The Aggie Student Store, located in the Memorial Union, will be slowly converting into the CoHo To-go, a scaled down version of the ASUCD Coffee House. The new store, which will provide small meals and healthy snacks for students’ grab-and-go needs, will open over the next couple of weeks by phasing in new products.
“We’re going to be offering a lot of [CoHo] grab-and-go items, like some salads,” said Sharon Coulson, CoHo director. “We have some wraps, and hummus and carrots and grapes, things like that.”
The idea for the CoHo To-go arose the year before last during the CoHo’s renovation.
“I was approached by [ASUCD} Vice President Bree Rombi and Senator Andre Lee the idea of converting it because they really liked CoHo to go during the year we renovated the Coffee House,” Coulson said.
Lee said that the idea came after he saw the success of the interim CoHo.
“Seeing as how many of the temporary offerings the CoHo provided during its renovations almost two years ago were extremely popular, we decided a better use of the space would involve featuring pre-prepared ‘To-go’ food offerings similar to those that students could buy when the interim CoHo was in operation,” Lee said.
The goal of the shop is to provide students with healthy, quick meals, providing all the nutrition supplied by the CoHo at a faster pace. The majority of the unhealthy items, such as chips and cookies, will be removed from the store and replaced with healthier snacks to promote student nutrition.
“Some of the packaged items will be toward the natural end,” said Darin Schluep, CoHo kitchen manager. “For example, we sold packages of dried seaweed and dried snap peas.”
Yet for those that enjoy items at the Aggie Student Store, the most popular items, such as the ICEE machine, will be kept operational as the store converts.
“Icees have always been popular so there are no plans to remove those. Popcorn, pretzels and churros – those are going to stay,” Schluep said.
Because of the nature of this remodel, there is no cost to revamp the store, other than purchasing the new sign. Therefore no money will be coming out of students’ pockets to create the store.
Lee said that he hopes the new store will be beneficial to students and ASUCD.
“We hope that the revamp will better meet student needs and potentially generate more revenue for the association,” Lee said.
CHARLOTTE YOUNG can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
