Rob Landolphi, culinary operations manager in the Department of Dining Services, spoke about the upcoming bake sale and how it has changed to accommodate COVID-19 regulations.
Landolphi said the bake sale did not happen in 2020 because it was planned to take place during the lockdown. He said this year, customers will be picking up their orders at the Dairy Bar via curbside pickup to maintain social distancing.
“Last year, we did not have the Easter bake sale because it fell during the shutdown. This year, we are baking and packaging all items at our UConn Bakery/Gluten Free Bakery, and pick up will be at the Dairy Bar,” Landolphi said. “People will text a number when they arrive, and we will bring it out to the car—curbside pick-up.”
Landolphi said this plan differs from years past because they previously held event pickup at the UConn Bakery. He said this could sometimes cause issues for customers, so they planned to use the Dairy Bar as a way of addressing this issue.
“In the past, we did pick-up at the UConn Bakery, which occasionally caused issues with customer traffic while we were in full production for the UConn Dining Halls and retail operation,” Landolphi said. “This year’s pick up at the UConn Dairy Bar is a change that we hope will work out well for us and the customers. We also hope that when customers pick up their bake sale items, they will add on some Dairy Bar ice cream. Nothing like UConn Dairy Bar vanilla ice cream with fresh-baked apple pie, yum!”
Landolphi said this event came about because of the success of Dining Services’ Thanksgiving bake sale. Four years ago, they saw the success of the Thanksgiving sale, so he said they decided to bring this event to the public for Easter.
“The Thanksgiving bake sale has existed for over 17 years and has proven to be very popular,” Landolphi said. “We decided about four years ago to do an Easter bake sale as well, opened to the community.”
People interested in ordering from the Easter/Spring bake sale should place their orders via the Easter Pie Sale website. Orders will be due by March 22 at 4 p.m. to be processed in time.
Landolphi wanted to draw attention to their “Baked Good Galore and Much, Much More” offerings. People interested in ordering particular items can visit Dining Services’ website to see their full menu.
“We are offering ‘Baked Good Galore and Much, Much More’ Apple Pies, Fruit of the Forest Pie, Blueberry Pie, Chocolate Mousse, Pastel Sugar Cookies, Macaroons, etc.,” Landolphi said. “Check out our website for a full list of items.”
