Students living in fully catered on-campus residences at UNSW Sydney have enjoyed more than one thousand hot meals served in a high-tech thermal food locker within the first 41 days of a pilot launched in March to give students more dining choices.
With more than 600 students dining at Goldstein Hall each day, the thermal food lockers from Australian start-up Foodifox have been installed to help calm the mealtime chaos and make it possible for students unable to eat at the set lunch or dinner times to access hot and fresh meals outside of core dining hours.
Almost 150 students took up the new dining experience in the first six weeks, with the locker filling to capacity with student orders just three days into the pilot. Students requiring a late-night meal were most common, with the lockers 142 per cent utilised at dinner (average 25 meals per session) and 76 per cent at lunchtime (average 13 meals).
“The new system is way more user-friendly. It makes me feel like I’m ordering electronically from a fast-food chain, which is efficient and convenient,” UNSW College resident, Alex, says about the change to his meal management that previously saw him regularly skip meals.
Offering easier access to quality food
The pilot – the first of its kind in the Australian education sector – was initiated by corporate caterer Catering Project, to help improve the dining, and overall university experience for students at UNSW.
Students would previously have to locate and reheat their allocated meals from a refrigerator, often leading to mix-ups and meals that did not reflect the chef’s efforts.
Through integration with the University’s existing online ordering and cashless payments partner, students are now able to request late lunches and late dinners through the My School Connect app.
Once the request is made, the student is assigned a locker cubicle where Catering Project places the meal ready for collection. The heated cubicle keeps the meal hot until collected by the student. For added peace of mind, the Foodifox lockers are fitted with UV self-cleaning technology ensuring that all lockers are hygienic and ready for the next meal service.
Tapping into food delivery convenience on campus
To pick up a meal, the hungry students scan a unique QR code on their phone and the secure cubicle pops open to give them access to their hot meal ready to enjoy.
The UNSW pilot marks Foodifox’s first location within NSW. With nearly 50 corporate and residential locations already in operation across the startup’s native Melbourne, Foodifox is leveraging the global momentum of thermal lockers and domestic growth in food delivery with over 7 million Australians using a meal delivery service and 7,000 food orders made hourly across the country.
“The best meals are served hot, fresh and right when you’re ready to enjoy them. We’re thrilled by the rapid take-up of the service and that so many UNSW students have been able to enjoy the high-quality food experience provided by UNSW through our lockers,” says Tim Pagram, Foodifox Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder.
“The integration with My School Connect and Catering Project, is a strong demonstration of the highly flexible and scalable self-serve platform we have built to solve the food delivery and collection challenges at high-volume catering, residential and corporate locations around Australia.”
