In April 2020, our UCLA Housing and Dining teams, along with colleagues in Residential Life, identified a need they wanted to service. It was the beginning of the pandemic and student residents living in University Apartments South (UAS) were reporting that they were having difficulty accessing produce as local supermarkets were experiencing supply challenges.
To help solve this issue, a monthly UAS Marketplace was established as a convenient way for student residents, many with children, to preorder and pick up healthy and fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy, baked goods and other staples at discounted rates.
The Marketplace operated successfully for a full 12 months, marking its final day on June 4.
This was an effort that was quickly put together with collaboration and teamwork. The H&H marketing team designed forms, ordering documents and flyers for each event while the catering and dining teams provided labor, customer service, and filled, packaged and transported items to UAS. H&H IT set up a CashNet system for processing credit card transactions.
Our partners in Residential Life and UAS ResEd provided non-stop support, including volunteers to run the Market Place and interacting with residents and families at each monthly pop-up event.
When notified that the Market Place would be ending operations after 15 moths of service, the residents understood and were excited that the dining staff could now prepare to return to their pre-pandemic jobs. In addition, they stated they felt loved and supported during the pandemic by the Housing, Dining and Res Life teams.
