GW Dining Services officials announced a plan Tuesday to fight long lines and improve the speed of food service at J Street, Dine-A-Vision and Marvin Center ground floor stations.

The plan centers on employee training and product selection, according to a Dining Services press release.

The plan specifically targets the Pan Geos stations, four of the busiest venues at J Street. Dining Services is training employees to shorten line times by finding customers in line who want the same menu item and serving them at the same time.

The plan also includes an initiative to study customer traffic and make more food readily available during peak meal times.

We had been doing that, but there’s a renewed emphasis on it, said Jared Levin, marketing manager for Dining Services.

He cited an increase of about 700 campus residents this year as one reason for the initiative. Cash registers now tally the number of customers at each station every 15 minutes, allowing Dining Services to study daily traffic flow, Levin said.

In a university setting, with the different class schedules, you can’t just say it’s busy at 12 p.m. every day, he said.

Employees will be trained to work at multiple stations so they can move from one station to another depending on traffic, according to the press release.

It’s mostly emphasized at our Pan Geos stations because that’s where we get hit quite often, Levin said. If you’re Pan Geos trained, you should be able to use all the stations.

Other labor initiatives include improving staff schedules, increasing the amount of preparation time employees have to open a station and adding employees.

We realize we need to add staff, Levin said. Unfortunately this labor market is really tight, but we’re working really hard to find people who are qualified for the jobs.

All stations will offer combination meals, which normally include an entr?e, drink and side, as early as this week to make ordering easier and faster, Levin said.

Dining Services is offering a guaranteed five-minute wait limit at Lunch Express on the fifth floor of the Marvin Center from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Customers will receive a free fountain soda if they wait longer than five minutes.

This special will run for the month of October, but we will do something like this every month, Levin said.