Trinity Boston, a student cook and first-year in chemistry, demonstrates how to use the Pizza ATM in Traditions at Morrill on Jan. 15. Credit: Casey Cascaldo | Photo Editor

Pizza lovers prepare to rejoice, as a brand new pizza ATM is now open for Ohio State students. Located in the Morrill Tower North Dining room, the pizza ATM readily dispenses 10-inch pizzas in just three minutes.

Abby Hertzfeld, associate director of operations for Student Life Dining Services, helped bring this saucy innovation to campus, hoping to create an easily accessible late-night dining option to west campus.

“My ultimate goal when I started begging for this machine was really to be able to provide late night services for this west campus population,” Hertzfeld said. “It’s the first step into really piloting that whole program of students accessing a space, selecting their options and self checking out.”

Currently, the pizza ATM holds about 70 pizzas, according to a press release, and students have the options to choose between cheese or pepperoni pizza. But Hertzfeld said she looks forward to adding more options for toppings soon, as well as extending the hours of operation to 24 hours by fall of 2019.

“This is a really a way for us to provide a hot option and other options for students that are over on this side of campus that don’t live on the north area or south area that have other late night operations that really isn’t going to incur a bunch of additional labor costs on top of providing the services,” Hertzfeld said.

Students can access the Morrill North Dining Room with their Buck-ID and can pay via self-checkout with their meal plan or credit card.

“I live on north campus but a lot of my classes are around west campus so it’s nice to have a west campus food option that’s super fast,” Rachel Gouhin, a second-year communication student said. “For a pizza ATM and only taking three minutes, the quality of it was really amazing.”

According to Hertzfeld, Ohio State is the third university in the country to employ a pizza ATM, following Xavier University and Case Western. The dining facility currently opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 8 p.m. for meal plan holders and 4 p.m. for general Buck-ID access.