This year, UConn Dining rebranded its fast-casual restaurant, Chuck & Augie’s, to a French-style bistro, The Bistro on Union Street. Special menu related events on campus have included a plant forward Chinese New Year banquet co-prepared by a visiting Chinese delegation of chefs and a team of UConn chefs. The department also hosted a banquet for staff and students that featured edible insects in order to educate students that in many parts of the world, insects are consumed as an alternate protein.

In the area of sustainability, UConn Dining moved to paper straws early in the year and also discontinued the use of plastic bags. It also shifted milk purchasing to a local dairy, thus supporting a small farm enterprise and keeping local dairy farming viable in its community. It continues to work on its goal to have 100% of its food waste diverted to a processing plant that turns it to methane gas. The department has also partnered with Lean Path in an effort to control food waste in general.

For the 2018/2019 school year, Chartwells at Texas A&M added three retail outlets: Starbucks at Zachry, Copperhead Jack’s and Creekside Market.

The fourth and largest Starbucks on the 5,000-acre campus was added in the newly constructed Zachry Engineering Education Complex, where the 4,700-square-foot venue provides ample space for studying and socializing while also serving as an essential fuel source for engineering students, faculty and visitors in the area.

The Southwestern-themed Copperhead Jack's features customizable tacos, burritos, bowls, salads and quesadillas with the recipes being created by Chartwell’s own executive chefs at the university.

Located inside the Creekside Commons and supporting the on-campus residential apartments, the hybrid Creekside Market sells grocery and snack items as well as hot food that can easily be transported to a common dining space within the community center or taken back to a student’s apartment across the street at White Creek Apartments. Made-to-order options include pizza, pasta, sandwiches, soups and home-style entrees.

VA Tech Dining recently completed a number of upgrades to what was FM’s 2018 Best Concepts Awards Best of Show winner as it leveled and reconstructed two franchise locations—

Chick-fil-A, where menu offerings were extended to include selections like milkshakes, and Pizza Hut, which will now also offer hand-stretched theater-style pizza. It also installed the Seven70 sandwich/wraps concept featuring plant-forward offerings, all-natural deli meats and cheeses and gourmet breads in West End Market at Cochrane Hall. 

Meanwhile, the existing salad bar station at Owens Food Court at Owens Hall has been replaced with a salad island station and made-to-order pho noodle bar. The venue also added grab-and-go open-air merchandisers with portable, prepared items.

VA Tech Dining has also started to host a farm stand featuring items grown and produced on the 6.5-acre Homefield Farm that it operates in partnership with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. A long-term goal is to install bee hives at the farm to assist in pollination as well as create honey right on campus that can then be served with hot tea and other dishes.

The dining program also tasked four of its executive chefs to develop and implement five entrees, two sides and two desserts that are plant-forward based, and these were launched last fall to great reviews and appreciation from the campus community.

In the technology area, VA Tech Dining recently installed and is piloting MorphoWave, a biometric touchless hand scanner for gaining entry and making payment at the all-you-care-to-eat D2 at Dietrick Hall dining center. The department is also in its second year of full implementation of Tapingo’s mobile ordering and payment applications throughout its dining portfolio.

UA offers diverse, complete protein vegan dining options during each meal. As participants of the Partnership for a Healthier America’s Healthier Campus Initiative, it is required to have a plant-based option where there is a meat-based option, and this past fiscal year UA also participated twice in the Humane Society sponsored Forward Food workshop in which chefs and managers are trained on plant-based cooking.

The Union’s Hydroponic Greenhouse was built in 2017 on the rooftop of the Student Union Memorial Cente, with the purpose of fighting food insecurity in partnership with the Campus Pantry. All of the crops feed some 550 students a week during each academic year and is projected to feed 1000 to 1500 per week in the 2019-2020 school year.

Urban Garden, a make-your-own salad concept at South Food District, underwent a menu and décor refresh during the summer of 2018. It offers students a diverse menu with ethnic flavors, plant-forward innovation and healthy proteins and accompaniments. Tofu marinara and buckwheat tempura calamari were two favorites this year. In addition, a new, full-scale, licensed Starbucks store, owned and operated by Penn State Campus Dining, opened last September in the Paterno Library. At 2,800 square feet, it offers plenty of seating as well as a wide selection of sandwiches, salads, healthy snack items, pastries and beverages

Mobile ordering at Ohio State has grown to 10,000 a day on peak days. The school also opened its first outdoor location, which offers patio seating and a menu featuring gourmet pizzas, Indian-inspired tandoor bowls and sandwiches prepared in tandoor ovens, Latin-inspired breakfast choices, and classic American burgers and chicken sandwiches. OSU also opened a new location with a focused menu of locally sourced chicken tenders—served with fries—in which the breading profiles of the local, fresh, handcrafted tenders were developed through tastings with hundreds of students. OSU also started offering all teas sourced from Organic and Rainforest Certified single-origin farm, part of efforts to continue to support the school’s goal of 40% local and/or sustainable food by 2025.

This year, Dining Services added an unlimited plan called the "Scarlet Plan" and increased its online ordering participation by embedding it inside the Rutgers app. The dining program has also fully integrated Menus of Change concepts into all of its operations.

USC Hospitality collectively serves more than 7,600 meals a day in its residential dining venues and also operates as a culinary classroom to educate students on the importance of mindful eating and food-waste reduction with partnered programs crafted by its registered dietitian and office of sustainability. For added variety, pop-up restaurants have been developed to bring diversity and introduce new flavors to students, with the takeovers featuring authentic Korean, Indian and Mediterranean cuisines. USC was an early adopter of Tapingo and the mobile app is actively used by students for its ease of use and speed of service. 

In mid-May, Georgia Tech announced that Aramark would be taking over as its dining services provider effective July 1. Among initiatives expected to be pursued during the new contract are  hyper-local partnerships with area celebrity chefs and restauranteurs, new technology to streamline service and wait times, renovations of dining facilities, sustainability initiatives, and more creative menus and varied choices focused on quality, health, convenience and personalization.

MSU Dining replaced an underperforming pizza station with a barbecue station called QUE last fall in the Crossroads food court inside its International Center with great success. Meanwhile, an all allergen-friendly dining hall is planned to open this fall 2019 as MSU’s tenth all-you-care-to-eat venue. It will offer a menu free of nine major allergens: milk, eggs, soy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish and sesame.

Texas Tech Hospitality Services will be implementing order kiosks in various retail locations across campus this fall to both increase customer service levels and help the department deal with labor issues on campus. Overall, dining at TTU covers a broad range of options including food courts, retail locations, mini markets, all-you-care-to-eat dining halls, express kiosks and national brands like Chick-fil-A, Einstein Bros. Bagels and Quizno’s. During the summer months, Hospitality Services helps host Red Raider orientations, conference groups and multiple high school and college-driven student groups.

Among recent initiatives undertaken by UM Dining are the openings of Maizie's Kitchen and Market in The Michigan League building, the Kosher Kitchen at the South Quad residential dining hall, the Maize and Blue Cupboard, which helps the food-insecure community on campus and the imminent debut of UMMA Cafe at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. The department also reduced the price of its entry-level meal plan.

UCLA is currently working on a quick-serve bowl concept slated for deployment this fall and will soon be implementing a vending concept that will serve a selection of full entrees, beverages and sides 24 hours a day. It also just opened a full 10,000-square-foot artisanal bakery that will supply all of its bread, cakes and desserts.

Miami has rolled out a new online menu database called NetNutrition that allows students to filter menu items by allergens and dietary preferences and see in-depth nutrients and allergens in the foods. It also redesigned its Mediterranean concept within the Armstrong Student Center into a build-your-own Mediterranean bowl concept that has been very popular with students. The dining program has also continued to revamp its traditional offerings and now serves everything from mixed grain vindaloo to Bang Bang Shrimp. Nut friendly since fall 2017, it has now added avocado and sunflower seed butter to its Garden Salad Bars. Other recent enhancements include putting in an additional licensed Starbucks, finishing the renovation of MapleStreet Commons, which added an additional allergen-free station to campus and installing additional seating in one of the all-you-care-to-eat venues. 

To celebrate the university’s 150th anniversary, Purdue Dining & Culinary in March debuted Boiler Tracks ice cream, which includes a mix of chocolate pieces, toffee, caramel and chocolate variegate, with coloring from a combination of caramel and annatto, and flavoring with vanilla extract. The ice cream, developed as part of a partnership between Purdue Dining & Culinary and a department of food science capstone class, is being served in the residential dining courts and the Harrison Grill and Pappy’s Sweet Shop retail outlets, and is also sold by half-pints in the Market campus c-stores.

Introduced within a campus residence hall in conjunction with the arrival of a record-setting freshman class, 1bowl@Meredith is a residential dining platform that takes meal swipes while offering for students of all dietary needs and backgrounds a convenient, expedited meal service without the crowds associated with traditional dining courts. Building on the growing popularity of food bowls and global flavors with a diverse menu to satisfy any palette and dietary need, the concept also offers salads, soup in bread bowls, international noodle bowls and home-style dishes ranging from macaroni and cheese to farmer-style breakfasts, with gluten-free and plant-based options available daily.

Meanwhile, the Daily Bite Food Truck now features Hankie’s Henhouse, a chicken-and-waffles concept that allows students to build a basket for a meal swipe. The basket choices include crispy chicken tenders or pulled smoked brisket, crispy golden waffle or buttermilk biscuit, and sides like Grandma Hankie’s Vegan Slaw and three-cheese mac n’ cheese. This menu is proving to be very popular with students at both lunch and dinner.

Another recent addition is a third Starbucks outlet, opened last fall in the MSEE building.

Finally, Purdue Dining & Culinary also recently switched from plastic straws to paper straws in residential dining courts and retail shops. The transition was done in conjunction with the 150th Anniversary celebration to represent Purdue’s commitment to using sustainable products to reduce the environmental risk associated with plastic straws.

Last fall, UGA Dining began allowing some student meal plan participants to register to take food to go from the dining commons during a meal period through its Bulldawg Box To-Go Meal Program. Enrolled participants receive a reusable, environmentally-safe, sustainable container that allows them to easily build their own meal to go.

UGA Dining also debuted several new venues last fall, including the Market at Russell, its first retail location to open in a residence hall, and Market at East Campus in Joe Frank Harris Commons. Both offer fresh, quality grab-and-go sandwiches, salads, sushi, snacks, bottle beverages and more. Also opening at that time was a new Jittery Joe’s location in the UGA law library and Coffee & Bagels in the main library, the latter featuring a variety of hot, iced and blended coffees, hot tea, bagels for breakfast and lunch, grab-and-go salads, fruit and yogurt cups and more. It stays open until 11 p.m. most weeknights.

This spring saw the launch of the Sambazon certified organic and fair trade acai concept in the Tate Student Center. It offers healthy bowls filled with açai and topped with granola, fresh fruit and other ingredients.

NU Dining has added Boost mobile ordering at nine retail dining location across campus, allowing students to place orders through the Boost app and get pick-up at a time specified during the order process.

Also, the Curry Student Center c-store has been redesigned as the Market with a branding refresh and new operational, digital and physical in-store elements such as kombucha on tap, a student-driven recommendation that provided an opportunity to partner with Massachusetts-based vendor Katalyst Kombucha.

Across campus in Stetson West, the traditional stations have been revamped as part of the dining hall’s evolution to the Food Hall at Stetson West. Special pop-up events on select Fridays in the Food Hall have featured complete station takeovers that brought new and unique menu offerings to the venue, such as pho, New York deli, barbecue and crêpes.

The best pop-up concepts were also incorporated into this year’s Educate Your Palate signature event, an annual end-of-year celebration that brings together culinary teams from across campus to expand the palates and foodie knowledge of students via a unique culinary theme. This year’s event, dubbed Top of the POPs, featured the best Food Hall pop-up menus themed to both current and classic pop music.

Big changes also happened in the residential dining locations with several new interactive components added to the dining experience. The Rockbot app allows guests to choose and engage with the music being played at International Village, Levine Marketplace and the Food Hall at Stetson West, while Student Choice polls used the students’ votes to help pick the menu on Thursdays in International Village.

A hydroponic garden was also added in International Village with hyper-local herbs and greens grown for use right in NU Dining’s kitchens. Harvests of the garden yielded a variety of items, including greens for a special salad as well as basil leaves immediately added to margherita pizzas.

Stetson West is also home to the Xhibition Kitchen, which just completed its 14th year of hosting interactive culinary events and chef demonstrations. After last year’s successful introduction, Teaching Kitchen classes also returned with new topics. The hands-on class is designed to help students explore food, culinary and nutrition literacy.

NU Dining also partnered with the Northeastern Student Government Association and Student Affairs on a combined initiative to help alleviate food insecurity within the student population. Swipe2care provides a platform for students to seamlessly donate their meal swipes to other students who may be having difficulty in finding their next meal.

NU is also a member of the Menus of Change (MOC) University Research Collaborative and NU Dining continues to amplify MOC principles by integrating them into menus, events and educational experiences across campus.

Finally, the Starbucks Bike has been driving around campus serving up nitro cold brew coffee fresh from taps installed right into the bike. The mobile coffee shop, built by the company of an NU alumnus, stops at residence halls and quads throughout the semester and is also available to rent for events on campus.

The centerpiece of dining at CU-Boulder is the Village Dining and Community Center, which opened two years ago and subsequently won an FM Best Concept award for Best New Facility. It includes five food stations plus a display kitchen wired with a mic and camera to do cooking demos and a teaching kitchen with induction cookers to teach students how to cook. There are also outdoor fire pits, stationary bike-powered blenders and an expansive greenhouse.

This year, UCSD launched a new program called Dining Delivers that is an offshoot of its catering department and offers delivery and pick-up options, providing ease of placing and receiving orders without ever having to leave campus. It is meant to serve smaller gatherings like staff meetings, work celebrations and student programming.

Cornell Dining recently took over the operation of Moakley House, a catering hall and restaurant at Cornell’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Course and of athletics facility concession stands, where it began offering a great menu of snacks, drinks and meals at athletic events in just a couple of weeks while putting together an appealing menu of salads, flatbreads, burgers and pub food at the golf course eatery.

BU Dining is at work meeting and exceeding its sustainability goals. In 2017, the department achieved its goal ahead of schedule to become 20% locally sourced, so it then recommitting to reaching a goal of 25% locally grown and sustainable food by 2020, and has now also met that threshold early as it now purchases from more than a hundred local food growers and processors

Liberty Dining recently enhanced its program with several additions, including a new retail fresh burger concept created in house called Hey Cow, which menus burgers, fries, onion rings and milk shakes. It also added a second Dunkin Donuts unit on campus and remodeled a very popular smoothie location called Natural. In its resident dining hall, it added a fresh sushi station.

NC State Dining is currently renovating the serving area of Fountain Dining Hall, its flagship residential dining center, to combine two separate serveries, expand the salad bar and upgrade some of the display cooking/serving areas to better serve students. It is also expanding the Starbucks in Talley Student Union to accommodate more in-person and online orders. NC State Dining is already a leader in the number of online orders processed through the popular Tapingo app.

UCSB opened the Miramar Food Pantry last October 1st to provide free, healthy food such as a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, canned food items, pastas and cereals to food-insecure students three days a week in a 200-square-foot facility that includes cold storage. The program offers evening hours to provide more accessibility to food for approximately 4,000 students living in west campus properties. In addition, the Arbor campus c-store began accepting CalFresh EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) cards last fall. CalFresh is California’s version of the federal USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to provide nutrition assistance to eligible, low-income individuals and families.