Scream no longer because an ice cream machine is coming to campus.
A picture of a new soft serve machine installed at the back of Foster-Walker Plex East was posted Tuesday on the social media platform Fizz and received over 2,000 upvotes. The machine operated for some time Tuesday but was removed by Wednesday.
Northwestern Dining and Compass Group still plans to install a soft serve machine offering chocolate and vanilla ice cream at a dining hall, Compass District Marketing Manager Mary Belovich wrote in a Thursday email to The Daily.
“We are working towards an opening date later this month in April,” Belovich wrote in the email.
Belovich wrote that Compass has “no other plans to expand to other dining halls at this time.”
Most recently, The Daily reported in October 2022 on a new soft serve machine in Plex East with allergen-friendly and vegan options. In 2019, The Daily also reported soft serve machines installed in dining halls under NU’s previous dining service repeatedly broke and were eventually removed.
Weinberg first-year Idaliz Torres said she is looking forward to getting ice cream from a soft serve machine due to warmer spring weather.
“I like it super cold,” Torres said. “Just fresh out of the machine. I don’t like it when it’s too melted.”
Torres said because Elder Dining Commons on North Campus occasionally serves ice cream, she would also appreciate having ice cream accessible to students on South Campus.
The soft serve machine is returning due to high student demand, Belovich wrote.
“We have had many students ask about the return of ice cream on campus, so we are very excited to be able to bring it back this year,” Belovich wrote in the email.
Still, McCormick sophomore Kaifeng Jing is tempering his expectations for any campus ice cream machine.
“I just hope that they regularly maintain it,” Jing said. “The drink machines often break down, and people don’t fix it for weeks.”
Weinberg sophomore Shaik Obaidullah said he normally doesn’t have ice cream if he needs to buy it.
But if the sweet treat comes to Plex East, Obaidullah said he will be “really, really happy to have ice cream every single day” because it will be included in his meal plan.
“I’m not a big fan of ice cream because I don’t want to pay to get fat,” Shaik said. “But I don’t have to worry about that because I’m getting ice cream for free, and I can cut it after going to the gym.”
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Related Stories:
— We all scream for ice cream: NU Dining to introduce soft serve at Plex East
— The fall of the last soft serve ice cream machine
— Students eat, talk in Allison Dining Commons for twelve hours straight
