The current standard format (in the US) for college dining halls is buffets. Buffets offer lots of variety, but are very tailored to the individual: a student comes in, gets precisely the food they want, eats, and leaves. When students don’t come in with people they know, they often opt to eat alone.

Research conducted at Boise State University suggests that students get tremendous benefits from eating together, particularly when sharing a family style meal (where platters of food are passed from one student to the next.)

Sketching for this project focused on ways to build social connectedness amongst students in the dining hall. Ideas ranged from totally restructuring mealtime to new furniture and alternative dish ware.

Mixer is a salad bar cart that makes it easy for students to share a large-format salad. This is a way to introduce family-style dining into a buffet context without needing to overhaul the entire dining hall.

Dining hall chefs develop a salad recipe using available ingredients.

Students interested in sharing a salad retrieve special green plates and place them on a dining table. This serves as a visual indicator for the chef, and also opens the opportunity for others to join the table.

The chef comes over to the table chats with the students, and assembles a salad for them.

Students are then able to share a salad, gaining many of the benefits of family-style dining and possibly meeting new people in the process.

Mixer encourages students to sit together and share part of their meal, without losing access to any of the benefits of the buffet line.

Mixer is designed to be durable, easy to take apart, and easy to clean. The top surface slopes toward the user, keeping ingredients within reach.