Campus dining must step up to the plate--by revamping facilities, trying out new programs, or making friends with local facilities--to bring better service to the counter.
Today's college students are not shy about giving compliments or voicing concerns about their school's dining services. When it comes to speaking up about their culinary concerns, they are savvy customers: seeking variety, meeting dietary needs, knowing where their food comes from and how it's prepared, or just wanting a tasty and/or nutritious meal.
Three of the following examples speak of major overhauls, while one describes the importance of giving back to the community in an earth-friendly manner.
Not Afraid of Commitment: Johns Hopkins University (Md.)
Recognizing that college dining is an essential component of campus life, Johns Hopkins has performed major surgery on its resident dining facilities this past year.
Dissatisfaction among both students and administration was quite high, says Dave Furhman, director of Dining Programs. Back then, the preparation and serving of food was in a cafeteria-line fashion.
"We had aging facilities; the menu [we had] did not appeal to our students," he says. "We wanted to make an upgrade to our menu and facilities in order to serve fresher, more quality food. This really stems from the university's desire and need to expand and improve the campus's dining experience," says Furhman. After a nationwide search, Johns Hopkins picked Aramark to be its new dining provider in July 2006.
Large-scale renovations involved two resident dining facilities. One, formerly the Terrace Court Cafe and now called the Fresh Food Cafe, has remained a resident dining facility. The other, formerly called Wolman Station, is now Charles Street market, a convenience store featuring the bagel chain Einstein Bros.
In addition, work on Nolan's, a multipoint retail dining facility in the university's new Charles Commons Complex, was completed last September.
Dining programs incorporate sustainability. Along with using locally grown produce and locally caught seafood, Johns Hopkins outsources its baking needs to an area-based artisan bakery, providing goods such as brioche and pastries. The university also uses cage-free eggs and hormone-free milk, and to-go food is packed in biodegradable containers. Tables made out of bamboo are used in the Fresh Food Cafe. Pura Vida, the on-campus coffee shop in Leverine Hall, sells organic, shade grown, fair trade coffee.
Listening to students' dining needs has brought many innovations in meeting dietary requirements, such as providing gluten-free and kosher foods. This fall, John Hopkins will bring in halal products for students who follow Islamic dietary laws.
Meals have also been changed as well. The plan for freshmen has gone from a block plan system to a traditional plan, while plans for sophomores and upperclassmen are now all declining balances, Furhman says, "which gives them the most flexibility" with their meals.
Getting positive reactions, Furhman says, "the fact we are listening to our customers ... and responding to whatever customers are asking for [is] translating into a very successful dining program on campus."
Giving Back: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus
Through local partnerships, the University of Minnesota practices sustainable responsibility within its community.
In April 2007, University Dining Services (UDS) switched to using cage-free eggs in all residential restaurant locations. It also offers at least one fair trade coffee at every dining location on campus and operates three Java City EcoGrounds coffee houses. Transfat-free cooking oil is recycled for biodiesel products. In 2006, the Centennial Residential Restaurant on campus donated 1,200 gallons of used oil to be recycled.
A client of Aramark's, the university recently participated in RecycleMania, a nationwide recycling competition among universities in the nation. From January through March 2007, six dining halls (Centennial, Comstock, Middlebrook, Sanford, Pioneer, and Bailey) collected 57,000 tons of cardboard to be reused. Each UDS venue uses recycled paper napkins, with more than 7.2 million paper napkins made from recycled materials used in 2006 on campus.
In support of local agriculture, UDS developed an ongoing partnership with Midwest Food Alliance, an organization that provides certification of products grown with environmentally friendly and socially responsible agricultural practices in the Midwest. UDS also participates in the Minnesota Heartland Food Network, which increases the availability and variety of local and organic food items on campus.
