SE: Meet the Team Keeping K-State Athletes Fed at the Newest Drive-Through in Town
Aug 10, 2020 | Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
Vista Drive In has been perched next to a flickering neon sign on Manhattan Hill for 56 years.
On a map of Manhattan restaurants, Vista looks something like a castle being stormed by the IHOP, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Sonic, Arby's, McDonald's, Olive Garden and LongHorn down the hill.
But it's still here, the kind of family-owned drive-through joint that makes Manhattan unique – even if Vista Drive In had to deal with some new, unexpected competition this summer.
As Skylar Thompson pulled his car up to Bill Snyder Family Stadium last week, Kylie Hanson handed him a boxed dinner of chicken and rice, salad and fresh fruit through the passenger window.
Then, the Performance Table Manager for the Wildcats gave Thompson a choice of beverage: water, Gatorade, Propel or Bolt 24.
"We have a pretty good system and it's all tucked away in the ticketing office. By now, it doesn't take us more than 30 minutes to set up, but at the beginning it was definitely longer,"
Assistant Sports Dietitian/Nutritionist Katie LeMair said. "We've got it down at this point."
When the impact of COVID-19 first reached K-State in March, questions about how to keep student-athletes safe and cancel games were the first ones that needed to be answered.
As student-athletes began to arrive back on campus for summer workouts, new challenges came with then; none bigger than how to feed over 400 student-athletes with different nutrition plans, dietary restrictions and allergies, all without access to a dining hall.
That's why Hanson and LeMair have been outside the West Stadium Center, helping to run a drive-through version of the athletic department's performance table for about two months.
Armed with a couple of commercial-sized food warmers and fridges, the nutrition staff took over the area beneath the statue of Coach Snyder at breakfast and dinner time this summer.
"With the weather, we don't really have an alternate location," Hanson said. "When it was raining last week with all the lightning, we kind of just had to figure it out."
Given everything that COVID-19 has thrown at K-State this summer, the unpredictable weather of summer in Kansas has been another curveball for the nutrition staff.
A week of afternoon thunderstorms in July forced Hanson and LeMair to work under a tent, but on the last night of the drive-through training table this summer, the nutrition staff delivered meals under sunny skies and temperatures in the low 70's.
Student-athletes began to show up after 5:00 p.m. one car at a time, until a line stretched back towards the construction site behind the new south endzone.
Hanson, LeMair and members of the nutrition staff worked curbside, passing out meals and drinks and taking care of student-athletes with dietary restrictions. Without needing to even put their car in park, hundreds of student-athletes could pick up dinner from the K-State staff.
"From a food standpoint, it's about making sure there's enough in the box when you're feeding everyone from a soccer player to a lineman on the football team," Hanson said. "We're limited to a box of food, but honestly I think we only repeated a few items this summer."
Even serving boxed meals, Hanson said the nutrition staff could mix and match the most popular entrees with new sides to maintain variety throughout the summer.
"They loved wings, we did a crawfish boil and they loved that, we also did steak a few times," LeMair said.
She sat down with Hanson and K-State Sport Dietitian/Nutritionist Scott Trausch every week to plan the menus in advance, coming up with new sauces or flavors for different meals.
When it came time to distribute meals at the drive-through, they also got some help from volunteers throughout the K-State coaching staff and athletic department.
On the final night of the drive-through training table, K-State Director of Football Recruiting Taylor Braet rolled up on his purple scooter to help pass out meals.
"It just becomes an assembly line," LeMair said. "We've had football coaches like Coach Ray and Coach Anderson jump in during their vacation time or if they were driving by and saw us with cars lined up, they would stop and hand out drinks."
"We can get through almost 200 athletes in an hour," Hanson said.
In addition to the main menu, the nutrition staff also kept a list of student-athletes with allergies or other dietary restrictions in order to create specific menus to fit their needs.
The nutrition team ended the drive-through program in August as they prepared to re-open the Performance Table to accommodate student-athletes in smaller groups.
"From a capacity standpoint, normally we can seat about 200 people and right now it's about 50 with social distancing," Hanson said. "From an execution standpoint, it's about figuring out what we can do and how can we get everybody through there and be safe about it."
Before that, the nutrition team had one more dinner rush to get through at the stadium, and time to answer the question that's been on the mind of every student-athlete and athletic staff member at Bill Snyder Family Stadium: What's with the music at the drive-through each day?
"That's all Scott. He refers to himself as the DJ of the drive-through," LeMair said. "It's a mix, but I would say he likes 90s music or country."
"We also play a lot of his son's favorite Disney songs," Hanson said.
"You have to keep things fun, because quite honestly, none of us thought we were going to be doing this for eight weeks," LeMair said. "None of us thought, 'Oh yeah, I'm going to be running a drive-through this summer.' You need to have fun and I think the athletes appreciate it too."
Vista Drive In has been perched next to a flickering neon sign on Manhattan Hill for 56 years.
On a map of Manhattan restaurants, Vista looks something like a castle being stormed by the IHOP, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Sonic, Arby's, McDonald's, Olive Garden and LongHorn down the hill.
But it's still here, the kind of family-owned drive-through joint that makes Manhattan unique – even if Vista Drive In had to deal with some new, unexpected competition this summer.
As Skylar Thompson pulled his car up to Bill Snyder Family Stadium last week, Kylie Hanson handed him a boxed dinner of chicken and rice, salad and fresh fruit through the passenger window.
Then, the Performance Table Manager for the Wildcats gave Thompson a choice of beverage: water, Gatorade, Propel or Bolt 24.
"We have a pretty good system and it's all tucked away in the ticketing office. By now, it doesn't take us more than 30 minutes to set up, but at the beginning it was definitely longer,"
Assistant Sports Dietitian/Nutritionist Katie LeMair said. "We've got it down at this point."
When the impact of COVID-19 first reached K-State in March, questions about how to keep student-athletes safe and cancel games were the first ones that needed to be answered.
As student-athletes began to arrive back on campus for summer workouts, new challenges came with then; none bigger than how to feed over 400 student-athletes with different nutrition plans, dietary restrictions and allergies, all without access to a dining hall.
That's why Hanson and LeMair have been outside the West Stadium Center, helping to run a drive-through version of the athletic department's performance table for about two months.
Armed with a couple of commercial-sized food warmers and fridges, the nutrition staff took over the area beneath the statue of Coach Snyder at breakfast and dinner time this summer.
"With the weather, we don't really have an alternate location," Hanson said. "When it was raining last week with all the lightning, we kind of just had to figure it out."
Given everything that COVID-19 has thrown at K-State this summer, the unpredictable weather of summer in Kansas has been another curveball for the nutrition staff.
A week of afternoon thunderstorms in July forced Hanson and LeMair to work under a tent, but on the last night of the drive-through training table this summer, the nutrition staff delivered meals under sunny skies and temperatures in the low 70's.
Student-athletes began to show up after 5:00 p.m. one car at a time, until a line stretched back towards the construction site behind the new south endzone.
Hanson, LeMair and members of the nutrition staff worked curbside, passing out meals and drinks and taking care of student-athletes with dietary restrictions. Without needing to even put their car in park, hundreds of student-athletes could pick up dinner from the K-State staff.
"From a food standpoint, it's about making sure there's enough in the box when you're feeding everyone from a soccer player to a lineman on the football team," Hanson said. "We're limited to a box of food, but honestly I think we only repeated a few items this summer."
Even serving boxed meals, Hanson said the nutrition staff could mix and match the most popular entrees with new sides to maintain variety throughout the summer.
"They loved wings, we did a crawfish boil and they loved that, we also did steak a few times," LeMair said.
She sat down with Hanson and K-State Sport Dietitian/Nutritionist Scott Trausch every week to plan the menus in advance, coming up with new sauces or flavors for different meals.
When it came time to distribute meals at the drive-through, they also got some help from volunteers throughout the K-State coaching staff and athletic department.
On the final night of the drive-through training table, K-State Director of Football Recruiting Taylor Braet rolled up on his purple scooter to help pass out meals.
"It just becomes an assembly line," LeMair said. "We've had football coaches like Coach Ray and Coach Anderson jump in during their vacation time or if they were driving by and saw us with cars lined up, they would stop and hand out drinks."
"We can get through almost 200 athletes in an hour," Hanson said.
In addition to the main menu, the nutrition staff also kept a list of student-athletes with allergies or other dietary restrictions in order to create specific menus to fit their needs.
The nutrition team ended the drive-through program in August as they prepared to re-open the Performance Table to accommodate student-athletes in smaller groups.
"From a capacity standpoint, normally we can seat about 200 people and right now it's about 50 with social distancing," Hanson said. "From an execution standpoint, it's about figuring out what we can do and how can we get everybody through there and be safe about it."
Before that, the nutrition team had one more dinner rush to get through at the stadium, and time to answer the question that's been on the mind of every student-athlete and athletic staff member at Bill Snyder Family Stadium: What's with the music at the drive-through each day?
"That's all Scott. He refers to himself as the DJ of the drive-through," LeMair said. "It's a mix, but I would say he likes 90s music or country."
"We also play a lot of his son's favorite Disney songs," Hanson said.
"You have to keep things fun, because quite honestly, none of us thought we were going to be doing this for eight weeks," LeMair said. "None of us thought, 'Oh yeah, I'm going to be running a drive-through this summer.' You need to have fun and I think the athletes appreciate it too."
K-State Rowing | Media Day
Tuesday, February 24
K-State Rowing | Weights Practice
Tuesday, February 24
K-State Tennis | Weekend Recap vs Old Dominion & Minnesota
Tuesday, February 24
K-State Track and Field | Sights & Sounds Steve Miller Invitational
Monday, February 23
