Conveniently located at the heart of campus in the Olsen Student Center, South Dining Hall is our primary campus dining hall. We strive to keep pace with changing trends in dining — and place a specific emphasis on Maine-grown, locally-sourced food.
Food that’s local, local, local
Our Campus Dining Services is provided by industry leader, Sodexo and for the past several years, UMF has been incorporating more local foods, and especially more local seafood, in an effort to help the local economy and reduce the University’s environmental footprint. The goal was to commit to locally sourcing 20 percent of the food served on campus. We’ve already exceeded that goal and are currently sourcing 25 percent of our food locally, defined as in a 175-mile radius of any University of Maine System campus.
Through Sodexo, UMF is enrolled in a program called The Maine Course, an initiative to prioritize serving local and sustainably harvested food. Part of the program includes a goal to source 100 percent of our white fish from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s Responsibly Harvested program. The impacts of local sourcing by UMF is threefold: It’s local, healthy food for students; it adds to consumer demand and gives fishermen more options when they’re fishing; and it introduces students to new species, hopefully helping to foster a new generation of shoppers and diners who will eat and purchase fish from the Gulf of Maine.
We also offer traditional American cuisine, international dishes, deli offerings, custom-made right before your eyes stir-fry meals, hot off-the-grill items, popular vegetarian varieties, fresh-tossed, low-fat options, creative pizzas, even five star festive meals and monotony breakers. And all of it is top quality.
Sodexo offers a number of different meal plan options for students — you choose which plan works best for you and fits your lifestyle.
South Dining Hall is nothing like your high school cafeteria food
Seriously, the on-campus dining experience at UMF is not your typical cafeteria food. We’re not trying to compete with your mom’s cooking but students are usually pleasantly surprised by the quality, selection and variety of what’s available in our dining hall day in / day out.
South Dining Hall serves breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week during the academic year and offers several different cost-saving meal plan options for you to choose from.
The Beaver Lodge
Part of a major renovation to our Olsen Student Center, The Beaver Lodge is a spectacular new wilderness lodge-themed campus dining / hangout experience. In two words: It’s Awesome.
Taking up almost the entire ground floor of the Student Center, The Beaver Lodge features rustic fireplaces, plenty of big-screen TVs, cozy seating and exciting new food choices for students. This has quickly become THE place on campus to hang out with friends.
The Beaver Lodge’s Natural Bar offers healthy fruit and vegetable smoothies custom-blended to order — from scratch. A Mexican station offers tacos and other “South of the Border” fare while the new grill features burgers and other standards, much of it made from local meats, poultry and responsibly harvested fish, as well as plenty of choices for vegetarians and vegans.
Mantor Café — featuring Portland’s Coffee By Design
Conveniently located inside UMF’s Mantor Library, the Mantor Café is students’ early morning go-to spot as they head off to classes. This popular on-campus coffee shop features a range of Portland’s Coffee By Design specialty coffee beverages and a great selection of grab & go items — even a smoothie station.
Open from early in the morning to early evening, Mantor Café is the perfect place to go to chill, meet up with friends, catch up with a professor, check your phone and grab a quick coffee.