Complete with flustered Starship robots, late-night sandwich runs and caffeinated teas, the on-campus dining scene at the University of Mississippi in 2024 is diverse and robust.
Chip Burr, the resident district manager of UM Dining, takes pride in the university’s dining options, especially the breadth of locally-produced food available at The Farmstand food truck.
“Our emphasis on local and community partnerships is particularly unique to the collegiate hospitality space,” Burr said. “There are few universities in the country who participate in whole-animal purchasing from a regenerative farm where the animals are humanely raised 35 miles from the campus.”
Rebel Market is UM’s main dining hall. It stands near the center of campus on Dormitory Row, near the J.D. Williams Library and the Phi Mu Fountain. The Dish, another dining hall, is on the bottom floor of Residential College South.
Lauren McKay, a freshman nutrition major from Wiggins, Miss., eats at the Dish often because of its convenient location.
“It’s close to the classes that I have between it,” said McKay.
Also within RC South is a Provisions on Demand Market, where students may purchase snacks and drinks using Flex dollars. P.O.D. Markets are scattered across campus.
Minor Hall, another residence hall, has two restaurants: Everbowl and Jimmy John’s, both of which opened during the 2023-2024 school year. Jimmy John’s remains open until midnight, while all other dining services shut down by 8 or 9 p.m.
The Grill, a third, lesser-known dining hall, offers free meals to student-athletes, though other students can also eat there. Located on Manning Way, The Grill’s dining area looks over the indoor football field.
“The food tastes like it’s better quality,” McKay said. “(The Grill) has more, and healthier, options.”
Among the most popular places to eat on campus are the restaurants in the student union food court: Chick-fil-A, McAlister’s Deli, Blenz Bowls, Qdoba and Panda Express. Starting in spring 2024, these restaurants have transitioned entirely to Grubhub mobile orders.
“I think (the Grubhub kiosks) make it easier because the lines are always brutal,” Carly Chance, a freshman allied health studies major, said. “But it’s also confusing because sometimes you don’t know if your order is ready or not.”
Chance said that her favorite place to eat in the union is Qdoba. While Chick-fil-A is probably the most popular restaurant in the Union — one dining worker shared that Chick-fil-A regularly reaches around 2,000 orders a day — Chance is less enthusiastic about it.
“My least favorite place to eat is probably Chick-fil-A just because the lines are always so long,” Chance said. “And there’s not a full menu. It’s just a half-menu.”
This is another thing to note about on-campus restaurants. Their menus are not as extensive as those of the same restaurants located off campus.
On the other end of campus are two other restaurants, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and Steak‘n Shake. Though they are tucked away inside the Sally and John Black Pavilion, they are open on more than just basketball game days.
Joshua Howard, a freshman biomedical engineering major from Olive Branch, Miss., said that the Pavilion is his favorite place to eat on campus.
“It’s nice to have something different from what’s in the union,” Howard said. “I see a lot of people here, and we just get to sit and talk, and it’s nice.”
Lucas Pitzer also enjoys eating at the Pavilion – more specifically, at Raising Cane’s. A freshman biomedical engineering major from Kokomo, Ind., Pitzer’s reason for liking Raising Cane’s is simple.
“The toast,” Pitzer said. “Gotta be the toast.”
However, since the Pavilion is out-of-the-way, Pitzer usually prefers to eat at the union.
“The Pavilion is far away,” Pitzer said. “The union is way more convenient. But when I’m over there, I would probably say yes, I like the Pavilion more.”
UM also welcomes food trucks onto campus. Three such food trucks are stationed along business row: The Farmstand, G&G’s Fry Co. and Hotbox Hibachi. These food trucks accept Flex dollars as payment.
Another food truck, Yum Yum Thai, moves around campus. It frequents the Grove during the day and Rebel Drive at night.
Owner of Yum Yum Thai Ax Sitthiprasert makes his business accessible to students in a unique way: He has a prominent presence on Snapchat, and he routinely posts about where and when his food truck will be running.
“Snapchat has helped me a lot,” Sitthiprasert said. “I didn’t ever use it (before). I’m kind of old- school. Now, I get bored, I use Snap. It’s easy for me.”
Additionally, Sitthiprasert welcomes students who buy his food to sign their names on the side of his truck. He thinks this is a fun way to interact with customers.
“I feel like, if somebody wanted to write their name on something, they should do it on my truck,” Sitthiprasert said.
Perhaps the most popular food truck on campus does not serve food at all — rather, it serves “loaded” (caffeinated) tea. Every weekday, flocks of UM students can be seen swarming around the outskirts of the Croft Institute, itching for their fix from The Tea truck. These neon-colored beverages come in flavors such as Sweet Tart, grape Jolly Rancher and “Miami Vice.”
Additional beverage joints include twoStarbucks, one in Coulter Hall and one in the J. D. Williams Library. These two locations, like the restaurants on campus, make use of the Starship delivery robots, moody-yet-lovable vehicles who deliver food anywhere on campus for an additional charge.
UM was the first school in the SEC to implement Starship Technologies.
“Since assuming my role in 2019,” Burr said, “(UM) became the first SEC school to introduce Starship deliveries to campus.”
The list of on-campus dining options is extensive, although UM shows no signs of slowing down expansion of the on-campus dining scene.
“I see the next few years as being a continued evolution of the program including continued emphasis on bringing local businesses to campus,” Burr said.
