{"id":186062,"date":"2026-05-07T08:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T08:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/186062\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T08:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T08:08:15","slug":"lehigh-us-ghost-kitchen-brings-local-restaurants-to-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/186062\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh U’s ghost kitchen brings local restaurants to campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sodexo dining team at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is using a ghost kitchen to connect with the community and provide students with a rotating selection of options from local restaurants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clayton\u2019s Kitchen is housed in the recently renovated Clayton University Center<\/a> and was always part of the building\u2019s renovation plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity to kind of rotate and do something different and bring in the local restaurants to have them have an opportunity to come to campus was really important to us,\u201d says Marketing Manager Erin Foertsch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the beginning, the dining team went knocking on restaurants\u2019 doors in downtown Bethlehem to see if any were interested in doing a residency.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a flyer, and our sustainability coordinator was tasked with meeting with restaurants and making that connection,\u201d says Foertsch.<\/p>\n

Today, however, it\u2019s the restaurants who approach the dining team to see if they can participate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related:BYU\u2019s Chef AJ Tan wins gold at NACUFS Continental competition<\/a><\/p>\n

Those who are interested are invited to campus to tour the space and learn more about partnership. The residency lasts about a week on average depending on the restaurant\u2019s needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work with them in terms of what hours they want to be open, what days they want to be open because some days it’s easier for them, depending on if their brick-and-mortar store is closed on certain days,\u201d says Foertsch.<\/p>\n

The dining team also provides guidance on what menu items typically do well with students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents, they like the variety, but they also want that accommodation of, gluten free, vegetarian and vegan,\u201d says Foertsch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Students can place their orders via Grubhub and pick them up at the University Center. They have been loving the ghost kitchen so far, says Foertsch, adding that one of the restaurants who participated last month was selling out each day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were selling out even before lunch ended, so students would place their order early to make sure they got it for the day,\u201d she says. \u201c[Students] really like the opportunity to try something that they might not otherwise try and then connecting with the community as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The dining team is currently meeting with restaurants to build out their lineup for the Clayton\u2019s Kitchen next fall and are looking forward to welcoming a new slew of restaurants next school year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re hoping from between now and when we open in the fall, we’ll have a lineup of new restaurants we’ll be rotating through for the whole fall semester,\u201d says Foertsch.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sodexo dining team at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is using a ghost kitchen to connect with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-186062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}