When it comes to food, Rochester’s claim to fame is unquestionably the garbage plate. However, the food-related experience a Rochesterian might be most excited to gush about is Wegmans. (There’s a reason why videos like this.) While the supermarket chain is not exclusive to Rochester—there are more than 100 stores across nine east coast states—it was born in Rochester. And now, it’s at the University of Rochester.

A collaboration between Wegmans and URochester has enabled students, faculty, and staff to get their Wegmans fix in select dining locations on the River Campus.

“This is more than just convenient access to food we all feel good about,” says URochester Vice President for Student Life John Blackshear. “It’s a celebration of two iconic Rochester institutions working together to enrich campus life.”

In a 2024 Strat Chat (the precursor to Leadership Conversations), Blackshear talked about visiting a local Wegmans store to ask about a potential partnership with URochester. That conversation became the Grab & Go pilot program: Wegmans On-Demand. It was so popular that Wegmans and URochester went all in.

The new arrangement is an eminently satisfying execution of the Boundless Possibility tactic to “reimagine dining experiences for undergraduate and graduate students that focus on student wellness and diversity and support the academic mission.” Through improvements like this, URochester aims to redesign the undergraduate, residential student experience in ways that improve competency development, academic outcomes, the sense of belonging, and student wellness.

To put it more simply, URochester is making changes to help students feel more at home. “I love Wegmans,” says Katherine Guallpa ’27, who says visiting the Wegmans display in Hillside Market in Susan B. Anthony Halls between classes has become part of her routine. “I don’t know what I’d do without it.”

Read the full story: Wegmans makes meals easy at URochester