keeping yours open-concept. So that when students get up with their trays at the very end of your school’s or college’s cafeteria’s serving lines, your kitchen staff can immediately see if there are any issues or problems with diners’ plates.
Choosing the Best Cafeteria Tables and Chairs
Consider the space available. Is there room for a large cafeteria table and chairs, or do your students need to be seated at smaller tables? Will they be doing homework in the cafeteria while they eat? If so, you may want to provide tables that give them enough room to work on projects and do their homework. Your cafeteria may also have other uses, such as hosting meetings or studying sessions during the school day. If that’s the case, you may want to provide multiple types of tables to suit different needs.
Consider the number of students who will be sitting at each table. Are there enough seats for all students? Is it important that everyone has elbow room? Think about how students will use the space. Will they only use it for eating lunch, or are there other activities planned that require more floor space than usual? Depending on what is happening in your cafeteria each day, you may need more storage for additional seating whenever necessary.
Think about how easy your cafeteria tables and chairs will be to clean and care for. Cafeteria furniture takes a lot of wear and tear from food spills and rough treatment by busy kids who can’t sit still! Choose materials that are easy to maintain over time without breaking down—even if they’re accidentally dropped on hard floors or knocked over by rowdy children during mealtimes.
Updating the Lighting Plan
There are several ways to improve school and college cafeterias through lighting design. By enhancing the ambiance and mood of a cafeteria, you can increase the appetite of pupils and students, which in turn will lead to better nutrition. While this may seem like a small issue, it’s very important to consider the lighting in any space, including school and college cafeterias.
The right lighting can increase productivity and well-being by reducing eye strain and fatigue. Lighting can also be used to create welcoming spaces that encourage communication between individuals or groups. It can even be used as part of an overall security system for your school or college campus by providing additional illumination at night for patrolling guards who are on duty after dark hours have begun. This can help deter potential thieves who might be looking for easy targets when there isn’t much activity around campus after hours.
Acoustical Comfort
Improving your acoustical comfort is another crucial component of a cafeteria’s design. High noise levels can cause stress and fatigue, preventing effective communication. It may be tempting to add background music to cover up noise from the kitchen, but this approach can cause more problems than it solves. Instead, look for ways to reduce the reverberation time (RT) of sound in your cafeteria.
Bottomline
A cafeteria is much more than just a room to eat in. It’s a place where students and faculty can get together to refuel, relax, and socialize. So, it should be designed as carefully as any other space on campus.
Cafeteria furniture is particularly important when it comes to creating an environment where people want to spend their time. The right combination of seating and tables can turn the busiest lunch rush into a smooth operation or give hungry students the incentive they need to make the trip back from class early.
However, cafeteria design isn’t something you think about once and never have to touch again. As a school or college demographics change over time, so too should your cafeteria furniture to match the needs of your students now and in ten years.