The designated food delivery drop-off point near Isham House. Some students have expressed concerns over the size of these boxes.
In an email to the entire student body last fall, Susan Esty, Dean of Students and Residential Life, invited students to join a Food Delivery Task Force to propose a revised policy. For the 2026-2027 year, a new food delivery policy has officially been implemented.
Students can now only order food to designated drop-off points, which include Isham House, George Washington (GW) Circle, and Campus Safety, where there are boxes in which delivery drivers can leave the food. Furthermore, students may only order between 7 p.m. and final sign-in on weekdays and between 6 a.m. and final sign-in on weekends.
Esty explained the rationale behind the policy, attributing it mainly to safety concerns. According to Esty, many delivery cars would drive on footpaths, and one car even got stuck on the stairs of the Great Lawn. She also emphasized that the policy was created through a community effort.
“In the middle of the day there are a lot of people walking those paths. There were enough incidents called in where people were almost hit. People have children and pets. [There’s] drivers looking for an address. They’re not familiar with campus,” said Esty.
She added, “We wanted to get the perspectives and experiences of different people on campus, both in their life and work. [The] Office of Physical Plant, their expertise is in buildings and grounds and maintenance and design… They had ideas about where the delivery locations could be.”
Kalista Kuemmerle ’29, a member of the Food Delivery Task Force, described additional factors that led to the changes.
“What we talked about in the Food Delivery Task Force was a lack of community bonding. When people get food delivery, they tend to isolate themselves from the rest of the Andover community, whereas when you go to Commons you can socialize and sit with your friends. The other part of it was the waste. The trash bins were filling up really quickly, inside and outside the dorm,” said Kuemmerle.
Alfonso Gonzalez-Cano ’27 voiced frustrations with the designated delivery spots, pointing out inequities between different dorms.
“I used to order DoorDash on the daily. But unfortunately, this is no longer the case, because now I have to walk to Campus Safety. It’s a lot harder now. The whole point of using DoorDash is that I don’t want to leave my dorm because I’m [busy]. [The policy] definitely impacted my life because I can no longer do that,” said Gonzalez-Cano.
He continued, “I feel like there’s some level of inequality in the current locations available. Someone down in Bertha Bailey has to walk out to Campus Safety, but someone living in Isham can just walk [out of] their dorm and pick up their food as if it was pre-policy, which is a little unfair to everyone not in that dorm.”
Kuemmerle expressed concerns regarding the sizes of the boxes in the drop-off locations.
“The boxes for the delivery are really way too small and don’t make sense for our community at all. We’re a student body of around 1,200 people, and having five of those boxes is absolutely not going to work. In the Task Force, we talked about having big shelves or lockers,” said Kuemmerle.
As a way to mitigate these restrictions, Andover has begun to implement new food options on campus. There are several new vending machines across campus serving hot food options such as White Castle sliders in Snyder Center. However, Alessandro Reverdito ’29 felt that these did not serve as suitable substitutes.
“I don’t think the school is doing enough. For example, the vending machines, they’re making students pay for that kind of food. Why should the kid have to pay extra just because Commons’ hours or the food there doesn’t really work for what they need? [The school should invest] time and resources into making it so there’s takeaway options from Commons. Or you can get actual, real meals at different times rather than just the 5-7 at Commons,” said Reverdito.
On the other hand, Shannon Chisholm ’29 expressed support for the new changes.
“They’re a good compromise… The administration is trying to limit it so someone’s [not] DoorDashing every single meal. They do this by limiting the hours obviously and making it so that people [walk] to the food box. You have to work for your meal a little bit. [The changes are] getting people some more exercise, limiting their amount of usage, and [preventing excess food delivery],” said Chisholm.
