After a year of inactivity and several months worth of supply chain troubles, Brock is planning to re-activate the soft serve machine in the dining hall again on Monday for dinners going forward.

Installed during the 2019-2020 school year, the soft serve machine opened to much applause from the community for the wide variety of flavors available- both archetypal flavors like vanilla and chocolate, as well as off-kilter yet delicious vegan varieties, like mango and strawberry. However, with COVID-19 forcing the school to close during the latter half of the year, there wasn’t much time to enjoy it.

“With COVID precautions being taken [last year], we did not believe it was appropriate to have large numbers of people collecting around the machines.” Lee Bergelson, General Manager of Dining Services said.. And so, the machine remained closed throughout the 2020-2021 school year.

Heading into our current school year, Bergelson started the year with plans to reopen the soft serve machine for the student population. However, an impasse was reached when it came to securing the ingredients and parts necessary to bring the soft serve machine to working order.

“Brock has been running into supply chain issues this whole year,” Bergelson said. “And with the soft serve machine, we ran into two separate issues: first, we couldn’t get the ingredients to make the soft serve itself. Even after that, a part for the machine was on backorder, so we couldn’t get it for a few months.”

After turning to different vendors for their product, however, Bergelson said that the machine is ready for operation this coming Monday. “I know how much the soft serve machine is appreciated so I’m happy that students will be able to enjoy eating it once more,” he said.