NUTRITION
Nutrition is a highly important aspect of our dining operation. To that end, Director of Nutrition and Wellness, Lisa Eberhart, and her dietetic support staff work with our culinary and operations teams to ensure we provide a vast assortment of healthy, fresh and nutritious options, appealing to a wide range of tastes and dietary needs. As we developed a dozen new menu concepts in the past three years and began to overhaul the menus of existing units, we included nutritional goals as a fundamental part of our menu planning process. We also integrated our nutrition and allergen trait data into our food production management system, allowing us to provide our customers with accurate information. We engage in a number of nutrition initiatives, which include: • Accurately mark ingredients, nutritional values and allergens of all the menu items on our website; • Utilize well-marked iPads at our key locations to include this same information, making it easy for our customers to access information before they eat; • Display digital menu boards at our major locations to ensure, in part, our students with allergies, intolerances, and preferences can identify key menu ingredients; • Stock gluten-friendly stations in our dining halls; • Promote water consumption in our dining halls with spa-style hydration stations; • Offer vegan and vegetarian options throughout all of our locations; • Provide innovative nutritional programming, which is executed each semester to engage our student population; and • Stay ahead of the curve when it comes to allergies. We have an allergy support group, allergy blog, and allergy directed e-mails informing students about new products, menu items and events. We also use student secret shoppers who have allergies to assist us with on-going staff training opportunities. Our emphasis on nutrition’s role in health and wellness has not only made our students more confident in dining with us, it’s garnered national attention, too. Food Service Director Magazine named us one of the Top 15 Healthiest non-commercial dining operations in the country in 2014, and we were named among the inaugural 20 colleges and universities to participate in the Partnership for a Healthier America. We are proud of the work we do to ensure our campus eats healthy and will continue to set the pace for nutrition excellence in the college food service arena.
For more information, visit dining.ncsu.edu.