By Adrian Walker-Slade, Senior Learning Lead: Food and Visitor Economy Boston College.
The Mayflower is a major investment into the College’s Catering and Hospitality Department and will allow learners to experience an enhanced, realistic environment in which they can develop skills and improve their abilities while also meeting the needs of the community.
The Department’s restaurant, Eden, is open to the public, and is popular with individual tables, but also with community groups such as Pilgrim Ladies, Age UK and other local associations including Probus and WI. The move into Mayflower will bring a vast range of benefits for the restaurant, we will be able to advertise easier to generate more footfall and therefore into Boston in general. Guests will be able to park and access the building with ease, including those with disabilities and the elderly, allowing us to widen our involvement with groups such as Age UK. Fully planned dining areas, including the restaurant and smaller café unit, will increase capacity and allow a larger range of guests and groups to attend and dine. Being education-based allows the department to price dishes and meals accordingly, and this focus on the restaurant being a learning area allows the facilities to be available to all the community, especially at a time when prices are high and those living in the area are impacted by the current cost of living.
Most important is the impact the facilities will have on the Catering and Hospitality Learners. The goal of the department is to be able to educate and train learners in all aspects of the trade, ensuring they are fully competent and confident to enter the industry after graduation. The new restaurant and kitchens will have an impression on not only the current learners but future learners who apply and visit the Mayflower, raising ambitions and aspirations.
As a department, we are looking forward to the move into the new building, and we are sure that the Mayflower will bring benefits not only to the college but also to the learners and the wider Boston community.
