The robots are coming, and they’re bringing fresh food
Glenn Loughridge on innovating, advancing Campus Dining and Concessions
October 30, 2023
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Glenn Loughridge, shown here at The Edge at Central Dining hall on campus, is now in his 11th year as the director of Campus Dining and Concessions.
What if your next pizza was made by a robot? Or if the closest vending machine was filled with fresh prepared sandwiches or salads instead of nonperishable snacks? It’s all possible and all coming to Auburn University thanks to Glenn Loughridge. The alumnus at the helm of Campus Dining and Concessions has an infectious entrepreneurial spirit with a goal to take the typical university dining experience from blah to ahh.
“Food is a part of our culture. I had a big opportunity to come in with fresh eyes and a mission to enhance the student experience,” Loughridge said. “We want to make sure the dining hall plays a role in helping students connect with one another and expose them to a variety of foods.”
Now in his 11th year as the director of Campus Dining and Concessions, he’s determined to make dining on campus memorable for students in the best way.
A 1994 Auburn graduate who returned in 2012 as the director of Campus Dining and Concessions, Glenn Loughridge is committed to making the campus' dining experiences great.
Farm to dining hall
Between graduating from Auburn in 1994 and returning in 2012 as the director of Campus Dining and Concessions, Loughridge held various roles in the food industry from supply chain management to business development. He leans on his entrepreneurial spirit to drive improvements to the campus food system.
“Auburn is a place of ideas, and I get to try new things every day to help make things a little bit better. My mission is to constantly find ways to create the best possible experience for students every year,” he said.
Loughridge has been instrumental in expanding the fresh food offerings for Auburn University students, faculty and staff — starting with a partnership with the College of Agriculture.
In 2015, Loughridge partnered with Horticulture Associate Professor Daniel Wells to build the Auburn Aquaponics Project. The integrated plant-fish greenhouse uses hydroponics and aquaculture technologies to provide a system in which nutrient-laden wastewater from fish production — currently tilapia — is used as a food source for plant growth.
“We really wanted to imagine and implement a better food system for our campus and beyond,” Loughridge explained. “Aquaponics prioritizes water as a resource, maximizing its use for fisheries by growing fish, a lean protein, and then using it again to grow really healthy vegetables.”
The project provides tilapia, cucumber, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, peppers and more in the dining hall.
Dining also invested in two container based vertical farms located in the College of Agriculture’s Transformation Garden, which uses less space to grow healthy vegetables.
Located at the south end of campus in agriculture’s 16-acre Transformation Garden, the vertical farms consist of two converted shipping containers outfitted with a complete climate control system and an elaborate LED lighting system that allows plants to grow in ideal conditions year-round.
“The College of Agriculture gives students hands-on learning experience in how to best produce vegetables in the vertical gardens, and dining gets this incredible produce that is grown on campus and delivered the same day,” Loughridge said. “Each week the team grows about 100 pounds of spring mixed lettuce in our vertical farms and delivers them to campus dining.”
Perhaps the most sustainable aspect — all the food is delivered via golf cart the same day it’s harvested.
“It’s perhaps the most hyper local example of farm to table. We’re getting the freshest possible product, and it tastes better because it doesn’t have time to lose nutrients in transit,” Loughridge said. “The undergraduate and graduate students are growing these products in the vertical farm, and the students in the dining hall are getting a great dining experience because of it.”
Glenn Loughridge has been instrumental in expanding the fresh food offerings for Auburn University students, faculty and staff.
The robots are coming
New to campus this fall is a pilot project called AutoEats — essentially a large refrigerator offering salads, sandwiches and other quick meals made fresh by Campus Dining each day. The first five will be installed in late October in the Ralph B. Draughon Library, Nursing, Forestry, and Sassnet and Boyd, two residence halls on the Hill.
“We’re trying to provide fresh food to students in spaces where we previously haven’t been able to,” Loughridge said.
AutoEats has two refrigerator doors with a tablet in the middle. Inside are fresh, nutritious meals that are healthier than nonperishable items typically found in vending machines. Students will be able to swipe their Tiger Cards, use dining dollars and pull fresh food out the refrigerator.
“The first five AutoEats in the pilot will help us understand how they work and hone our system for what goes in them,” Loughridge said. “They are rolling out to pair with the Costa Coffee Machines on campus to reach students who are not in the core campus where they have a lot of options.”
Sometime in the next year, keep your eye out in Cafe 25 for the new Pizza Bot.
“It's basically a robot arm that makes a pizza fresh through an assembly line,” Loughridge explained. “From dough to sauces, cheese, toppings and slices, the arm makes the pizza and then puts it on a conveyor for the pizza oven.”
A Fry Bot is also in the works, fully automating the hot, heavy work of food service. It even shakes and salts the fries fresh out of the fryer.
“Robotics is very young in food service, but we think it's something that's going to become more and more prevalent,” Loughrige said. “The fully automated systems are very cool and have a lot of potential to help serve students quickly and efficiently while helping to fire their imaginations.”
Contactless service is already in place at Auburn Concessions. At football games, you may have seen Mashgin where you set your drinks and hotdogs on a platform and it scans them and gives you a total.
“Current transaction time is 19 seconds,” Loughridge proudly said. “That’s our goal, to get fans through the line as quickly as they can with grab-and-go options. We are really investing in the fan experience.”
Keeping the food options on campus fresh, fast and exciting continues to be Loughridge’s passion and promise. Check out his handiwork in the dining hall, concessions, the new AutoEats and — sometime in the near future — a robot pizza chef.
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