ISU Dining recently revamped the Hub, located in a former campus train depot, which is now serving Roasterie branded coffee and housemade gelato out of one side, while the other side now houses a Mediterranean concept with a menu that includes made-from-scratch pitas, falafel and hummus. This fall, the department is launching a grab-and-go program designed as a snack type of option to tide student over on busy days until they can get a more substantial meal. Called GET and GO, it lets students order a simple sandwich and side on the GET pre-order app with a meal swipe and then pick it up at one of two campus locations. 

The department also wrapped up its revamped ISU Dining Day customer appreciation event on central campus on April 10^th, featuring informational booths about the different aspects of ISU Dining such as nutrition, sustainability and meal plans while also giving students chances to win prizes and take part in voting in a culinary challenge highlighting culinary teams from different locations. Attendance was estimated at about 1,300 people in 2.5 hours.

UNH Hospitality Services has implemented multiple initiatives recently, including replacing printed menu tags and station signs with a digital monitor system that streamlines processes and improves communications and guest experience along with displaying Guiding Star ratings, vegan/vegetarian/halal/gluten status and the presence of pork, alcohol and the eight most common food allergens.

In addition, UNH cafes and stores recently eliminated plastic straws in favor of compostable straws available upon request. UNH Dining also kicked off the school year with the Wildcat Welcome BBQ and University Day, which introduced the Grateful Burger, a blend of beef and vegetables, and implemented a zero-waste initiative incorporating compostable products, reusable serving ware, bulk condiments and recycle and compost stations for guests to conveniently separate their waste.

UNH Dining is part of a campuswide sustainability initiative that includes AASHE Platinum Rating, Green Restaurant Certifications and Sierra Club ranking. It also has a continued dedication to improving sustainability efforts and is part of the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative. As part of that commitment, it is currently working with consultants to remodel concepts in Holloway Commons—its largest, centrally located dining hall—for the summer of 2020.

A full renovation project, designed to increase seating capacity, improve the operational performance of each micro kitchen and create a retail feel in the residential dining location, was completed at Lakeside Dining last July. A new taco concept called Sola, a retail venue that accepts meal plans, was added to the Lakeside portfolio to provide flexibility to students while an allergen-free zone and pantry were also developed to serve the growing campus population with food accommodation needs.

Then in September, following the displacement of Lakeside Market with Sola, the Market at John H. England, Jr. Hall was added to the building to meet the needs of student residents on the north side of campus, and particularly the John H. England, Jr. Hall, Ridgecrest and Riverside complexes. This location features a self-check-out station and a variety of convenience items for students and campus guests.

Also, in August 2018, an unmanned market was installed in the Nursing School lounge, where students, faculty and staff can purchase food, beverages and convenience items at a self-check-out station. Meanwhile, the athletic department unveiled a spectacular new dining facility a little later that fall.

FM’s 2019 College Innovator of the Year, BC Dining also earned Gold recognition for Sustainability Outreach and Education from NACUFS for its FRESH to Table program, which introduces students to new menu options featuring Fairly traded, Regionally sourced, Equitable, Sustainable and/or Healthy ingredients. In addition, BC Dining was recognized by the EPA as a Regional Food Recovery Challenge Award Winner and, in partnership with Tufts University and Harvard University, was awarded one of the 2018 New England Food Vision Prizes.

BC also has significantly increased the number of sustainable seafood options it serves this year following a collaboration with seafood vendor North Coast.

Meanwhile, the GET mobile ordering and delivery has been expanded to additional dining locations on campus and the College Road Cafe and Market was renovated last summer, both proving to be popular moves with students. Other winners have been pop-up meals such as Ultimate Dessert Experience, Haitian dinner, Trash Dinner, Plant Based Dinner and Sunday Jazz Brunch.

IU Dining has committed to the Real Food Challenge with a goal that 25% of food procured would meet product criteria for local, fair trade, ecologically sound or humane by 2025. It has also added two Chobani yogurt stations, one at a campus café and one at Wright Food Court a central location on campus.

Also new is a teaching kitchen unveiled last fall that will both allow campus cooks to get training before they hit the floor and also serve as a place to test new recipes and techniques.

IU Dining is also exploring the addition of new food trucks that will likely feature Mongolian and international cuisine, and it continues to test vegan recipes and serve plant-based options throughout all dining locations. Ballantine Hall Café is currently under renovation and the university is also pursuing construction of a new dining facility in the Northwest neighborhood of campus. This facility is expected to contain a food concept free of the top nine allergens, a breakfast all-day concept, a global concept, a stone-fire pizza concept, a Starbucks and an “Indiana-inspired” concept that will highlight locally sourced foods.

IU Dining’s strong collaboration with IU undergraduate students in food/nutrition/dietetics, as well as students in the Kelley School of Business for finance/data analysis, is another valuable aspect of the dining program. The department hires a team of culinary interns who are trained to assist the chef team with recipe entry, and nutrition students are trained also to maintain the ongoing ingredient item database to ensure accurate nutrition and allergens are reflected on the Net Nutrition website.

A strong collaboration also exists among IU Dining and the hospitality undergraduate program, where students work with foods managers and chefs to complete on-site service-learning projects in areas such as increasing customer service and food allergy management, and they then present on their final projects at the end of the semester.

For the 2018-2019 academic year, USC Dining completed a renovation to dining options in the Russell House University Union with new concepts that include a Panera Bread that reportedly is one of the first two of the chain’s units to be on a college campus; Carolina Creamery, featuring locally sourced Wholly Cow Ice Cream; Pei Wei by P.F. Chang’s; Chick-fil-A; Olilo by Cat Cora; Congaree River Smokehouse, complete with an actual smoker; Oath Pizza; Twisted Taco; Horseshoe Deli; Southern Kitchen; Sushi with Gusto; Gamecock General; and The Express Lane.

Other recent additions include acai bowls at the Colloquium Café and the introduction of a monthly rotating restaurant platform that started with Olilo by Cat Cora, then moved to Wicked Eats by Cat Cora and then Tavolino Italian Eatery.

There has also been an increase in vegan offerings, including a dedicated vegan exhibition station at the Honeycomb Café residential restaurant and the launch of the Swipe Out Hunger meal plan program in partnership with Student Government, which provides meal plan assistance to students facing food insecurities.

To help combat the silverfin that is threatening the Mississippi River ecosystem in 23 states,

University Housing Dining Services has purchased over 20,000 pounds of the species over the past three years, in dishes ranging from fish cakes and filets to fried whole. To help draw attention to the issue, University Housing teamed up with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to serve silverfin at the Illinois Lieutenant Governor’s tent at the annual Illinois State Fair two years ago.

At the beginning of the 2018 spring semester, University Housing Dining Services implemented the LeanPath Spark System at the Ikenberry Commons Dining Center to learn more about post-consumer waste and see if it has any noticeable impact on changing consumer behavior. If successful, plans are to implement this system in other dining units in the future.

Research found that the Penn Station campus c-store was too small for the traffic and volume it produced, and that the existing layout presented issues for guests requiring ADA accessibility,

so the space was renovated and expanded last summer from 1,110 to approximately 2,226 square feet. In addition, the two-door coolers were replaced with one walk-in cooler/freezer that provides more room for refrigerated stock and back stock along with increased energy savings. A sandwich line was also added where guests can order custom-made sandwiches, pizzas and wraps. The result has been a revenue increase in the venue of approximately 15% from the previous year. 

A partnership between University Housing, IU’s Student Sustainable Farm and its Food Pilot Lab has resulted in a new sustainably produced pizza for the campus. It began when the Sustainable Farm began to grow too many tomatoes for University Housing to serve in its dining halls during the summer, so it began preparing the tomatoes as a sauce.

In an effort to streamline the process, it reached out to the Food Pilot Lab to pre-process the tomato product to speed up preparation. Success of this practice led not only to the Pilot Lab offering to cook and bag pizza sauce for University Housing but also an additional effort to grow, produce and mill local wheat for use in making pizza crust. The result is that University Housing is now piloting a program serving this site-produced pizza sauce and crust year-round at its FAR Out Pizza outlet.

For the December 2018 edition of its Uber Chef event, University Housing partnered with current third-year student, chef and founder of Dill food magazine Shayne Chammavanijakul. Uber Chef is a special culinary experience typically held twice a year in which up to 12 students are randomly selected to participate in a private dinner.

Finally, University Housing is incorporating an Inclusive Solutions micro restaurant into the Illinois Street Residence Dining Center opening in August of 2020. Inclusive Solutions is a resource for students with dietary restrictions in which they may enroll if they have an allergy or intolerance that is severe in nature or if they are concerned about cross-contact. It provides a mobile app for ordering customizable entrees, sides and desserts prior to arriving in the dining hall.

UT-Austin recently launched a commuter meal plan to provide a value for non-resident students, faculty and staff through which participants can purchase a block of 25 or 50 meals at the two all-you-care-to-eat dining locations. The plan also includes $25 in flex dollars that can be spent at any retail location, with the savings ranging from 20% on lunch to 24% on dinner.

A recent program addition is a retail concept called Bliss, which specializes in Boba tea and also serves fresh-squeezed fruit and vegetable juice and offers grab-and-go items like sushi, noodle bowls and healthy snacks.

In the summer of 2018, SU Food Services replaced a pizza franchise with an in-house, artisan pizza concept called The Tomato Wheel that, as a self-operated brand, can quickly add new recipes to keep the menu exciting and respond to customer feedback. The result is a popular, new venue with a current, trendy feel that features dough and sauce made in-house and pizza varieties determined in part by taste tests with potential customers.

In addition, the Brockway Dining Center last summer received a full renovation that added a physically separate gluten-free food line as well as a student lounge space that includes an 85” TV, music and comfortable seating where students can eat, study, watch TV and hang out with friends.

Supporting students with food allergies, food sensitivities and preferences is a high priority and the program’s vegan and vegetarian menus have earned SU Food Services an A+ award from PETA three years in a row, while Kitchens with Confidence by MenuTrinfo has tagged all five dining centers with a gluten-free certification. In addition, they have recently certified SU’s cook chill facility and production kitchen free from peanuts and tree nuts (except coconut). 

Scheduled for this fall is the opening of a new state-of-the-art health, wellness and recreation complex called the Barnes Center at The Arch, which will include a smoothie/grab-and-go café. A taste test was held to determine if a smoothie franchise or a self-operated concept was more popular with students, along with a naming contest for the café, held in partnership with Enrollment and the Student Experience.

In the spring 2020, SU Food Services will open a café in the new National Veterans Resource Center, a facility that will serve as the center of veteran life on campus.

On March 25th, the day students returned from spring break, NAU Dining launched food delivery robots in partnership with Starship Technologies. Customers download an app, order foods from selected restaurants around campus using their meal plans or credit cards, tell the robot where they want the food delivered and then wait for an autonomous robot to bring them their order.

In August, as part of campus sustainability efforts, NAU Dining worked with multiple campus departments to launch Louie’s Leftovers, a program designed to help feed food-insecure students in which hosts of catered events with leftover food call a central phone line and a text is sent to students who have opted into the system, alerting them that food is available and students have 20 minutes to arrive at the catering site and eat.

In partnership with the NAU Athletics Department, NAU Dining designed an Athletics Nutrition program launched in January in response to coaches’ concerns that student athletes were not consuming the proper kinds of foods at the right times to maximize their performance. The program combines smart, identifiable menu choices and a strong educational nutrition component to guide students and the result has been extremely positive as strength coaches are noticing a difference and students are more engaged and aware of the choices they make and how it impacts performance.

In other sustainable initiatives, the dining department discontinued single-use disposable ware for catered events and all indoor catered events now feature reusable dishes. In addition, plastic straws have been eliminated from all resident dining and retail operations.

The menu at the campus 1899 restaurant has been revamped to make it more appealing to customers who want a simpler meal at a reasonable cost and for customers looking for a shared meal experience. The changes resulted in increased customer counts and higher satisfaction as evidenced by comment cards and feedback.

Finally, also on March 25th, NAU Dining launched a Jazzman’s branded mobile coffee cart on a Dub Box platform with Bluetooth stereo, nitro cold brewed coffee and a full line of espresso drinks.

Last summer, Shively Court underwent a $1.8M re-fresh that included adding a tortilla maker to offer Mexican street food as an option, greatly expanded the salad bar and increased the number of plant-based menu items. In addition, the Latitude 39 casual dining outlet changed its menu to offer more local food items and this past April hosted a five-course wine-and-dine dinner event that featured local food items paired with wine from a local winery.

In fall 2018, Culinary Services permanently implemented a reusable to-go container program at all three campus dining courts, resulting in 3,868 reusable containers sold during the fall semester, as opposed to alternative compostable containers that end up in a landfill because the composting system on campus does not have the capacity to handle them. However, based on FY18 usage, having the reusable to-go container program will eliminate 389,515 compostable containers from ending up in landfills. The cost of the reusable container program is revenue neutral, but students pay 50 cents for each compostable container to encourage use of the reusable alternative. Furthermore, beginning last fall, students began receiving five cents off for each reusable bag used in campus markets and are charged five cents for each plastic bag they use.

Also last fall, Culinary Services started a meal donation program through which anyone on a meal plan may donate up to three meals to a meal bank that is distributed to food-insecure students, with 494 meals donated in the fall semester, of which 435 were given to 42 food-insecure students. In the spring, 2,190 meals were donated, obviously a significant increase.

Another assist to food-insecure students is that OU’s Jefferson Marketplace accepts SNAP payment.

Finally, OU’s central production kitchen is looking to expand a program through which it sells food to outside businesses.

Pitt Dining recently added a local food emporium called Forbes Street Market that not only serves the campus community but also the surrounding community with local products such as prepared and bulk foods, fresh meat and seafood, a sliced-to-order deli, crisp produce and a bakery. In addition to the large grocery store, the dining program has upgraded its vegan and vegetarian options by providing two concepts, H2Peas and KaleToPitt, in both resident dining locations. Also, when the nice weather arrives in Pittsburgh, so does the addition of the Panther Grille, a food truck that travels around campus and offers paninis, sides, walking tacos and drinks.

Campus Dining and Shops at the University at Buffalo has launched several nutritional/dietary initiatives this past year, including replacing high-sodium items and/or modifying recipes to reduce sodium levels in several food items, adding more unsweetened beverage choices and increasing plant-based protein offerings. Also, the department’s dietitian is now a Certified Master Trainer for food allergies, food intolerances and celiac disease. The culinary team is currently working on several new international concepts and menus that will be incorporated into a global market venue called One World Café, scheduled to open in 2021.

Two new retail units have been added in the form of a new contemporary coffee house in the Chazen Art Museum and a halal operation called Saffron that serves authentic, largely housemade, Middle Eastern food based on the recipes and experience of Chef Sabi Atteyih. The concept is counter service and is focused on simplicity, high-quality food and fresh and authentic combinations. Offerings include housemade falafel and chicken shawarma, muammara (a red pepper, walnut and pomegranate syrup spread), lemon-tahini sauce as well as authentic Middle Eastern beverages, dark chocolate covered dates and homemade baklava. Intended to provide a stable check average, quick service and a nod to healthier Mediterranean diets, the unit is based in the Discovery building on campus, only opens for lunch and does 100 to 150 customers a day with a $7 check average. It replaced a shuttered organic ice cream offering.

Sustainability and wellness remain key drivers of Harvard’s dining program, which follows principles from the Menus of Change Initiative developed by the Harvard Chan School of Public Health in conjunction with the Culinary Institute of America, and the Sustainable and Healthful Food Standards released by Harvard’s Office for Sustainability this spring. Both encourage more plant-based products and ethically produced meat.

Recently, Harvard, along with Tufts University and Boston College, received a $250,000 grant from the New England Food Vision Prize through the Henry P. Kendall Foundation to incentivize smaller local farmers to expand. Meanwhile, Harvard’s pioneering Food Literacy Project food-education initiative now holds over a hundred events a year on campus, ranging from guest lectures and chef presentations to cooking classes and farm tours.

This year UCI Dining completed a cosmetic refresh on its Jamba Juice location by adding digital menu boards, an inspiration wall, new lighting, countertops, paint and décor. It also completed new tile flooring and furniture upgrades at Phoenix Grille and the Green Room, adding electrical outlets at the tables for students to use while studying while a small outdoor Aramark POD C-Store concept was added to the School of Humanities a new 30,000-square-foot dining hall named Brandywine will be opening in Middle Earth Commons in August along with a c-store named Side Door. 

The new dining hall will be similar to the Anteatery in that it will be an Aramark Fresh Food Company residential concept that will also include a Worry Free station with items that are gluten-free, allergen-free and cater to those with food allergies and food sensitivities. Over the summer, ICI Dining will also be looking to complete refreshes at both of its Subway locations as well as Panda Express, Einstein’s and the C3 Convenience Store as well as updating the Java City locations to the new 2.0 version.

The department also has made great sustainability strides during the 2018-2019 year by reducing average food waste to a record low of 0.5 ounces per person and launching its “One Mile Meal” program featuring the campus’s first vertical aeroponic garden program where all of the produce grown will be used within a one-mile radius of the garden. The venue uses 90% less water, yields 10 times the amount of produce, does not use pesticides and grows two to three times faster than traditional farms.

When planning the program, UCI Dining wanted to make sure that the garden would be located in a highly visible area. As a result, it decided to put it in the patio area of The Anteatery, which serves over 8,000 meals a day. The garden is also visible to touring visitors thanks to a Plexiglas fence instead of a more solid-colored wall. The Plexiglas also allowed the addition of an informational window decal that informs guests how the garden operates, answers why it is more sustainable than traditional farms and encourages them to “Be a Planteater” with the school’s anteater mascot.

To date, the garden has 30 towers, two of which re-dedicated to the campus’s food pantry, the FRESH Basic Needs Hub. Leafy greens from those towers are harvested and donated to FRESH for bi-weekly salad bars. UCI Dining also is reducing transportation carbon emissions, saving water resources while ensuring that guests receive the highest quality produce and educating them.

Missouri Dining has added online ordering for two of its residential a la carte locations, which have each been doing up to 100 transactions per day, and will expand this service to one of the MU Student Center restaurants this fall. The department also offers “value added” services for dining plan holders, such as the very popular Culinary Discovery Series dinners and the Culinary Nutrition Series.

The biggest recent change in UNL Dining came at the top, with longtime University of Oklahoma dining head David Annis taking over as director of dining services earlier this year. While the program was mostly in a holding pattern as a new director was identified and hired, UNL Dining did make some additions, including a top-eight-allergen-free service, the launch of a local/sustainable program and expanded hours and operations through typical break periods such as Thanksgiving, the holiday break and spring break. Annis says the focus for the fall will be expanding late-night dining choices, increasing meal plan portability into the c-stores and retail operations on campus and increased sustainability efforts.