Welcome to Hacking Garvey! This semester we are English students, Anna Kurth and Breianna Ribble, focusing on Garvey Commons to give you an idea about how to get the most of your cafeteria visit. Garvey is the main dining area for St. Cloud State University. It hosts four dining rooms and seats 1,300. The building is named for Beth Porter Garvey, St. Cloud State’s first dean of women.  

With seating for 1,300 and several stations, Garvey is massive with a ton of options for dining at any meal and can get overwhelming for even a seasoned diner. That’s why we are Hacking Garvey to help you from getting stuck in the habit of eating at the same stations and missing something even better.   

As a staff member and a non-traditional graduate student, Anna will give tips for accessing Garvey if you don’t live in the dorms and have a residential meal plan. Her go-to station is the Comfort Station and favorite is the soft-serve machine.   

As an undergrad student who has eaten in Garvey every year since coming to St. Cloud in 2016, Breianna is going to focus on how to utilize Garvey so that your meals don’t become boring.  Breianna will also focus on how to get the most out of your meal plan so that you aren’t wasting money.  Her go-to station is the stir fry station and anytime that Garvey has Chocolate Chip cookies. 

Meet the stations

To get started, we’re going to give you an introduction to Garvey’s many stations:

Comfort  

This station features foods you would have at a traditional family dinner with a main course and sides. It is more than meat and potatoes and features food highlights from around the world. For breakfast you can find scrabbled eggs, pancakes, French toast and bacon at this station on a regular basis.

Pizza  

This station is all about pizza — the college student’s cliche favorite. Many varieties of pizza are offered, but cheese, pepperoni and sausage are always available at lunch time.  The pizza is best when it’s fresh and hot.   

G8  

The G8 station features a main course and sides that are free from the eight main allergenic foods including milk, peanuts, fish, soy, egg, tree nut, shellfish and wheat or gluten.  To make sure that these foods aren’t cross contaminated they food options are only available upon request when swiping into Garvey.

Mongo Stir Fry   

This is a popular station where you can pick your choice of protein, sauce, vegetables and carbohydrate and have it assembled fresh right before you. Because of the preparation involved, there can be a line for this station.   

Pasta and Omelet Station 

This station offers omelets in the morning and pasta for lunch and dinner.  The Omelet bar allows students to pick up their favorite veggies, along with their choice of protein into a delicious omelet.  For lunch and dinner the station switches to pasta, which includes a pasta base with a variety of toppings and a few sauce options. 

Grill  

In the mornings the Grill offers breakfast sandwiches.  Some days they are egg and sausage, while other days they have egg and bacon. The grill is also home to Garvey’s homemade donuts. At lunch the grill features cheeseburgers and fries. The grill also offers rotating options such as chicken, fish, brats, grilled cheese and tater tots. A new favorite this year has been meatless burgers.    

Halal-Prepared   

Comfort-style foods prepared according to Halal specifications are available at this station. 

Deli   

Grab a deli sandwich or wrap at this station and choose your bread or wrap, protein and toppings.   

Pop-Up Station    

An ever-changing station, the Pop-Up is located to the left of the dish return and features a new cuisine each month. This February the station is highlighting a melt lab with grilled cheese sandwiches. March will feature smoked meats.   

Dessert Bar  

The bakery section features a revolving set of baked goods such as puddings, cookies, cake and a selection of fresh fruit. A self-serve soft serve ice cream machine can be found opposite the dessert bar and next to the Pop-Up station. 

Supporting stations

These stations are limited during the breakfast hour but are all open during lunch and dinner.

Garvey Commons’ supporting stations include a pantry area with cereals, hydration stations, two salad bars, a condiment bar and a spice rack.    

We are excited to bring you along this semester as we share all the ways to hack Garvey and make the make the most of your meal. Happy eating!