Campus Dining Today | Spring/Summer 2012

SPRING/SUMMER 2012

Are You

Ready?

Preparing for and responding to crises page 71

T H E N AT I O N A L A S S O C I AT I O N O F C O L L E G E & U N I V E R S I T Y F O O D S E R V I C E S

also inside

• Popular Catches on Campus • 2012 NACUFS National Conference • Nutrition Labeling ...and much more!

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The biannual magazine of the National Association of College & University Food Services

Advertising Information and Article Submission Advertising of a product or service in this publication does not imply endorsement. Advertisers assume responsibility and liability for the content of any advertising.

The National Association of College & University Food Services is exempt from any liability resulting from publication of articles. Editorial mention of commercial interests is intended entirely as an information service to readers and should not be construed as an endorsement, actual or implied, by NACUFS. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of NACUFS. The number of mailings sent to each member institution is based on annual dues classification. There is an $85 charge for all additional mailings. An annual subscription to Campus Dining Today® is $60 for members and $75 for nonmembers. ©2012 The National Association of College & University Food Services.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in a retrievable system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, which includes but is not limited to, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written consent of NACUFS.

Editor in Chief Acquisitions/Contributing Editor Copy Editor Editorial Assistant

Rachel A. Warner Donna Boss Robin Miner-Swartz Erin Cullen

Editorial Board Kimberle Badinelli, Virginia Tech Merrill Collins, Connecticut College Lisa Snider, Foodservice Rewards Jerry Waller, University of Wisconsin–River Falls Rachel A. Warner, NACUFS

NACUFS Board of Directors President

Nona Golledge, University of Kansas

President-Elect

Timothy Dietzler, Villanova University

Past President

Janet Paul Rice, Concordia College

Secretary/Treasurer

Rich Neumann, Ohio University

At-Large Director

Terry Waltersdorf, Faith Baptist Bible College

Northeast Region President

Mike Kmec, Connecticut College

Mid-Atlantic Region President

Louis Logan, Millersville University

Midwest Region President

Carol Petersen, University of Northern Iowa

Southern Region President

Robert Miller, Georgia Southern University

Continental Region President

Lisa Gibson, Sanford Medical Center

Pacific Region President

Robert Holden, University of Alaska-Fairbanks

2012 National Conference Chair Art Korandanis, College of the Holy Cross Industry Advisory Council Chair Nancy Lane, Hubert Guest Director

Patty Eldred, University of Vermont

Executive Director

Joseph Spina, NACUFS

For advertising information, email advertising@nacufs.org or call (517) 332-2494.

CORRECTIONS: Campus Dining Today strives to provide accurate journalism and fair reporting. It is our policy to correct substantive errors of fact. If you think we may have published incorrect information, please call (517) 332-2494 or email news@nacufs.org.

F E AT U R E S

in this issue 71

44 Popular Catches on Campus

Chefs cast a wide net to bring creative fish and seafood dishes to their menus.

59 2012 NACUFS National Conference

This year’s conference, held in historic Boston, is sure to educate and inspire you with some Revolut!onary Thinking.

68 Candidates for National Office 71

Are You Ready? Preparing and Responding to Crises

72

Jumping Into Action During the Tuscaloosa Tornado

Kristina Hopton-Jones recounts her

experience following a devastating tornado that hit the University of Alabama.

76

Crisis Preparedness for University Dining

Dawn Aubrey shares critical components

of the recently updated emergency plan for

University Dining at the University of Illinois.

80

Stepping Up When It Counts

Collegiate dining directors share their lessons learned and advice after

responding to a variety of emergency

situations on campus.

91

The Disaster Action Plan

This checklist provides a guide for the

key steps to go through in developing a

disaster action plan.

Are You Ready?

44

e

SPRING/SUMMER 2012

10 D E PA R T M E N T S 6 From the Editor 8 Leadership Agenda 10 Campus Dining by Design

Creativity and innovation shine in these featured campus dining renovations.

28 What’s Hot on Campus

College and university dining departments are making their mark in unique ways.

59 54

28 54 Wellness and Nutrition

Messiah College tackles the challenge of nutrition labeling with its Smart Choice pilot project.

95 NACUFS Education

The Facilities Management Institute helps equip participants for the next crisis by providing a basic framework for foodservice professionals to construct their own emergency preparedness plan.

From

F

E D I TO R

our years ago, a tornado touched down in my neighborhood. My husband and I were visiting the campus of Michigan State University at the time, and though we were only a few miles from home, it took us more than an hour to reach our house because of blocked streets. The storm ripped up massive trees, downed power lines, destroyed cooling towers at a nearby power station, and caused damage to many homes in the area. Luckily, nobody was injured and our house was largely spared the twister’s wrath. After we got home and comforted our understandably freaked-out pets, we stood in our front yard, mouths agape, and surveyed the changed landscape of our normally peaceful street. The prospect of a tornado personally affecting us had never even crossed our minds.

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the editor

Rachel A. Warner

We’d have blown off another blizzard; Michigan gets plenty of those and we Michiganders know how to extricate ourselves from snow and ice. But my beloved home state is not exactly known for tornadoes. Ours was only an EF1—the second weakest on the tornado strength scale and relatively minor when compared to the devastating storms that have affected other parts of the country—yet it threw us into temporary chaos.

We soon realized that we were completely unprepared for the situation in which we found ourselves.

Editor in Chief rwarner@nacufs.org

Eventually, the streets were cleared, our power came back on, and damaged homes were repaired. Though life ultimately returned to normal, the experience opened our minds to the possibility that, yes, it can happen to us, and we need to be better prepared in the event of another crisis. My husband and I now have an emergency response plan that includes considerations for a variety of situations, including tornadoes. Among other things, we keep a good supply of food and water in the house and I know exactly where the flashlights and extra batteries are (I could even find them in the dark if needed).

“Hopefully, you never need to put your plan into action.

But if you’re facing the chaos of a disaster, you’ll sure be glad it’s there."

For my small family, developing a crisis plan was reasonably simple. However, for college and university foodservice, emergency management goes well beyond simply having a few extra flashlights and bottles of water. From helping coordinate an evacuation to providing food and water to victims of a storm, campus dining departments play a critical role in ensuring the safety of faculty, staff, students, and the community if disaster strikes.

Our goal in developing this issue of Campus Dining Today is to provide insight and resources on this important topic so association members may benefit from the experience and advice of the contributors herein. If you don’t have a plan already, the content will help you and your staff develop one. If you do have a plan, this issue may help you update it to include situations you may not have considered. Hopefully, you never need to put your plan into action. But if you’re facing the chaos of a disaster, you’ll sure be glad it’s there.

A last item of note—as I was reviewing the content for this issue, I was inspired by the overwhelming strength and selflessness of NACUFS members when navigating crises. Knowing that kind of dedication is so prevalent in our industry once again affirms my pride in being a part of this wonderful association. u

Rachel A. Warner

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L E A D E R S H I P

A genda

LEADERSHIP

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S

agenda

pring is the time of year for gardening, landscaping, and fun in the sun.

It’s also the time of year to be on alert for severe weather. Fortunately, weather emergencies are few and far between on campuses. When they do occur, having a crisis-ready staff is critical to taking care of the needs of students, faculty, staff, campus guests, and the surrounding community. Wellcommunicated emergency preparedness plans make the difference between a chaotic reaction to a situation and a confidently managed and professional response to a crisis.

This has been a historic year for NACUFS; a year—like weather emergencies —requiring a well-managed plan and timely communication. It has taken many dedicated volunteers and the expertise of the staff to accomplish NONA GOLLEDGE this year’s goals and initiatives.

NACUFS President It has taken many dedicated In addition to the search for the golledge@ku.edu association’s third executive director, there has been a tremendous amount volunteers and the expertise of work taking place on project teams and national committees. A truly productive and of the staff to accomplish this extraordinary year indeed!

year’s goals and initiatives.

The executive director search is right on schedule. In mid-March, the official search was set in motion. The announcement has been posted to several key association websites, including NACUFS, the American Society for Association Executives (ASAE), and the Michigan Society for Association Executives (MSAE). The position also has been included in the national association trade publication, CEO Update, and posted to 10 industry-related LinkedIn groups.

The remainder of the search process will move quickly. Applications were received through April and vetting will take place in May. The search committee and search firm will conduct interviews with the top candidates at the national office in Okemos, Mich., June 18-20. After the two-day interview process, the search firm and committee will narrow their selection and present their top candidates to the board of directors at the July board meeting in Boston.

The committee chair, Mona Milius of Bakergroup, and vice chair, Cam Schauf of the University of Rochester, have done an exceptional job following the timeline, orchestrating the interview process, and collaborating with the board and search firm principals. Thanks to their expertise and commitment to the process, I’m confident the board of directors will be able to proudly announce the association’s next executive director this fall.

NACUFS has had a record-breaking year for projects. More than 250 members have been actively engaged at the national level since July 2011. Twenty-two teams, ranging in topics from volunteerism to technology to industry involvement, are actively working on association strategic initiatives. A summary of the projects was presented during the national update at each regional conference in March. The results from all the hard work will not only provide members with additional services and resources but will also further enhance NACUFS’ image as a leading-edge association.

The volunteers and association staff have helped make this past year a truly enjoyable and rewarding experience. Thank you for your continued dedication to NACUFS and for your confidence in me as your leader. I’m honored to have had this opportunity to serve as president during such an important time for the association.

Looking forward to seeing you in Boston! u

Nona Golledge

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by design

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CampuS DINING

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Alferd Packer Restaurant & Grill and Baby Doe’s Coffee & Bakery at University of Colorado Boulder Memorial Center

Photos courtesy of Porter Khouw Consulting, Inc.; photography by Brian Sendler, Bri Sen Photography

A

t the University of Colorado Boulder’s University Memorial Center (UMC), the Alferd Packer Restaurant & Grill—named after Colorado’s most famous cannibal—and the adjacent Baby Doe’s Coffee & Bakery—named after Elizabeth “Baby Doe” McCourt, who married Horace Tabor, Colorado’s most prominent “Silver King”—were outdated and featured inefficient designs. A $1.5 million renovation to bring quicker throughput and an overall increase in customer satisfaction was completed in the fall of 2010.

According to Albin Khouw, senior vice president of Porter Khouw Consulting, Inc. (PKC), the main highlights and results of the project included:

Baby Doe’s Coffee & Bakery can be accessed from the grill or the public hallway to the east to increase customer throughput.

Images above the arched entryways from the east remind visitors of Baby Doe’s and the town of Leadville’s history.

1. I mproving the visual connection between the seating area and servery. This was accomplished by removing the curved glass wall that screened the servery from the dining room. An arched opening was created in the existing wall at Baby Doe’s to improve visual connection with the customers.

2. Improving flow inside the servery. The size of the servery was increased significantly by removing the curved glass wall. The cashier stations were decentralized and a few more points of sales were added to help with the throughput. Redesigned stations allow for greater circulation and more efficient traffic flow within the servery.

3. Improving efficiencies by relocating some of the stations for greater access.

An added island with a self-serve salad bar became the centerpiece of the new servery.

“Salads, soups, and grab-and-go items have become our highest sellers,” says Robin Margolin, UMC’s director of foodservice. “Hamburgers used to be king!”

4. Improving ease of circulation and enhancing lighting to allow the food to stand out.

5. Updating dining rooms to make them more flexible for use for overflow catering or rain backups for large events.

6. Combining the coffee shop with the main marketplace area to allow for expanded service on weekends and off times, with minimal labor.

D esign B y C ampus D ining today

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The Many Offerings

The 5,500-square-foot food court, now referred to as a restaurant and grill, offers everything from salads and burgers to homestyle comfort foods. In addition, grab-and-go items, including pastries, bagels, sandwiches, ice cream, chips, yogurts, and candy, are available for customers’ quick stops between classes and meetings.

Above: The salad bar features fresh ingredients and freshly prepared salads for make-your-own creations.

Stations include: • El Canibal—Made-to-order Mexican specialties and homemade guacamole and salsa • The Tabor—Three choices of entrees ranging from homestyle comfort foods to international cuisine • Al’s Greens—A 75-foot-long soup and salad bar • Slumgullian Grill—Grilled burgers, chicken tenders, cheese sandwiches, and fries • Al’s Lodge—Made-to-order vegetarian and meat paninis • Soup & Chili Bar—Various selections daily • Baby Doe’s Sweets & Treats—Fresh pastries from the in-house bakery • Grab-n-Go—Packaged fresh sandwiches and pre-made salads

Inset: The 5,500-squarefoot servery’s design encourages efficient throughput and station visibility from everywhere in the space.

“Customers are very happy with the fresh, open floor plan,” Margolin says. “The food looks much better because of the improved lighting. Returning alumni have had many positive comments, including, ‘I can’t believe this is the same place.’” In addition to appealing to customers, the open floor plan makes it easier to accommodate special events with large groups of people eating at the same time.

The project also included a redesign of Baby Doe’s Coffee & Bakery so customers can easily access it from the grill, and to improve customer throughput. It was previously a stand-alone unit, and prior to the renovation, lines often snaked through the store, particularly during peak meal periods. The redesigned unit offers fresh-brewed organic, fair trade coffees, specialty coffee drinks, and freshly baked cookies, desserts, muffins, and breads. In addition, it displays a variety of bottled beverages, energy bars, energy drinks, and snacks.

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“The design is very clean, but still rustic enough to convey Colorado heritage,” says Khouw. “This was important to students.”

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In the dining room, the fireplace is a favorite gathering place, especially in the winter. The raised platform provides performance space for special functions and flexible seating for up to 560.

Sustainability is an important facet of the project. UMC foodservice has built-in composting, recycling, and trash stations, uses less-toxic cleansers, uses washable towels for cleaning, and follows water and energy conservation measures. Sustainable design strategies include recycling of the construction debris and old foodservice equipment as well as the use of materials with recycled content and LED accent lighting. It is part of Partners for a Clean Environment (PACE), a voluntary partnership of Boulder County businesses and local governments dedicated to a better environment.

This retail space requires three to 25 staff members to operate, depending on the time of day and level of business. Approximately 1,000 customers are served per hour in busy periods.

Operating hours are: 7:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 7:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Friday; 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Saturday; and 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. on Sunday.

Key people involved: Carlos Garcia, director, University Memorial Center; Robin Margolin, foodservice director; David Schafer, principal architect, OZ Architecture; Nathan Miesen, project architect, OZ Architecture; Jan Peck, interior designer, OZ Architecture; Albin Khouw and Ron Lisberger, foodservice consultants, Porter Khouw Consulting, Inc.; Jeff Jesse and Justin Hafer, Cator Ruma Engineering; Ben Nelsen, Martin/Martin Structural Engineering; Marty Gregg, ArtHouse Graphic Design. u

In the servery, portraits of Alferd Packer and other early settler images remind customers of its historic namesake.

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The inviting entranceway to the restaurant and grill offers customers a sneak preview of what they will experience.

by design

CampuS DINING Memorial Student Center at University of Wisconsin-Stout D E S I G N

Photos courtesy of UW-Stout Dining Services

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B Y

he $19 million renovation of the 61,300-square-foot Memorial Student Center (MSC) at the University of Wisconsin-Stout (UW-Stout) began with a clear sense of mission. Built in 1985, the MSC was outdated, had navigation difficulties, contained silos of localized activity, and needed upgrades to its infrastructure.

The renovation, completed in January 2012, involved a complete rebuilding of the foodservice areas. These venues were designed for versatility in the future, had to be aesthetically tied in to the new building’s interiors, and were directed by the vision statement of the design committee for the MSC project: “The Memorial Student Center will provide welcoming gathering spaces for the campus and community, featuring high-energy, bright colors and cozy, comfortable atmospheres. Cutting-edge technology, flexibility, and sustainability will meet the community’s ever-changing needs. The student center will foster spontaneous interaction, collaboration and learning among students, faculty, staff, and the greater community. It will be a destination to experience the arts, discuss ideas, and embrace diversity, as well as a place to grow, socialize, study, eat, and have fun.”

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“This is our third major project in three years,” says Ann Thies, director of dining. “The center was closed for a year while this renovation was taking place. “Design work with architects started a year before construction and our planning paid off.”

According to Darrin Witucki, student center director, “One of the design committee’s goals was to create contemporary and flexible dining locations. I believe we met and exceeded that goal.

Our dining operations have been transformed. The facilities are beautiful, inviting, and efficient.

The food concepts are varied, relevant, and offer delicious food. Our partners in university dining service really hit a home run on every level and those results were the product of a lot of listening, planning, and attention to detail.”

Innovations, the showcase station of Fireside Café, offers customized Asian and pasta dishes cooked to order. UW-Stout graphic design students helped brand station “storefronts” on each level.

Each station has a logo chosen in a student competition.

T wo F ood Courts

The center’s foodservice consists of two food courts located on different levels of the building. They offer an expanded menu and display cooking stations with fresh, customized product selections. UW-Stout graphic design students were called upon to help brand station “storefronts” on each level. Each station has a logo chosen in a student competition.

The 2,583-square-foot upper-level food court, the Fireside Café, is supported by the 2,415-square-foot main kitchen. The café’s five venues include: •T he Gridiron Grill—Open for breakfast with popular Midwestern breakfast favorites made to order off the grill. For lunch, quarter-pound fresh burgers char-grilled on a homemade, toasted bakery bun complemented by hearty steak fries with a choice of seasoning, served with dipping sauces including barbecue, ranch, basil pesto aïoli, chipotle mayo, sweet chili, and honey mustard. A burger of the week such as Reuben, Mediterranean, or “Five Alarm” is also offered.

•P oblanos—The busiest station in the food court features Mexican food with built-to-order burritos, tacos, taco salads, quesadillas, and sides of Spanish or limecilantro rice, in-house fried tortilla chips, “house” salsas, and cheese sauce. Customers select from seasoned carnitas pork, pulled chicken, beef filling, and pinto or black beans, along with all the typical vegetable and condiment toppings.

• I nnovations—The showcase station of Fireside Café offers customized Asian and pasta dishes cooked to order. For Asian options, customers choose shrimp or chicken with a sauce over vegetables and rice. For pasta dishes, customers select their favorite pasta and alfredo, marinara, or meat sauce to add to shrimp, chicken, or fresh vegetables. A special cookedto-order dish offered each week features Greek pasta, sun-dried tomato pasta, chicken polo, and chicken Marsala.

•C omfort Zone—This station offers a daily grilled-to-order panini sandwich and Midwestern comfort foods, including homemade chicken pot pie, mashed potato bowl, roast turkey dinner, and macaroni and cheese.

•T he Heritage Deli—The deli features upscale sandwiches and salads, which were brought forward into the new operation from a former campus restaurant, including Tuscan chicken, Caesar wrap, chicken bruschetta, apple pecan salad, Mandarin orange salad, and blackened chicken salad. Sandwiches are prepared with freshly baked breads and buns. Salads are plated and ready to serve with a side of in-house fried potato chips with seasoning choices, a bowl of soup, or bakery items.

The Fireside Café also offers a grab-and-go bakery, beverages, pre-packaged sandwiches, and salads. Adjacent to the café is the Terrace Dining Room, which offers bar seating, booth seating, high and low table seating, and lounge chairs, arranged around a fireplace in the center of the facility. The room captures sunlight streaming in through windows and several “solar tubes.” The Fireside Café is the sustainable dining location in the MSC, offering china as the primary method of service and mostly bulk beverages.

The Skylight Market, the lower-level food court, includes a small convenience store and four quick-service stations (one is a walk-up counter in the adjacent corridor) designed to handle a large volume of traffic rapidly. The food court includes: •F ire & Stone Pizzeria—The focal point of Skylight Market offers traditional crust pizzas using fresh dough, baked in an open-flame brick oven, and sold as whole pies or by the slice.

Passersby and customers can see the pizza baking through an observation window in the corridor and at the service station. In addition to traditional favorites, a specialty pizza such as margherita, buffalo chicken, or chicken artichoke, is offered weekly.

Gridiron Grill’s stainless steel back wall draws attention to the char grill and its menu favorites at breakfast and lunch.

• Blue Devil Grill—Named after the school’s athletic mascot, the station offers traditional fast food selections popular in the commercial market, as well as in-house specialties, such as “Pawn Melt,” named after a previous campus food venue, deep-fried Wisconsin cheese curds, and chicken Parmesan.

•B uns & Bowls—Hot and cold subs and salads are built to order, with buns baked fresh several times a day, and subs toasted on request in a quick-cook oven.

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•B rew Devils—This walk-up counter in the main corridor adjacent to the Student Involvement Center and the University Bookstore offers brewed coffee and specialty coffee drinks, as well as smoothies, soft-serve treats and bakery items. Its tile wall features a viewing window into the oven at Fires & Stone Pizzeria, which is a point of interest that adds aesthetic warmth to this area.

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This level in the union has a service area of 1,381 square feet with a support kitchen and storage of 2,057 square feet. It is centrally located in the retail and student involvement area of the building with spaces that encourage and foster student gathering and socialization. Service is on disposable, mostly compostable ware and seating is located throughout the lower level of the MSC with a blend of tables, booths and lounge seating.

The Fireside Café is open breakfast and lunch on weekdays, and serves more than 2,500 customers each week with sales averaging $13,000. The Skylight Market opens at 7:00 a.m. on weekdays, 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays, and noon on Sundays. It closes at midnight Sunday through Thursday and at 11:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. An average of 8,300 customers are served each week with an average of $32,000 in sales. Each food court is staffed by one permanent staff member and student employees. The Fireside Café also has one production staff member to assist with station training and coverage during busy times.

Key people involved: Frisbie Architects & Mackey Mitchell, architects; Robert Rippe & Associates, foodservice consultant; Ann Thies, director of dining; Jim Selz, assistant director of dining; Justin Krahn, student center foodservice manager; David Leach, executive chef; Rod McRae, catering manager; Darrin Witucki, student center director. u

Top: The Terrace Dining Room offers bar seating, booth seating, high and low table seating, and lounge chairs, arranged around a fireplace in the center of the facility. The room captures sunlight streaming in through windows and several solar tubes.

Middle: Poblanos features Mexican cuisine while Gridiron Grill features burgers and fries.

Bottom: Brew Devils offers coffee beverages and campus-baked pastry selections.

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Fire & Stone Pizzeria, the focal point of Skylight Market, offers traditionalcrust pizzas using fresh dough, baked in an open-flame brick oven, and sold as whole pies or by the slice.

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by design

CampuS DINING

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Virginia Kettering Residence Hall at University of Dayton

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Photos courtesy of University of Dayton

W

hen it came time to renovate the 25-year-old dining hall in the Virginia Kettering Residence Hall at the University of Dayton, dining services tried something new. A design team transformed an all-you-care-to-eat (AYCTE) servery into a modern, sophisticated, relaxed, inviting restaurant concept with two themes: an international venue called Passports, and a deli-style eatery called the Grainary. The $3.9 million renovated facility opened in October 2011.

“The concept of a two-themed restaurant resulted from extensive conversations and focus groups we conducted in 2009 with 60 students who serve as dining services food consultants,” says Paula Smith, executive director of dining services. “The students nearly unanimously said that they wanted something completely different than any other facility on campus. Through that same process of student input, we identified the two theme platforms that had the most appeal and built the restaurants around them.”

At the opening, University of Dayton President, Daniel Curran, Ph.D., complimented Smith and the staff and said, “This is a great day for the students. Besides the outstanding academic experience we have, this facility enhances everyday living experience.”

Passports features a four-foot-diameter Mongolian grill with an ingredient bar where customers help themselves to a variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, sauces, and spices, and place them in a bowl. They then hand their personal selections to one of four hibachi-style cooks, who complete the hot preparation.

Passports also features a burrito bar containing choices of five meats, four homemade salsas, two rice varieties, two types of beans, freshly made guacamole, queso, homemade corn chips, and a variety of vegetables. Customers can choose to combine these ingredients in burritos, nachos, and quesadillas, in a variety of size offerings.

Also at Passports, a sushi chef wraps ingredients such as crab sticks, asparagus, and smoked salmon in seaweed and sticky rice, and tops them with wasabi mayo. Customers can select from approximately 24 different rolls and other creations.

The Grainary presents more familiar campus fare. Students can indulge in a wide range of fresh bakery items, salads, deli sandwiches, homemade soups and cereals.

The deli features signature sandwiches, cold or grilled, created with meats, fresh vegetables, dressings, and spices. The salad area combines the fresh ingredients with homemade dressings for signature salads with a selection of flavors from around the world.

The chef station features a self-ventilating induction stove and an area for display cooking. During breakfast, omelets and breakfast sandwiches are made to order from more than 20 different ingredients. A variety of dishes are offered at lunch and dinner, ranging from flatiron steak, a stirfry noodle bar, and pasta tosses to vindaloo chicken and a variety of other international items.

It is not just the menus that make the two restaurant themes so inviting to students. Careful attention was paid to the overall ambiance. The facility features intimate seating throughout— Passports seats 134, while the Grainary seats 128—with half-circle booths, high-top bars, and three 10-foot, live-edge, wood tables. Hanging lamps spread soft-focused lighting throughout the serving and seating areas. A 75-foot-long glass frontage presents artworks superimposed

on six-foot glass panels, which filter the incoming light. Opposite that, there is a wall of lit panels that continuously change color.

“The redesign continues to be a great success, with higher sales and excellent customer reviews from students, faculty and staff,” Smith says. “We expect that success to continue next year as more and more students are familiar with the restaurants and with additional parking spaces to serve faculty and staff.”

Smith projects the restaurants will pull in $2 million in revenues for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, a 46 percent increase over the pre-renovation facility.

Key people involved: University of Dayton facilities management and dining services staffs; Cathy Ford, project manger; Barbara Gilbert, general manager, Passports and The Grainary; Paula Smith, executive director, dining services; Bob Mesher, Mesher, Shing, McNutt, foodservice architect and consultant; Albin Khouw, Porter Khouw, kitchen consultant; Ray Barry, Edge & Tinney Architects; Messer Construction, general contractor. u

Top to Bottom: At the Grainary, customers inspect the bakery case before making selections.

A chef prepares sushi in Passports restaurant.

Seating near the Grainary, which offers booths, tables and counter seating gives customers many selections for their dining experience. Graced by 20-foot windows, it has a light, fresh feeling and overlooks the intramural field.

Students display their selected menu fare from the deli in the Grainary.

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The Grainary is open from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. and Passports is open from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every day. Together they serve about 2,350 customers daily. The restaurants are staffed by a 10-person management team, 38 full-time employees, 20 part-time workers, and 60 part-time students. Total square footage is 13,459: kitchen and preparation areas are 4,785 square feet; the serving area is 4,124 square feet and the dining/seating area is 4,550 square feet.

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Sustainability was also an important issue in developing the renovation. Dining seats are made out of recycled plastic cola bottles, the china was produced in the neighboring state of West Virginia, and all carry-out packaging is compostable, with the exception of the recycled bottles.

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“With such a dramatic change in theme and menu, we wanted an attractive, very contemporary décor with an edgy look to create a welcoming environment for the students of today,” Smith says.

by design

CampuS DINING D E S I G N

Culinary Support Kitchen at Ohio University-Athens

Photos courtesy of Ohio University; photography by Carlos Samano, assistant director, auxiliary sales

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20 Complementing the new cook/ chill operation brought online through the CSK expansion, a fullscale production kitchen was developed, featuring flexible workspaces, equipment resources and utilities to provide adaptability to future production needs and menu planning.

onstructed in 1972, the 48,800-square-foot central food facility at the Athens campus of Ohio University had not had a significant renovation since, other than minor loading dock upgrades.

“Many of the facilities’ original building systems and equipment were in place with the exception of a few machinery additions required for efficiencies,” says Brian Thompson, director of auxiliaries and culinary project leader. “The need to bring a nearly 40-year-old facility up to date has been more than just an objective for Culinary Services at Ohio University. It has also been an opportunity to elevate the overall campus dining program.”

The project at Ohio University’s central food facility includes a $7.7 million, 6,750-grosssquare-foot culinary support kitchen (CSK) addition and approximately 9,530 gross square feet of renovation. The facility is now nearly 58,000 total square feet with the recent dock and production kitchen expansions. This addition facilitated the ability to renovate the facility while maintaining full operation, Thompson says.

Ohio University Culinary Services currently is in the process of a multi-year capital planning strategy to elevate the residential dining experience across campus. As an integral part of the renovations strategy, a multi-phased project investment in the CSK at the central food facility is under way to aid in reducing the production footprint, equipment, utilities, and resources needed at each culinary venue. The reduction will allow those spaces to be better used for focusing on the student dining experience and for developing a concept-driven approach to student dining.

The project is also utilizing state-of-the-art machinery in order to reduce energy consumption and resource waste,” says Thompson. “All waste from the facility is sent to a composting facility located on the main campus.”

The cook-chill system also helps Culinary Services strengthen its commitment to supporting the local economy by allowing it to increase its use of local products and ingredients.

The new production system lets local product be prepared and used in recipes in large quantities, as well as to be maintained and kept fresh in storage for use when local produce is scarce.

Among the key team members: Matt Rapposelli, executive chef; Gail Washington, production specialist; Rosanna Nelson, HACCP manager; Jeff Brooks, general manager; and Mary Jane Jones, associate director for CSK.

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“Approximately 35 percent of the initial CSK phase expansion budget was attributed to equipment expenses and layout of the new cook/chill operation,” says Thompson. “The project has been developed utilizing reserves from Culinary Services’ annual fund balance and assumes no debt service to the A major addition operation. “ to the new CSK is the In addition to the introduction previously established of a cook/chill production of bakery items operation for and vegetable preparation producing soups, at the central food facility, sauces, and the CSK with its cookother products chill process is now able in increased to produce soups, sauces, volumes for pastas, smoked meats, distribution to and other products in each culinary increased volumes for venue.

Culinary Services’ 17 oncampus venues, including both residential dining and culinary retail outlets.

D E S I G N

The heart of the first phase of the renovation project, completed in November 2011, is the building expansion housing a full-scale commissary kitchen, a cook-chill system, and an ingredient and meat/poultry prep space that supports a new smoker. All this is installed in order to standardize product and gain production efficiencies.

“Our culinary services staff has made great efforts to incorporate local ingredients into our menus,” says Thompson. “The culinary support kitchen allows us to do this at a greater level by purchasing items when they are in season and preparing them right here on campus. Our customers additionally benefit from an increase in product consistency and a greater sampling of local flavors.”

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D E S I G N

The next renovation phases will result in reworking the facility’s vegetable preparation unit by adding new equipment, enabling greater processing efficiencies and the addition of a new retail assembly component.

Subsequent phases will involve a renovation of the from-scratch bakery with a new layout and utilities, and reworking of existing freezer and warehouse storage spaces.

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22 From left to right, within the production kitchen equipment includes a steamer, tilting skillet, tilting kettle, five-gallon kettles, a combi oven, and double-stacked convection oven.

The culinary support kitchen operates from 6:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. Total staffing currently needed for the CSK includes 13 culinary support kitchen staff, five vegetable preparation, seven bakery, eight warehouse, two custodians, and one store clerk.

Key people involved: Gwyn Scott, associate vice president of auxiliaries; Brian Thompson, director of auxiliaries and culinary project leader; Rich Neumann, director of residential dining and culinary project leader; Matt Rapposelli, executive chef; Mohamed Ali, director of retail; Mary Jane Jones, associate director for culinary support kitchen; Jeff Brooks, general manager; Gail Washington, production specialist; Rosanna Nelson, HACCP manager; Robin Faires, Ohio University design & construction, project manager, interior design; Buck Wince, principal in charge, Rebecca Fox, project architect, and Matt Canterna, Davis Wince Ltd. Architectural Firm; Ron Kooser and Laura Lentz, foodservice consultant, Cini-Little International Inc.; Jim Demsky, partner, Korda/Nemeth Engineering. u

Ohio University’s central food facility is now 58,000 square feet with the expansion of its new culinary support kitchen and its distribution/receiving dock.

by design

CampuS DINING

Rob White, principal of Envision Strategies, facilitated focus groups, student forums, and a survey of the entire university population to inform decisions about the design and service offerings.

Pizzas capture customers’ attention and appetites at The new, $94.8 million, 276,644-square-foot Union Urban Slice.

South “is a 180-degree turn from the 1970s ‘brutalist’ architecture style,” Korz says. The organic, prairiestyle architecture, influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, invites students and visitors to sit, relax and converse. Student- and other artist-designed stained glass and graphics warm the space. The friendly design also features a winding, river-like interior thoroughfare that acts as the building’s artery connecting the union’s six destination restaurants: The Sett, Urban Slice, Ginger Root, Harvest Grains, Daily Scoop, and Prairie Fire. Restaurants provide seating for 40 to 280 people, with additional “streetscape” seating throughout the campus center and outdoor seating on a large terrace. The retail areas occupy 12,360 square feet.

Korz anticipates annual sales to jump to $4.84 million, up from $1.67 million before the new union opened.

“Our approach to this project was to design restaurants with individual storefronts and interior thematic environments that are presented as freestanding micro-restaurants,” says foodservice designer, Kathleen Seelye, managing partner of Ricca Newmark Design. She and the design team devised a system that takes into consideration many factors: handling large numbers of transactions, the need to be financially viable, the desire to engage guests with the culinary team, distributing food and supplies to the restaurants, and making trash removal invisible to guests.

The micro-restaurants allowed Korz and Tim Vertein, head chef at Union South, to restructure the staff into individual restaurant operations teams that create unique menus for their units and support brand awareness created by Mark Schmitz, creative director of Zebradog.

This transformation from the union’s former food court layout to a micro-restaurant concept required a cultural shift and a lot of employee training about how to cook in front of customers. Many staff members work at more than one station during slower times, which increases labor efficiency.

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1970s student union on the south side of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus was in dire need of help. Relatively few students were frequenting the facility, which is near the engineering and science campuses and more than a half-mile across campus from the popular union. A student-passed referendum authorized a complete rebuild of Union South primarily funded by their own fees. ”Building project managers, architects, engineers and dining services collaborated with more than 3,000 students and lifetime union members to determine what was needed for everything from services to interior design,” says Carl Korz, director of dining services for the unions.

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Union South at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

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A natural-lit, three-story atrium offers a cheerful ambiance in the 4,000-square-foot Sun Garden with 240 seats.

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U ni q ue R estaurant D esigns & M enus

•G inger Root—Four Pan-Asian entrees, such as stir-fried sesame chicken, sweet and sour chicken, red Thai vegetable curry, and ginger beef and broccoli are made in induction woks.

Gluten-free and vegetarian options are featured daily. Staff batch-cooks in the large display woks and serves out of induction woks on the front line to better display the food and engage guests. The menu also includes noodles, stir-fried rice, soups and salads, authentic Asian beverages, and impulse items.

•H arvest Grains—Serves up fresh, flatbread sandwiches featuring local ingredients, including Wisconsin cheese, piled on artisan bread and toasted in the tiled hearth oven, as well as soups and vegetarian chili.

Other menu fare is locally sourced: oven-roasted potatoes, signature macaroni and Wisconsin cheese, muffins, cookies, and other baked goods. Harvest Grains also serves breakfast, featuring hearth-toasted egg-based sandwiches, egg croissant sandwiches, and ham and egg sandwiches.

•D aily Scoop—Features ice cream made at the university’s Babcock [science] Hall.

• Prairie Fire—Bohemian-style coffee house and wine bar.

Ginger Root’s Pan-Asian cuisine includes stirfries produced on large and smaller induction woks.

Graphics here and at the other restaurants capture the unit’s special features.

The coffee and wine bar, Prairie Fire, attracts customers to open-mic nights and monthly wine tastings. The floorto-ceiling glass exterior brings in natural light and an outdoor connection to the campus activity.

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•U rban Slice—A classic pizzeria serving large slices of New York-style thin pies baked in a deck oven daily covered with copious amounts of 100 percent Wisconsin cheese. The oven also heats calzones, lasagna, mac and cheese, stuffed shells, and ravioli. Cheesy garlic bread is a favorite of students at the nearby engineering campus.

The Sett offers burgers and draft beer, a rockclimbing wall, live music, and a huge projection screen.

This is one of seven micro-restaurants encouraging students and visitors to interact in a warm, community environment.

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•T he Sett (the technical term for the dens inhabited by the university’s mascot, the badger)—Brats, nachos, beer on tap, burgers, deep-fried catfish sandwiches, pulled pork sandwiches, pizza from Urban Slice, and deep-fried Wisconsin cheese curds. Live music and other forms of entertainment project from the stage area below. On the lower level, students and guests enjoy six pool tables, games, and other recreational features including a rock-climbing wall. Celebrations and catered events are very popular here.

D E S I G N

The restaurants each offer special fare.

Fresh-baked cookies, sandwiches and other grab-and-go items are also served in Badger Market, a convenience store.

Due to Union South’s two- and three-story open atrium areas, ventilation was one of the kitchen designers’ most daunting challenges.

A P ositi v e C hange

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D E S I G N

“The new capacity and the new capabilities of the operation are allowing us to achieve success in ways that we could only dream of in our previous facility,” Korz says. “The positive change in morale is evident in the quality and creativity of everyone’s daily work.”

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The facility is currently tracking for LEED Gold certification, with the final decision to be made in the near future. Estimated annual sales are $4.84 million. Customers pay with cash, credit, or “Wiscard” campus dollars. Dining services staff includes 12 managers and a chef, as well as more than 300 student employees.

Operating hours: • The Sett: 11:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. seven days/week and until midnight or 1:00 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays • Ginger Root: 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. Monday–Friday • Harvest Grains: 7:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. Monday–Friday and 7:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday • Urban Slice: 11:00 a.m.–11:00 p.m. daily • Prairie Fire: 7:00 a.m.–11:00 p.m. Sunday–Thursday and until midnight on Friday and Saturday.

In coming months, a central kitchen and bakery focused on grab-and-go for the Union’s multiple retail operations across campus and bakery will move to the union’s lower level, bringing greater efficiencies to Union South.

Key people involved: Mark Guthier, union director; Hank Walter, associate union director; Carl Korz, director of dining services, Wisconsin Union; Tim Vertein, head chef, Union South; Paul Broadhead, facilities director and internal project manager; Jim Long, restaurant division director; Peter Behrendt, markets and café director; Lisa Wadzinske, catering division director; Jan van den Kieboom, principal, and Wally Johnson, project coordinator, Workshop Architects, Inc.; for foodservice management advisory services, Rob White, president, and Eric Leonard, Envision Strategies; for culinary design, Kathleen Seelye, managing partner, and Derek Sisson, project director, Ricca Newmark Design. u

Booths provide intimate areas for customers to dine and socialize.

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UMass Amherst Hosts Best Campus Food Event

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n March 2012, the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s (UMass Amherst) dining services hosted the Best Campus Food event at Berkshire Dining Commons. The event celebrated campus dining services that are among the Princeton Review's “Top Ten Campus Food” list, and showcased dishes prepared by visiting chefs from five of the 10 top-rated schools. Chefs and dining services administrators represented Bryn Mawr College, Cornell University, Virginia Tech, Wheaton College, and UMass Amherst.

“The Best Campus Food event allowed these universities to show off their supreme culinary talents,” says Ken Toong, director of auxiliary enterprises at UMass Amherst. “Each chef was given his or her own station in the marketplacestyle Berkshire Dining Commons. Guests sampled dishes from various stations and experienced the chefs’ culinary talents.”

“Given the quality of the menus and the variety of the 30 dishes featured, it was easy to see what makes their campus foods so extraordinary,” says Toong. Interesting spices, flavors, and ideas combined to create delicious items including Bangkok curry with shrimp, cod fra diablo, maccheroni ai quattro farmaggi, wild salmon with roasted corn salsa, and “world’s best” stir-fry.

A ceremony during the event provided chefs and dining hall administrators an opportunity to speak about what makes a top-notch campus food establishment. Several stressed excellent quality can be achieved only if staff members listen to customers’ feedback and take quick action. Bernadette Chung-Templeton, director of dining services of Bryn Mawr College, said that at a relatively small school like Bryn Mawr, staff members get to know their students quickly. She says they “know immediately what works and what doesn’t work,” noting that they alter their menus accordingly based on customer feedback.

Raul Delgado, general manager of Bon Appétit, the foodservice provider at Wheaton College, said this college’s dining service relies on a strong feedback loop from students to direct their food choices.

Top: Two UMass students enjoy dishes prepared during the Best Campus Food event.

Bottom: UMass Dining employees assemble fresh salads.

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Colors and taste are combined in Gwenn’s Broccoli Salad, prepared by Bryn Mawr College.

Inset: Virginia Tech contributed red lentil dal and Bangkok curry with shrimp.

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Bon Appétit’s chef, Patrick Cassata, noted Wheaton College dining offers a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan foods to accommodate students’ requests.

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Another recommendation to achieve top quality is the use of fresh ingredients and lots of creativity. Chef Steven Miller from Cornell University spoke with intimate knowledge of the ingredients, many fresh and locally sourced, used in this university’s meals. The Cornell crew also goes so far as to grind fresh spices for use in menu items.

UMass Dining presented Danish rice pudding with dried cherry sauce.

Virginia Tech’s executive chef, John Scherer (left), and his colleague on the Virginia Tech team prepare to serve their creation.

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Top: UMass Amherst Chef Anthony Jung (left) and a UMass Dining employee serve New England lobster rolls.

Bottom: Students and community members attend the event at Berkshire Dining Commons.

The Virginia Tech crew sources local ingredients as well, including kale that Chef John Scherer says grows in Virginia almost year-round. Garett DiStefano, dining services director for UMass Amherst, mentioned the university dining operation’s dedication to local and fresh foods, explaining that UMass Dining sources some of its produce and herbs from its own on-campus permaculture gardens located right outside the dining commons.

Another special guest of the evening, Lisa Mayo, a representative from the Princeton Review, congratulated all the schools on the “Top Ten Campus Food” list and explained the Princeton Review’s selection process. The results come down to a survey, she says, which encompass a comprehensive list of questions about the university as a whole, including its dining services.

After the ceremony, guests sampled the dishes and sat down to dinner. Those who attended the event gave rave reviews of the food and the support from the Berkshire dining staff and evening planners. u Material for this article was submitted by Rachel Dutton, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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Connecticut College Campus Composting Initiative

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on campus

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onnecticut College dining services is teaming up with students to compost pre- and postconsumer waste produced by the department. The collaborative effort is between dining, students, and the campus sustainability coordinators staging a Campus Composting Initiative using student-purchased earth tubs.

“This was a totally student-conceived idea,” says Michael Kmec, general manager of board plan operations. “They solicited the $25,000 to purchase two earth tubs that are used to compost our waste. The earth tubs were purchased in 2008 but it is just recently that we have formalized the program and made it a part of the campus culture.”

“The process is a complete cycle of nature,” says Kmec. “Dining services provides the waste material used for composting, and the students turn it into soil to use for the on-campus garden. Dining then purchases any produce grown from the on-campus garden, and the cycle repeats itself.” Dining services handles the student payroll; the campus sustainability coordinator coordinates the program and uses his budget to provide infrastructure.

“We compost about 75 pounds of organic matter per day,” Kmec says. “I don’t have any costs associated with the initiative since it hasn’t reduced waste but rather just diverted it.”

This program is used as a tool by admissions to showcase the college’s commitment to green living and demonstrate that student-grown ideas can become a reality. u

Students (right) collect waste from dining services and take it to the Earth Tubs (above), which compost the waste.

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Miami University Introduces strEATS

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I

on campus

nspired by the rising food truck trend, Miami University introduced strEATS in March right after spring break. This mobile foodservice truck is a first-of-its-kind dining concept on this campus.

Prior to strEATS, student diners had a taste of mobile foodservice from a former food cart, Crepe a la Cart, which offered delectable pastries. The demand and enthusiastic reception of Crepe a la Cart indicated that students wanted a mobile option.

“In addition to being a fiscally responsible accommodation to the high demand for dining on campus, strEATS follows in the tradition of its big-city brethren by taking the concept of mobile food a step further than just crepes and offers an expansive and tasty menu,” says Nancy Heidtman, director for dining and culinary support services.

San D w ich Es

sandwich

menu

Pressed Cuban 6.75

Shredded pork, mojo sauce, pickles, dijon mustard, sweet potato fries, on a M bun

Bahn Mi 6.75

Shredded beef, Vietnamese sauce, Malaysian slaw, lettuce, and tomato on a baguette

Who Moved My 4 Cheese? 6.00

Cheddar, swiss, gouda, and veggie cream cheese on honey grain bread

Herman Muenster Melt 6.00

Muenster cheese, guacamole, and crumbled bacon on sourdough bread

FunGuy 6.00

Mushroom confit, sundried tomato spread, spinach, and mozzarella cheese on white bread

Si D E ItEms

Whole Fruit 1.50 Regular Fries 2.75 Sweet Potato Fries 3.00 Cotija Cheese Fries 3.75 Cheese Curds 3.50 Jeni’s Ice Cream 5.00 RedHawk Water 1.50 San Pellegrino 2.25

The strEATS food offerings are prepared with a fryer, four-burner propane range, a flattop grill, a refrigerator, freezer, and hot and cold holding units. The truck registers approximately 1,000 transactions daily.

orange or lemon

Bottled Juices

follow the word on the street

The unique menu offers traditional favorites with a twist.

For example, the popular grilled cheese sandwich, Herman Muenster Melt, is made of a blend of specialty cheeses, guacamole, and crumbled bacon served on sourdough bread. The pressed Cuban sandwich showcases Miami pride with a Miami “M”-branded bun and shredded pork, mojo sauce, pickles, Dijon mustard, and sweet potato fries. Other sandwiches include Bahn Mi with shredded beef, Vietnamese sauce, Malaysian slaw, and tomato on a baguette; Who Moved My 4 Cheese? features cheddar, Swiss, Gouda, and vegetable cream cheese on honey grain bread; and FunGuy with mushroom confit, sundried tomato spread, spinach, and mozzarella cheese on white bread. Sides include whole fruit, fries, sweet potato fries, cotija cheese fries, cheese curds, ice cream, water, and juices.

@

Above: The strEATS menu includes a wide variety of sandwiches and sides.

Right: The truck stops at the most popular location, the business school, where students place their orders.

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Top: The Twitter handle, @MUstrEATS, appears on the truck so students can follow the locations of strEATS. Bottom: With a blend of bold flavors, the Herman Muenster Melt offers a new twist on an old favorite, the grilled cheese sandwich.

The bold design of strEATS embodies the spirit of Miami University with its red and white colors and a map of city and campus streets. The use of social media, such as Twitter, provides an innovative and modern spin to marketing the menu and keeps students updated on the truck’s location. “Tweeting the truck’s location at different times, and even after sporting events, is something dining services hopes will keep students drawn to strEATS,” Heidtman says.

No matter where the truck is located, students may use their meal plans to pay. “The goal and vision of the truck is to keep students well-nourished and fed on the go, so we serve lunch and late-night meals,” Heidtman says.

The truck includes about four staffers. “The Food Dudes, a group of male students who work out of the Demske Culinary Support Center, were and are paramount in the testing and development of this concept,” Heidtman says. “You might even find them on the truck cooking and serving.” u

What’s HOT UC Santa Cruz Real Food Commitment

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n Friday, Feb. 17, the chancellor of the University of California-Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz), George Blumenthal, signed the UC Santa Cruz Real Food Campus Commitment. This recognizes the university’s efforts in achieving greater real food procurement on campus while also committing to meet or exceed 40 percent of real food purchases in dining services by 2020.

“Real food, as defined by the Real Food Challenge, is food that is produced in a fair, humane, and sustainable manner,” explains Alexandra Villegas, CUIP (Chancellor’s Undergraduate Internship Program) sustainability intern with dining services. Villegas explained the challenge at an evening event celebrating the chancellor’s action.

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The event began with remarks by representatives of various groups involved in sustainability efforts, including the Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, a research, education, and public service program at the university dedicated to increasing ecological sustainability and social justice in the food and agriculture system. The center operates the two-acre Alan Chadwick Garden and the 25-acre farm. Both sites are managed using organic production methods and serve as research, teaching, and training facilities for students, staff, and faculty.

Event attendees participated in a Taste of Santa Cruz fair, which featured more than 20 local artisanal food producers and growers as well as nonprofit partners in sustainable agriculture and food systems from the greater Monterey Bay region. Concurrent with the Taste of Santa

Chancellor Blumenthal and Alexandra Villegas show the UC Santa Cruz Real Food Campus Commitment to the audience of attendees on the evening of February 17, 2012.

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Bill Prime, assistant dining director, represented UC Santa Cruz Dining, in the place of director Scott Berlin, who was not able to attend the event but signed the commitment in advance. UC Santa Cruz Dining has been a long-term supporter for many campus sustainability initiatives and was a collaborator with the campus’ Food Systems Working Group in constructing the commitment since its initial discussions in December 2011.

“Prior to the commitment signing, UC Santa Cruz’s campus goal in real food procurement was 20 percent by 2020, as mandated by the UCOP [University of California Office of the President] Sustainability Practices Policy,” says Berlin. “Currently, UC Santa Cruz Dining purchases approximately 28 percent real food. Our food procurement is calculated through the Real Food Challenge’s Real Food Calculator as well as the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, or STARS. Through the Real Food Challenge, students across the nation are using the real food calculator and metric system in collaboration with their campus dining services to measure the amount of real food served on their campus.”

With this commitment signing, UC Santa Cruz Dining and the Food Systems Working Group will continue their current collaborative efforts in engaging students in real food initiatives on campus, increasing transparency of the university’s food procurement, and working toward achieving the new commitment to increasing the amount of real food on campus.

“Since taking this step, we have implemented Farm Fridays each week,” says Candy Berlin, program coordinator for UC Santa Cruz Dining. “These events will be featured weekly at one of our five dining halls and will rotate to the others.

“For Farm Fridays, chefs and production managers are encouraged to get creative with new and tasty dishes using local and or organic ingredients that would enhance our Real Food Commitment,” Berlin continues. “Student groups and organizations come to the table at these events, sharing information about where food is grown and produced. We will also have local farmers attend and meet the students.”

For more information about UC Santa Cruz Dining, the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, and the Real Food Challenge, visit: dining.ucsc.edu; casfs.ucsc.edu; and www.realfoodchallenge.org. u

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The Farm Friday event takes place in one dining hall each week. Chefs and production managers are encouraged to get creative with new and tasty dishes using local and/or organic ingredients that would enhance the Real Food Commitment. Standing in the photograph is Dwight Collins, executive chef. On the left is Mehgie Tabar, student intern/farm apprentice; at right, Alex Villegas, sustainability intern.

Cruz was the Green Chef competition, in which seven student teams competed by preparing a dish with this year’s secret main ingredient, carrots.

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U nity College

Unity College is a small private college in rural Unity, Maine. The college provides meals to 350 students in its one dining hall, Wyman Commons, which seats 175 people when fully occupied. The college also has a retail operation. In Wyman Commons, two action stations delight customers: Stiriffic Stir-fry/Deli and Border to Border/Pastabilities.

The Stiriffic Stir-fry/Deli offers made-to-order cold sandwiches and paninis at lunch and dinner.

The Border to Border/Pastabilities station features a four-week lunch cycle of cooked-to-order, ethnic menu choices: Greek Monday, Mexican Tuesday, Asian Wednesday, Indian Thursday, and Italian Friday. At breakfast, a bar offers smoothies, a variety of Belgian waffles, and eggs and omelets made to order. At dinner, a pasta station features a large array of ingredients to add to various types of pasta and sauces.

“All stations are successful because we are continually researching new ideas and replacing choices that are less popular,” says Sandy Donahue, dining services director for Unity College. “We also survey students each year to gain insight for new ideas or to continue with current preferences.”

On average, 25 percent of the customers take advantage of the breakfast station, 23 percent of the deli/stirifficfry, and 22 percent of the Border to Border/Pastabilities station daily.

Top: A popular dish at Unity College’s Border to Border/ Pastabilities station is madeto-order shrimp scampi.

Right: Customized service brings customers back over and over again.

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ffering platforms for culinary staff to demonstrate their many talents, action stations bring a lively energy to dining services. Here is a sampling of a few successful stations that are wowing customers and bringing them back for more.

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Action Stations Liven Up Dining

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H arper College

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Friday traffic is always slow for dining operations at Harper College, a community college in Palatine, Ill. In order to boost café sales, the chefs suggested Action Station Fridays in the main café, Cockrell Dining Hall. “Rather than offering our normal daily specials at the hot wells, we started made-to-order entrees at a discounted price,” says John Filler, manager of dining & conference services. “We currently rotate between a baked potato bar, fajita bar, pasta bar, and stir-fry bar. Stir-fry is the most popular.”

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For the stir-fry bar, staff members set up two butane burners and display all the ingredients guests can select for their dish. Ingredients include shrimp, pre-cooked and sliced chicken and beef, bok choy, red onions, mushrooms, snow peas, bean sprouts, red peppers, garlic, and other vegetables. Chefs sauté the ingredients in sesame oil and offer a choice of sweet chili sauce or a blend of teriyaki glaze/hoisin sauce. Chefs pour the mixture over white rice or toss in soba noodles, then plate the meal and hand it to a customer.

“The station is colorful and emits wonderful smells throughout our building, drawing more people from their offices,” Filler says. “We sell this for $5.29 and on average our action stations have increased each Friday’s sales almost $500. This amounts to almost $20,000 for the approximately 40 Fridays the station is open.

Staff serves an average of 60 people at the action station. “We see more friends coming with these customers and have seen an increase in our other café sales, as well,” Filler says.

One chef staffs the station. For the noon rush, another chef restocks and helps cook.

U ni v ersity of St. T homas

At the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., dining services operates two action stations in different locations. At Your Call in the View, in the newly built Anderson Student Center, allows customers to select assorted vegetables and sauces and a protein such as beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, and tofu. The View facility is one AYCTE board operation for resident students and also for 50 to 100 daily cash customer and faculty/staff meal plan holders. Approximately 500 to 600 meals are served at lunch and dinner, or 1,900 to 2,100 meals combined daily.

LaSalle Action station is located in T’s retail operation in the Anderson Student Center. This facility serves 1,000 daily, including 300 to 500 for lunch. The action station serves 100 during lunch, with a theme of the week, such as Italian or Asian. Hot salads include a variety fried rice, white sticky rice, noodles, and an assorted lettuce selection. This operates in a similar way to the View, with AYCTE and retail, but on a smaller scale. ”Both stations are extremely popular and it took some time and rearranging to get the right setup,” says Todd Empanger, director of dining services. “The stations are very labor-intensive, but worth the investment because the stations bring in more customers.”

Pho at LaSalle Action and At Your Call is increasingly popular.

H ot what ’ s

Above: Students select ingredients that are combined by a staff member.

Left: In LaSalle Action, customers select ingredients for a chef to cook to order.

Pho is popular at both stations, according to Empanger. “The pho is made before the meal is prepared,” he says. “Customers select ingredients, which are cooked in the broth in a pot, strained and served. We are fortunate to have two Vietnamese staff members, a mom and son, who prepare the pho broth.”

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Empanger suggests keeping the pans hot throughout service, then rotating and cleaning the pans after each dish is made. “This practice helped us find a way to service all customers even those who have allergies, gluten intolerance, and so forth,” he says.

St. A nselm College

At St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., the chef’s action station features 15 lunch menus and 12 dinner menus. Located in the main dining room at Davison Hall, one of two dining locations, the lunch action takes place Monday through Friday and the dinner action takes place Monday through Thursday. Both rotate on a three-week cycle. “The students surely love anything that is prepared to order and in front of them,” says Rosemary Stackpole, director of dining services.

Dessert crepes continue to wow customers who enjoy selecting their own toppings.

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Culinary staff members prepare crepes to order at a popular action station.

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At lunch, staff members at the burrito bar use a steamer to warm a 12-inch tortilla that they fill with students’ choices of beef, pulled pork, chicken, black beans, white or brown rice, salsa, avocado, enchilada sauce, queso sauce, chipotle queso, diced onions, corn, jalapeños, sour cream, and plain yogurt. “One cook mans the station and we move in a helper at different times during the three-hour lunch period as needed,” says Stackpole.

When the taco bowl action station is featured, staff sets up taco bowls in advance of service and arranges a station with ingredients including cut crisp iceberg lettuce, various cold vegetables, ground chili beef, shredded seasoned chicken, and many cold toppings.

Caesar salads are another favorite with choices of romaine, salad dressing, cheese, croutons, and toppings of sliced chicken breast, steak tips, and chicken tenders Also at lunch, panini sandwiches, which are prepped in the pantry, are grilled in panini machines to order. Choices include Rueben, Cubanos, chicken with fontina and pesto sauce, and Caprese with fresh mozzarella, plum tomatoes, fresh basil, and balsamic dressing.

For dinner action stations, customers tell the culinary staff member which vegetables, protein, and sauce (held in an iced cold bar) they would like for gingered Chinese noodle bowl or chicken Pad Thai and the staff member combines and cooks the selections in one of three woks.

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A culinary staff member proudly displays a finished crepe.

“The secret to managing all this is the advance preparation,” says Stackpole. “The prep work is divided between the pantry and the kitchen. Our bakery also has a hand in it. They make and slice all of our panini bread and prepare homemade sauces for the crepe station.”

A carving station is also featured four nights a week and changes each night and rotates through the three-week menu cycle. “We carve to order such items as roast beef stuffed with habañero cilantro pesto, turkey breast, chicken roulade Florencia, and London broil.”

An open grill is also open from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. offering prepared-to-order breakfast items such as fried eggs, omelets, French toast, and pancakes. The deli station attendants also prepare to order items such as sandwiches with homemade baked bread and rolls from 10:30 a.m. until 7:00 p.m.

“We are always trying to come up with new ideas to add to our mix for the action station menu,” Stackpole says. “Next year we are planning a French fry action station featuring a large French fried potato and probably a sweet potato fry. We’ll offer all kinds of toppings and sauces. For example, we will feature the French-Canadian fries with cheese curds and gravy. u

what ’ s

The crepe station is extremely popular with its two large, commercial-style French crepe machines. Staff makes crepe batter in advance and sets up the station with ingredient choices and various sauces including sliced bananas, strawberries, stewed apples slices, Nutella, brown sugar, homemade chocolate sauce, strawberry sauce, authentic maple syrup, vanilla ice cream, and homemade whipped cream. At this station, two cooks each have their own ingredient setup and machine. The sauces sit between them.

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The macaroni and cheese bar is set up with bacon, ground beef, pulled pork, ham julienne, caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, sautéed spinach, stewed tomatoes, buttered baked bread crumbs, blue cheese crumbles, and crumbled taco chips. Students select as many of these ingredients as they would like, which are added to the large style elbows or whole wheat variety, and cheese sauce.

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At the pasta action station, culinary staff members use three induction burners to make customers’ selection of a pasta dish with protein such as chicken or shrimp, an assortment of vegetables including broccoli, peas, asparagus, carrots, and onions, and two sauces.

on campus

By Donna Boss, Contributing Editor

fish

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popularcatches

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Chefs cast a wide net to bring creative fish and seafood dishes to their menus. Selection, preparation, and flavorful sauces all play a critical role in determining the acceptance of this increasingly popular protein.

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s more information becomes available about the health benefits of fish and seafood and their nutritious role in a balanced diet, chefs are adding this protein to their regular and catering menus in greater quantities than ever. Yet healthful attributes are only part of the tale. The natural flavors of fish and seafood as well as the sauces and toppings added are key components to popularity.

For this feature, several directors and chefs contributed menu ideas from events that show off fish and seafood in the best light. For some contributors, sustainability is a purchasing factor, and for all, proper handling from the moment it arrives at the receiving dock until it is served to customers is essential.

University of New Hampshire

Fish and seafood have long been popular at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), which is just 15 miles from the seacoast. As students and staff learn about the healthful qualities of this protein, chefs incorporate it into the menus more frequently. “Since 2005 we’ve been more proactive about purchasing sustainable seafood,” says Dave Hill, dining area manager. Farm-raised fish such as scrod is featured at the annual local harvest meal, first held in the fall of 2005. “UNH is involved in aquaculture in part through the affiliation with the New Hampshire Sea Grant Association, so there is great interest here in sustainable practices,” he adds.

Fish and seafood comprise approximately 12 percent of dining services purchases, all Salmon lettuce wrap combines Asian red cabbage, rice of which are 25 percent sustainable and/or vinegar coleslaw, and poached Atlanta salmon. local within a 250-mile radius. “Sometimes it’s hard finding some of the locally produced items because suppliers need them for their restaurant customers,” Hill says. “But we’re working on reliable agreements.”

This year’s sustainable event menu included: 3,000 (50 pounds) of stone-baked Alaskan snow crab rangoons; 200 pounds of grilled, cedar-planked Atlantic salmon; 3,000 pieces (50-60 pounds) of blue claw crab and potato latkes; 350 pounds of Atlantic hake; 120 gallons of seafood ragout with local whitefish, mussels, clams, and shrimp; 80 gallons of seafood chowder; 1,800 pieces of smoked mussels on crostini with watercress and saffron aïoli; 2,000 Alaskan halibut cakes; 600 sushi rolls with Alaskan salmon, Maine lobster and black cod tempura; and much more. For the non-fish lovers, the menu included items such as 400 pounds of local honey chipotle-glazed chicken, and vegetable and vegan dishes. For dessert, rhubarb and wildberry cobbler, shore-themed cakes, and New Hampshire maple tea cookies offered a sweet end to a flavorful menu.

Stanford University

At Stanford University, Raul Lacara, executive chef for Schwab Executive Services, creates fish and seafood dishes on menus offered to students and conference attendees. To share with the readers of this issue of Campus Dining Today, he selected seared Alaskan halibut with warm pickled butternut squash, watermelon, and sweet 100 tomatoes, with verbena lemon oil served with parsnip chips.

“This dish is sustainable, has a low carbon footprint, and is seasonal,” Lacara says. “It’s a great fish to cook and is very versatile.”

Lacara purchases fresh halibut. “Make sure to smell and feel it when you receive it to be sure it is indeed fresh,” he says. When preparing, Lacara advises not to over-marinate or over-season, and cook at the right serving temperature so as not to overcook the fish. When serving, he says, “Let the fish taste natural, without a strong citrus or acidic flavor.”

Southern Methodist University

Smoked cedar salmon is a favorite recipe of Tim Schaub, Aramark chef at Southern Methodist University. Meal plan participants enjoy this dish on Fish Fridays in the dining hall and catering customers may select it during events.

“We pursue very high health and wellness standards for our students, faculty, and staff,” says Schaub.

“For many types of fish and meat, we use our smoker, which gives us extremely healthy items

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Collaboration on special event menus and ways to incorporate seafood into the cycle menus that are sustainable and yet cost effective is critical. Collaboration takes place among Hill, Ralph Coughenour, director of culinary, and Chris Kaschak, Holloway chef.

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Last year, UNH held its first special seafood dinner at the Holloway Commons dining hall, focusing on sustainable seafood. The event, featuring Alaskan seafood, attracted 3,300 attendees, including people from the local community. This year’s event attracted 4,000 people and featured several varieties of fish and seafood. “Since we have 900 seats, many people learned they should come early,” Hill says.

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Southern Methodist University’s smoked cedar salmon is healthful and flavorful.

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Stanford University’s seared Alaskan halibut dish is flavorful and sustainable.

Photo by Kyle Ryan Photography.

because a significant amount of fats and oil tend to be removed in the smoking process. The smoker is in use almost every day! The salmon is prepared by slowly smoking with cedar wood that has not been treated. It is truly one of the best salmon dishes you will ever have.”

“It’s important to smoke fish that has a higher oil content so when it is cooked it will lose much of the oil content but still be moist,” says Schaub. “The main thing about purchasing fish is to remember ‘fresh, fresh, fresh’ and purchase whole or by the side to help contain the freshness.”

Cal Dining continues to serve more fish and seafood on its menus. “Last year, we purchased roughly 7,000 pounds of seafood. About 10 percent of that was Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)-certified, but about half of that time period was before we were certified,” says Davies. In addition, tuna will be added to the MSC program next year. Cal Dining was the first public university to be certified by MSC.

Don Cortes, executive chef for Cal Catering, a division of Cal Dining, prepares grilled misoglazed, MSC-certified Cape Capensis with garlic bok choy and sesame noodle salad.

Photography by Patrice Thomas/Cal Dining.

“When we had our kickoff, we held a fun, special event in the dining halls,” Davies says. “We served several MSC-certified items on the menu, had MSC representatives on hand, and special games and contests for students.” Cal Dining recently won the Chancellor’s Staff Advisory Committee on Sustainability Award.

Dartmouth College

Last November, Dartmouth College invited notable chef, cookbook author, and environmental leader Barton Seaver to campus to share his recipes and spread his message of sustainable consumption practices to students. Seaver prepared several delicious entrées for the Class of 1953 Commons, including best aquaculture practices certified tilapia with cranberry/ maple sauce, linguini with Rhode Island squid and poblano peppers, and a barramundi salad topped with warm apple cider vinaigrette and toasted walnuts. Seaver sourced the barramundi from a nearby aquaculture farm. He also cooked a series of sides to accompany these seafood dishes, including pecan quinoa, clove braised fennel and chard, and maple roasted potatoes. “Throughout each meal, he educated Dartmouth dining services as well as students on the benefits of sustainable seafood procurement,” says David Newlove, director of campus dining services and campus catering operations.

Since Seaver’s visit, Jack Cahill, assistant director and board plan manager, put 16 recipe ideas into the menu rotation at 1953 Commons, a newly renovated dining hall. Robert Lester, culinary operation manager, oversees the kitchens in 1953 Commons. All the recipes adapted are from Barton Seaver’s book, “Cod and Country.” Included in the mix are smoked salmon salad toss, barramundi salad toss, linguini with scallops and sage butter, and roasted tilapia.

Seaver says this about tilapia with cauliflower purée and maple-cranberry sauce: “I love the bold, romantic flavors of winter cooking. In this combination, tangy cranberries are matched with the bite of shallots and the sweetness of maple syrup. Cauliflower has the property of holding air when it is puréed, enabling you to make a purée that has the texture of soft butter without using a lot of fat. Just make sure to cook the cauliflower until it is soft and falling apart. The tilapia fillets are baked in a very low oven to preserve their moistness and flavor.”

& fish

“With fish, it’s always best to cook as close to service as possible,” says Chuck Davies, associate director, residential dining. “Fish doesn’t really hold all that well unless it’s something like shellfish in a sauce.”

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Among the more popular fish dishes at University of California-Berkeley dining services (Cal Dining) are grilled miso-glazed Cape Capensis with garlic bok choy and sesame noodle salad, and fish n’ dip with Cape Capensis tempura with carrot bell peppers slaw and ancho chipotle aïoli.

The fish dishes are served to both students as part of a cycle menu and catering customers at various times.

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University of California-Berkeley

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University of Miami

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Pistachio-crusted mahi-mahi is a favorite in various dining locations at University of Miami.

This dish is served with Florida rock shrimp in a mango, coconut milk fricassee and toasted coconut basmati rice. Anthony Lauri, CEC, AAC, executive chef with Chartwells Dining Services at the University of Miami, says he designed this dish with the vision and culture of both Chartwells Dining Services and the University of Miami. “This recipe features a masterful blend of local, seasonal ingredients,” he says. “Mahi-mahi, or dolphinfish, is caught right off the Atlantic coast of Florida and the Florida rock shrimp are found along the entire coastal region of the southeastern United States.” Using fresh and local ingredients is one of the most important factors in all of Lauri’s creations.

Mahi-mahi is a versatile fish that can be grilled, sautéed or fried, Lauri says, but he often bakes it especially when serving it at large parties such as catered groups of more than 1,000 people.

“When handling mahi-mahi, the best method of preparation is to ensure the fillets are kept extremely cold until the moment before preparation,” Lauri says. “Fillets should feel firm to the touch and hold a nice pinkish color in their raw state.”

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame Food Services’ executive chef, Don Miller, CED, CCE, ACC, features sautéed pan-seared trout bouillabaisse with lobster ravioli and savory lemon curd. “The flavor profiles are excellent,” Miller says. “It is also nutritionally well-balanced and contains many textures that balance one another to produce a great mouth feel.”

Miller explains broth often lacks satiety— giving the sense of being full—so he adds soubise, which gives a creamy, rich flavor and texture. “Be patient when preparing broth in order to build flavors,” Miller says. “However, it’s important not to overcook the fish.”

Though the recipe has many ingredients, it’s fairly simple to prepare. “This dish has gorgeous eye appeal, so it’s perfect for catering,” Miller says.

Notre Dame uses about 180,000 pounds of fish and seafood annually. Miller says about 33 percent is Marine Stewardship Council certified. Notre Dame earned the MSC certification in 2008, and in early 2012 Miller became the first finalist representing a college for the Chefs Collaborative Award for commitment to sustainability.

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TEN

growing sauce and flavor descriptors for seafood Percentage change from 2010 to 2011

Truffle............................. 33.5% Aïoli................................. 18.3% Reduction....................... 14.7% Miso................................ 12.6% Balsamic.......................... 10.4% Jalapeño......................... 10.0% Jasmine..............................9.7% Horseradish.......................8.8% Chipotle.............................7.6% Wasabi................................6.6%

sauce and flavor descriptors listed for seafood in 2011 Oil..................................... 17.5% Vinaigrette........................ 16.7% Salsa.................................. 13.4% Olive Oil............................ 12.0% Jalapeño........................... 11.2% Mustard............................ 10.8% Butter sauce...................... 10.0% Soy..................................... 10.0% Aïoli .................................... 8.9% Balsamic.............................. 8.6% Source: Nation’s Restaurant News Data provided by Datassentials Menu Trends 2011— U.S. Chains and Independents, 4,800-plus restaurants

Smoked Cedar Salmon

Soak the cedar planks for at least one hour in warm water. Soak longer if you have time.

Place the salmon fillets onto the planks and discard the marinade. Cover, and grill for about 20 minutes. Fish is done when you can flake it with a fork. It will continue to cook after you remove it from the smoker.

Note from Chef Tim Schaub: If the recipe is expanded for 24 or 48, multiply the ingredients.

For the marinade, cut by half when multiplying the recipe. Use different types of wood to give the item a different flavor profile.

fish

Stir together the olive oil, rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, green onions, ginger, five

Pistachio-Crusted Mahi-Mahi with Florida Rock Shrimp in a Mango, Coconut Milk Fricassée, and Toasted Coconut Basmati Rice University of Miami Yield: 6 portions Pistachio-crusted mahi-mahi 6 pc. (6-oz.) center-cut mahi-mahi fillets, blood line removed and skin off 1 tsp. minced chives 1 tsp. minced tarragon 1 tsp. minced garlic ½ tsp. Old Bay seasoning 2 oz. olive oil ½ cup pistachio nuts, ground coarsely

Instructions:

Combine chive, tarragon, garlic, Old Bay and olive oil to create a paste.

Rub paste over fish fillets and allow to marinate for one hour.

Instructions:

Heat olive oil in a sauce pan, add Florida rock shrimp, and shallots, and cook until shallots just begin to brown.

Remove shrimp, add white wine and reduce by half, add coconut milk and reduce by half again.

Add lemon juice, cooked shrimp and mango to sauce pan and simmer for 1 minute.

Remove from heat and add cilantro.

Toasted Coconut Rice 2 cups basmati rice 3 ½ cups unsweetened coconut milk 1 tsp. salt ¼ cup toasted coconut

Instructions:

Leaving the marinade on the fish, dip the top side of the fish into the ground pistachio nuts and place on a sheet pan with nonstick paper.

Combine rice, milk, and salt. Bring to simmer in small sauce pot.

Bake mahi-mahi at 350°F for 16-18 minutes; mahi-mahi should still be moist inside, keep hot.

Stir in toasted coconut at end.

Florida Rock Shrimp in a Mango, Coconut Milk Fricassée 1 oz. olive oil 18 pc. Florida Rock Shrimp, peeled, deveined, cut in half lengthwise 2 tbsp. minced shallots 2 oz. white wine 4 oz. coconut milk, unsweetened 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice ½ cup diced fresh mango 2 tbsp. cilantro, minced

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Instructions:

Preheat smoker. Place the planks in the smoker.

The boards are ready when they start to smoke and crackle just a little.

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3 (12-inch) untreated cedar planks ⅓ cup olive oil 1 ½ tablespoons rice vinegar 1 tsp. sesame oil ⅓ cup soy sauce ¼ cup chopped green onions 1 tbsp. grated fresh ginger root 1 tbsp. Chinese five spice 1 tsp. minced garlic 2 (2-pound) salmon fillets, skin removed

spice and garlic. Place the salmon fillets in the marinade and turn to coat. Cover and marinate for 15 minutes to one hour.

Cook for 10 minutes until all liquid is absorbed.

Vegetables 18 pc. baby carrots, blanched 18 pc. asparagus, blanched Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions :

In a separate pan, sauté carrots and asparagus in olive oil with salt and pepper.

Assembly: Place basmati rice in the middle of a large dinner plate and top with fish surrounded by shrimp and vegetables.

Sauce evenly around and top with plantain chips.

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Southern Methodist University Yield: 2 (2-lb.) fillets Portions: 4 oz. lunch or 6 oz. dinner

Pan-Seared Trout Bouillabaisse with Lobster Ravioli and Savory Lemon Curd

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University of Notre Dame Yield: 4 (12-oz.) servings

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Bouillabaisse Broth 1 fl. oz. olive oil 5 oz. onion, peeled and chopped 1 ½ oz. leek, cleaned and chopped 3 oz. bulb fennel, small, chopped 1 ⅓ cloves garlic, peeled and chopped 1 small sprig thyme, stemmed and chopped 1 star anise 1 ⅓ sprigs parsley, stemmed and chopped 1⁄16 teaspoon saffron 1 small plum tomato, chopped 1 tbsp. tomato paste 2 fl. oz. white wine 1 pint fish stock Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over mediumhigh heat.

Add the onion, leek, fennel, garlic, thyme, anise, parsley, and saffron, and sauté till softened.

Incorporate the tomato and tomato paste and stir in the wine and stock.

Reduce the heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes.

Remove from heat and strain into another saucepan.

Season and reserve, keeping warm.

Soubise (serves 10) 7 ¼ oz. Spanish onion, diced 2 ¾ oz. Carolina rice 1 ¼ cups chicken stock 2 grams salt 1 gram white pepper 2 grams castor sugar ⅜ oz. butter 1 ¼ oz. butter

Instructions:

Blanch the onions in water, completely submerged till cooked.

Combine the rice together with blanched onions, chicken stock, salt, white pepper, castor sugar, and butter and cook till done to the required consistency.

Transfer the cooked rice to a food processor and puree to a smooth consistency. It should be grainy and not completely pureed.

Transfer to a pan and keep it warm and covered till service.

Lobster Ravioli Pasta Dough (serves 24) 1 pinch saffron 5 ½ oz. high-gluten flour 1 whole egg 1 egg yolk 1 oz. water ¼ tsp. salt

Instructions:

Crush saffron in mortar and pestle, mix with lukewarm water and salt.

Mix flour and eggs in well and slowly add water mixture.

Knead until dough is not sticky and let rest.

Roll dough to a thickness of 8 on a pasta roller.

Lobster Ragout 2 oz. lobster tail diced 2 cloves garlic minced 1 shallot, minced ½ oz. extra virgin olive oil 1 Roma tomato concasse 1 sprig thyme

Instructions:

Remove lobster from shell and cut lobster into pieces.

Sauté garlic and shallot in extra virgin olive oil, and then add tomatoes and simmer. When mixture reaches a simmer, add lobster and herbs.

Fill ravioli with lobster mixture and put in boiling water, right before service.

Flageolet Bean Mixture (serves 12) 1⁄16 qt. baby red kidney beans, culled 1⁄16 qt. flageolets, culled ⅛ gal. chicken stock Pinch of lemon zest Small sprig of fresh thyme Small clove of garlic, minced ½ leek, sliced thin 1 ¼ oz. olive oil ¼ bay leaf ½ Roma tomato, small dice 1 tbsp. yellow bell pepper, small dice 1 oz. carrots, paysanne cut 1 fluid oz. white wine A few drops of lemon juice 1 tbsp. parsley, chopped

Instructions:

Soak beans overnight.

Cook beans, lemon zest, thyme, and bay leaf in the stock until tender. Drain and chill. Remove thyme and bay leaf.

Sauté garlic and leeks in olive oil until tender.

Combine tomato, peppers, carrots, white wine, lemon juice, and parsley with beans and reheat with a little stock before service.

Temper hot juice mixture with eggs and whisk over heat to get the required consistency. Add fresh herbs, taste and adjust seasoning.

Tarragon Pesto (serves 10) ¼ cup tarragon, chopped ½ oz. toasted pine nuts 2 oz. grapeseed oil

Trout: 2 whole trout (1 ½ pounds each) Salt and white pepper to taste 1 fl. oz. clarified butter Flour as needed

Instructions:

Fillet each trout into two fillets, about 6 oz. each.

Remove the skin and the pin bones.

Season with salt and white pepper.

Dredge fillets lightly in flour.

In a sauté pan, place clarified butter and sauté fillets with meat side down and skin side up until fish is done (either internal temperature of 140°F or until fish has just passed translucency in the center).

Assembly: In the center of a pasta bowl, place #30 scoop of soubise. Place one ravioli slightly overlapping the soubise. Center the trout over the soubise. Add two tablespoons of the bean mixture around perimeter of pasta bowl. Pour the bouillabaisse broth into the bowl. Garnish the ravioli with tarragon pesto. Place a tablespoon of lemon curd onto the trout. Garnish with microgreens.

Serve immediately.

Alaskan Halibut with Warm Pickled Butternut Squash, Watermelon, and Sweet 100 Tomatoes, with Verbena Lemon Oil served with Parsnip Chips Stanford University Yield: 4 portions

Pickled Squash: Heat up the vinegar and sugar together until they reach the right consistency.

4 (5-oz.) Alaskan halibut fillets 2 cups Champagne vinegar 1 cup white granulated sugar 2 bay leaves 1 oz. black peppercorn 1 cup diced butternut squash ½ cup sweet 100 tomatoes (cut halves) ½ cup diced watermelon ¼ cup virgin olive oil Zest of 1 Verbena lemon 2 cups organic baby spinach Salt and pepper to taste 2 large parsnips

When the simmer point is reached, add the bay leaves and black peppercorn; leave for 5 minutes and drain.

Instructions:

Fold the organic baby spinach with lemon oil; and season to taste.

Halibut: Season the halibut with salt and pepper.

Sear halibut in hot pan on one side; finish it in 375°F oven.

seafood

Mix eggs together and strain.

Slowly add oil until desired consistency is met, taste and season.

Bring mixture to a boil, add the butternut squash and cook until it’s done. Remove from heat.

When the mixture reaches room temperature, add tomatoes and watermelon.

Drain and season with salt and pepper.

Lemon Oil and Spinach: Slowly warm the virgin olive oil with lemon zest to infuse. Set aside for flavoring.

Parsnips: Peel and shave thinly. Fry until a crisply texture (golden brown state), dry, and season with salt.

Use as garnish on top of halibut.

Assembly: Place mixture of pickled vegetables and baby spinach dressed with olive oil in the center of a large plate. Carefully place the halibut on top of the mixture. Place the crispy parsnip on top of the halibut. Drizzle lemon oil on the entire dish.

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Heat lemon juice and add honey.

Add tarragon and pine nuts to food processor, mix for 5-10 seconds.

fish

Instructions:

Instructions:

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Savory Lemon Curd (serves 10) ¼ cup lemon juice 1 tbsp. thyme-infused honey 1 whole egg 1 egg yolk 1 sprig thyme Salt to taste Cayenne pepper to taste

Tips on

fish

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Working with fresh fish

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W hen wor k ing with fresh fish : 1. Keep covered in crushed ice; do not allow ice water to touch fish because chlorine adversely affects quality.

2. W hen buying whole fish, remove eyes and gills and be sure they are completely eviscerated before icing.

3. From fabrication to cooking do not touch the meat of the fillets. Each time you touch them you degrade the quality.

4. Of course, check for freshness when buying— clear eyes, firm skin and meat, bright red gills.

5. Make sure fish smells like fish. If it smells like cologne, leave it alone!

— Don Miller, CED, CCE, AAC Notre Dame Food Services

1. We prefer IQF vs block frozen for handling because block frozen takes longer to thaw. IQF is easier to handle and we can pull out as much as needed or thaw it quickly if required. Fresh is great and the most preferable, but we must use these products right away and be sure we forecast needs closely.

Smoked and processed fish are a good 2. alternative to fresh and can be more costeffective depending on how they are used in recipe design.

3.

Sea trout may well become more popular.

The University of New Hampshire is doing research with farm-raised sea trout. They’re using us as sounding board to determine what we think of the product. So far we like it and will be making a trout mousse to serve on this year’s seafood menu. We have also grilled the trout previously, which was received well, and are trying to decide the best way to process it in quantity.

4. Events aren’t just about serving products, per se. They must include education so students and visitors learn about fish and seafood. We set up booths during the events. We’ve invited representatives from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, the New Hampshire Sea Grant (which brought a sea trout researcher and local fisherman), and our prime seafood vendor.

— Dave Hill University of New Hampshire

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W E L L N E S S

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N utrition

Wellness &

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nutrition

Smart Choice: A Collaborative Point-of-Service Nutrition Labeling Intervention

By Mark Wirtz, Percell Green, and Douglas Kirkland Messiah College Department of Dining Services Danielle Osborn, Jackie VanArsdale, and Kathryn Witt Messiah College Department of Nutrition and Dietetics

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roviding campus dining customers with cost-effective nutrition information is a complex challenge. At Messiah College, nutrition information for menu items has traditionally been available to students on printed sheets posted near the tray return area of the dining hall. The department of dining services was interested in making nutrition information more readily available to students, but needed to minimize the costs and wanted to be sure the additional information was being used by the students. At the same time, the department of nutrition and dietetics was interested in opportunities for students to apply their classroom learning to real-life situations and develop research skills. This article describes our collaborative efforts to better understand the nutrition needs and interests of the students, and to explore student responses to a simple, point-of-service labeling system indicating healthier food choices.

The project began with an assessment of student eating habits and interests.

As part of a sabbatical research project, a nutrition faculty member interviewed 50 students who purchased a meal plan allowing unlimited access to the main campus dining hall regarding the factors influencing their food choices and their dietary intake. This analysis revealed the main factors influencing student food choices were taste, convenience, and the amount of time available for eating. Not surprisingly, on a one-day diet record, less than half of the students reported consuming at least the recommended amounts of vegetables (2.5 cups), fruits (2 cups), dairy (3 cups), and fiber (25 grams for women and 38 grams for men), and more than half had high intakes of sodium (≥ 2400 mg) and saturated fat (≥ 10 percent of calories). Since our cafeteria regularly provides a variety of fruits, vegetables, and lower-fat choices, we were interested to learn whether identifying the healthier choices would influence the students to choose them over less healthy options.

To determine student preferences for labeling healthier food choices, all first- and second-year students were invited to complete a Web-based survey assessing the nutrition information of greatest interest to them and their preferred format for the information. The response rate for this survey was only about 5 percent despite the incentive to win $10 campus gift cards. The 80 respondents were split nearly 50-50 on whether more nutrient information should be provided. Fifty-six percent wanted more nutrition information and 44 percent did not. For those who wanted more information, the facts most desired were number of calories, amount and type of fat, and levels of cholesterol and sodium. The preferred formats for identifying healthier choices were symbols for healthier options and “light” sections or lines in the dining hall.

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Fresh fruit and vegetables on a salad bar are one of the Smart Choice options offered.

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Criteria used to determine which foods (or food combinations) received the Smart Choice designation Nutrient Standard Total fat

≤ 35 percent of calories

Saturated fat

≤ 10 percent of calories

Cholesterol

≤ 15 mg/100 calories

Added sugars

≤ 15 percent of calories

Sodium

≤ 120 mg/100 calories

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We decided to evaluate the effectiveness of a placing a symbol for healthier food choices, or Smart Choice foods, on the sneeze guards near the food items. This information was also communicated on posters placed on cafeteria bulletin boards. Finding single food items that met all of these criteria proved more difficult than we anticipated, mainly due to sodium content. Therefore, combinations of foods which together composed a Smart Choice meal were identified and a sign listing the combination was posted by each item that was a part of the meal. For example, a chili lime chicken breast, a half-cup of parsley potatoes, a half-cup of roasted vegetables, and a half-cup of fruit salad met the Smart Choice criteria, and a sign listing these items and the portion size was posted by each of the items. (The Smart Choice icon was a plate with a green check and the words Smart Choice). Skim milk, 100 percent fruit juice, and water also received Smart Choice signs. Signs were posted at dinner for one week.

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A student makes her meal selections.

To evaluate the student response to the Smart Choice signs, nutrition and dietetics students circulated through the dining hall on the Thursday of the week the signs were posted and asked tables of students who were eating if they were interested in participating in a survey about nutrition information. The response to this survey method was much better, with 300 to 330 responses per question. In addition, the influence of the signs on food selection was evaluated by comparing number of portions served during the intervention week with the number of portions served during

To minimize expenses, procedures for determining the number of portions prepared and recording the number of portions served were not modified for the purposes of the study. The amounts of a number of items in the menu cycle produced varied from week to week, and for many items the number of portions produced equaled the number served. This made it difficult to separate the influence of availability from changes in student choice. However, even for items with consistent production and servings left over each week, we were not able to discern any influence of the labels on the number of portions served. This is not entirely surprising since only about one-third of the students indicated that the signs influenced their food choices.

Though we were not able to demonstrate an effect on food selection during this short intervention, nutrition and dietetics students gained valuable research experience, and dining services department obtained an increased understanding of customer preferences. This pilot project was accomplished at relatively low cost. A $1,000 student scholar-intern award available through our provost’s office was used to support the students who designed and carried out the surveys, evaluated the menus, and designed the Smart Choice signs. The small signs, posters, and survey forms cost less than $25 to print. Faculty and staff time for record-keeping and mentoring of the student-interns was incorporated into normal work responsibilities.

As we continue to strive for sustainable, cost-effective ways to provide educational opportunities as well as meet the nutritional needs and food preferences of our students, collaborative projects provide a way to derive more benefit from limited resources. u

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Smart Choice foods were indicated by signs that included the Smart Choice icon—a plate with a green check—and portion sizes.

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The dining hall interviews provided useful information for evaluating the Smart Choice intervention. As was the case in the Web-based survey, the students surveyed face-to-face were split on whether they wanted more nutrition information on a regular basis. Sixty five percent indicated they did, 34 percent indicated they did not, and 1 percent had no opinion. Eightyfive percent of the students interviewed noticed the Smart Choice signs, and 32 percent of the students who noticed the signs indicated that the signs had influenced their food choices either somewhat (21 percent) or substantially (11 percent). Interestingly, when students were asked about the extent to which posting signs in the service area on a regular basis would influence their food choices, more students thought their choices would be influenced somewhat (40 percent) or substantially (26 percent). Students were generally supportive of a symbol indicating healthier choices rather than a sign with calorie and nutrient content in the service area. When asked specifically about what nutrient information was most important to them, students most frequently mentioned calories, though a number of students voiced concern that posting calories near the food might pose problems for students with eating disorders. Additional comments of interest were a preference for more attractive signs, and pictures of portion sizes rather than written measurements.

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the prior two offerings of that menu cycle using the records kept by the production managers.

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he 2012 national conference planning committee and the entire Northeast Region invite you to head over to historic Boston for some Revolut!onary Thinking at the 54th annual NACUFS National Conference. This year’s event promises to be truly memorable, with education, networking, dining, and entertainment in true Northeast style!

As the location of our nation’s first public school, education is a key factor in Boston’s history. With Revolut!onary Thinking as the conference theme, educational offerings will feature local foods, sustainable practices, and much more to bring back to your campus.

From the opening Theodore W. Minah Award Dinner through the Minnesotathemed Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards luncheon, your taste buds will be tantalized and your senses engaged in every culinary offering. In a city boasting excellent restaurants easily accessible from our headquarters, your free nights will allow you to sample the local fare. And don’t even think of leaving before the final event held at Tufts University, “NACUFS Down East—A Taste of New England,” where attendees can close out the conference overlooking the Boston skyline and dancing under the stars.

July 11-14, 2012 Pre-conference: July 10-11

Get ready for some Revolut!onary Thinking and book your trip to Boston.

It’s going to be Wicked Awesome!

For additional information and to register, visit www.nacufs.org/conference.

We look forward to seeing you in Boston!

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Conference Agenda C O N F E R e N C E

Pre-Conference Workshops

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Don’t miss incredible opportunities for focused professional development before the conference.

This year’s pre-conference events include the Catering Workshop, Neighborhood Market Retail Workshop, and tours of area universities.

Tuesday, July 10 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Tours of Boston-Area Colleges

8:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Catering Workshop (pre-conference)

8:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Neighborhood Market Retail Workshop (pre-conference) 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

First-Time Attendees Orientation Make the most of your first national conference! We invite all first-time conference attendees to kick off the conference at this reception, where you can meet your national and regional officers and learn what to expect during the week.

Theodore W. Minah Reception, Dinner, and Award Presentation Network among friends and colleagues as NACUFS celebrates the recipient of its most prestigious award. Be sure to congratulate this year’s winner at the customer appreciation party.

Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards Display

Wednesday, July 11 6:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Jack Kemper Golf Outing

7:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Conference Registration

7:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Tour of University of Massachusetts

7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards Display

8:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Catering Workshop (continued)

8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Neighborhood Market Retail Workshop (continued) 3:15 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.

First-Time Conference Attendees Orientation

6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Theodore W. Minah Reception

7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Theodore W. Minah Dinner and Award Presentation 9:30 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.

Schwan’s Customer Appreciation Party

Thursday, July 12 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Conference Registration

7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards Display

7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.

Awards Breakfast

8:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

General Session

Relating to Our Planet and Each Other

Dr. John Francis

10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.

Refreshment Break Note: Agenda is subject to change.

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

The Town that Food Saved

Ben Hewitt

A Culinary Journey

Designing, Operating, and Managing Your Own Food Truck

Dave Eichstaedt, University of Massachusetts Van Sullivan, University of Massachusetts

12:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Showcase

5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Culinary Challenge

5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Industry Appreciation Reception

Showcase Speak with industry representatives and preview the latest products and services during this year’s Showcase, which will feature more than 350 exhibitor booths.

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Friday, July 13

7:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Conference Registration

7:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards Display

7:45 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.

Regional Breakfasts

9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

General Session

Good Catch–Tipping the Scales Toward Sustainable Seafood Robert Landolphi, Moderator, University of Connecticut

11:15 a.m. – 1:45 p.m.

Showcase

2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Interest Sessions

Food Trends: What’s HOT in 2012 and Beyond

Mark Eggerding, US Foods Dominique Murray, US Foods

Menu Managing Your C-Store

Local Food: A Supply Chain Proposition

Janet Decker, Vanderbilt University Spiros Vergatos, Vanderbilt University

Watson Craig, Sysco Corporation Sheryl Kidwell, LD, University of Kansas Tom Lyons, Sysco Corporation

Reinventing Local Food Systems

Hocus-Pocus: Is Modernist Cuisine Coming to Your Kitchen?

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Annie Copps

Manny Costa, Costa Fruit & Produce Company Kathleen Phillips, PRO*ACT, LLC

Jean-Michel Boulot, Ricca Newmark Design David Chislett, Ricca Newmark Design

Note: Agenda is subject to change.

12th Annual Culinary Challenge Cheer on your favorite competitor in this exciting live-action competition, as six regional winners vie for the top prize and ACF gold, silver, and bronze medals.

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Super Sessions

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Meatless Monday: Revolutionizing Sustainable Eating in Higher Ed

Deciphering the World of Cook/Chill

Getting the Most Out of NACUFS Conferences

Christian Black, University of Colorado Boulder Paul Houle, University of Colorado Boulder Kerry Paterson, University of Colorado Boulder C O N F E R en C E

Bill McNeace, University of North Texas Kristie Middleton, The Humane Society of the United States Shohreh Sparks, University of North Texas

Leonard Hodgson, University of Connecticut

Creating Destination Restaurants: University of Wisconsin’s

New Union South

Carl Korz, University of Wisconsin–Madison Wisconsin Union Mark Schmitz, Zebradog Environmental Design Kathleen Seelye, Ricca Newmark Design Jan Van den Kieboom, Workshop Architects Rob White, Envision Strategies

Senior Level Self-Operated Forum

Anthony Cerulli, Salisbury University Jon Lewis, Ball State University

Catering Forum

Nicole Gilbert, Rochester Institute of Technology

Nutrition Forum

Robin Allen, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Ruth Sullivan, Syracuse University

3:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.

Refreshment Break

3:15 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.

Interest Sessions

Nutrient Analysis Paralysis: Making Sense of the Process Kathy Egan, College of the Holy Cross Julie Lampie, Tufts University Rochelle l’Italien, University of New Hampshire Dianne Sutherland, University of Massachusetts

Creating the “Experience Economy”

Mary Begalle, Schwan’s Food Service Dean Wright, Brigham Young University

Making Cents of Today’s Trends

Keeping Sustainability Sustainable—REVOLUTIONARY!

Take the “Z” out of Presentationzzz!

Jon Garrett, Premier REACH Sharon Olson, Y-Pulse, LLC Elisa Verhille, Go RED Food Service Consulting & Connections, Inc.

Scott Berlin, University of California–Santa Cruz Nancy Levandowski, Iowa State University Mark LoParco, University of Montana

Janice Torkildsen, University of Colorado Boulder

Note: Agenda is subject to change.

Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards Display Make time to browse through this year’s Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards entries to gather fresh ideas for your dining department. The awards will be on display Tuesday afternoon through Friday during conference registration hours.

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EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge and the C/U Sector

Nutrition Programming for the 22nd Century

Continuous Improvement: Embracing Six Sigma in Foodservice

Defining Fair Food and Implementing Sustainable Food

Marketing Forum

Purchasing Forum

Retail Forum

Member Forums Be sure to stop by one of several member forums during the conference for roundtable discussions with your association colleagues about topics important to you.

Joe Spina Retirement Reception Join NACUFS in honoring Executive Director Joe Spina, who will be retiring this year after 22 years of service to the association.

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Christine Beling, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Matthew Biette, Middlebury College Rick MacDonald, University of New Hampshire Matt Rothe, Stanford University

Janie Owens, East Carolina University Joyce Sealey, East Carolina University Stephanie Sumner, East Carolina University

Bradford Krakow, The CBORD Group, Inc.

Lauren Heising, University of Colorado Boulder Jorge Hernandez, US Foods Tom Lyons, Sysco Foods Robin Margolin, University of Colorado–UMC

Chris Justice, Brigham Young University Crista Martin, Harvard University

Kenneth Ripley, Eastern Washington University Matt Roberts, University of Oklahoma

Sara Eberle, University of Northern Iowa

4:15 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.

Refreshment Break

4:45 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

General Membership Assembly

6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Joe Spina Retirement Reception

Saturday, July 14

7:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Conference Registration

7:15 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.

Continental Breakfast

8:15 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.

Interest Sessions

Home-Grown Mobile Solutions for Catering

David Bilotto, University of Rhode Island Shaun Kavanagh, University of Rhode Island Steven Mello, University of Rhode Island

Note: Agenda is subject to change.

Setting up a Quality Assurance Program That Works Ted Mayer, The Rochelle Group R. Cameron Schauf, University of Rochester Hank Steinberg, The Rochelle Group Mary Zawieski, The Rochelle Group

Building a High-Performance Secret Shopper Network with Mobile Technology

Sustainable Proteins on the Menu: Defining the “S” Word

Brent Beringer, University of Virginia Johann Leitner, Touchwork

Mel Coleman, Niman Ranch Bob Perry, University of Kentucky Sylvia Tawse, Fresh Ideas Group

Extreme Makeover: The Transformation of Ferris State University’s Dining Program Lori Burnley, STV Architects, Inc. Lori Helmer, Ferris State University Albin Khouw, Porter Khouw Consulting, Inc. H. David Porter, Porter Khouw Consulting, Inc.

Halal: The Revenue, Retention, and Recruitment Revolution

Revolutionary Hits and Misses among Student Workers

Andrea Allison, Central College Lynne Steenhoek, Central College

An Avant-garde Approach to Onboarding Alonso Fierro, Gizoes LP Molly Fierro, Source1 Purchasing June Vieira, Texas A&M University

Leadership, Inspiration, Innovation: A Chef’s Point of View Jonna Anne, SUNY at Geneseo Ida Shen, University of California–Berkeley Sue Sorensen, Hormel Foods Kayleen Vander Veen, Central College

Financial/ROI Forum

Kathy Kittridge, University of Maine

Culinary Forum

Timothy Trachimowicz, College of the Holy Cross

Sustainability Forum

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Majuhed Kahn, IFANCA Richard Mason, University of Chicago Don Tymchuck, Med-Diet, Inc.

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Tim Galarneau, University of California-Santa Cruz Mark LoParco, University of Montana

9:15 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.

Refreshment Break

9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

General Session

James Beard Award-Winner and Television Host Ming Tsai

Note: Agenda is subject to change.

Ming Tsai Be sure to catch the general session with James Beard award-winner and television host, Ming Tsai

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Refreshment Break

11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.

Interest Sessions

Today’s Foodservice Packaging: Innovations, Issues, and Trends

The Allergen/Gluten-Free Revolution...Are You Ready?

The Mobile Millennial Marketing Revolution

Be sure to stick around for our final event at Tufts University, where we’ll close out the conference in style with a traditional New England feast.

11:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

NACUFS Down East— A Taste of New England

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Lynn Dyer, Foodservice Packaging Institute

Carrie Anderson, Purdue University

Kristin Lonsinger, University of New Hampshire Jim Matorin, SMARKETING Bob Volpi, Williams College

Lettuce Turnip the Beet and Revolutionize Our Thinking!

Susan Herr, Indiana University

Reinventing the Future of Dining at Yale

Rafi Taherian, Yale University Thomas Tucker, Yale University

Making the Revolutionary Change from Old to New

Cathy Ness, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Preparing Yourself for a Revolutionary Promotion

Bench Building: Preparing Hourly Employees for Management

Ten Ways to Boost Meal Plan Participation and Revenues

Board Plan Forum

Richard Neumann, Ohio University

Jerry Clemmer, University of Richmond Karen Kourkoulis, University of Richmond

David May, University of New Hampshire H. David Porter, Porter Khouw Consulting, Inc.

Mike Kmec, Connecticut College

Contract Administrator Forum

Kenny Hemmer, Emory University

Training Forum

Deanna Park, The Ohio State University June Vieira, Texas A&M University

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards Luncheon

6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

NACUFS Down East—A Taste of New England

Note: Agenda is subject to change.

“One if by land, two if by sea.”

A trip to Boston wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Paul Revere Mall, where you can get your photo taken next to Paul Revere’s statue and learn more about his midnight ride at the Old North Church.

BOSTON pic ks

Freedom Trail Put on your walking shoes and head out on Boston’s Freedom Trail, which will lead you to the city’s most famous and historic landmarks.

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Boston Common & Public Garden Hop in one of the famous swan boats for a peaceful jaunt through the beautiful Boston Common & Public Garden.

Fanueil Hall/ Quincy Market At the core of Boston’s historic waterfront, shop ‘till you drop at the outdoor mall, do some light sightseeing and souvenir shopping at the many Boston-themed booths, and grab a bowl of delicious New England Clam Chowder at one of Quincy Market’s many food court-style eateries.

Register by May 31 to receive the discounted rate!

Register for conference and pre-conference events at www.nacufs.org/conference. Be sure to stay at the official conference hotels to receive your registration discount.

Fenway Park The Red Sox may be out of town, but that doesn’t mean you can’t check out one of baseball’s most famous stadiums.

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CANDIDATE C O N F E R en C E

for President

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Mark S. Lo Parco Director, Dining Services University of Montana, Missoula

For the past 25 years, the majority of my volunteer work within NACUFS has focused on the development and delivery of high quality educational programs.

As president-elect, I will continue to champion education and work closely with the national education committee (NEC) to explore and employ cutting-edge technology in the delivery of educational programming.

Under discussion is the development of a NACUFS Sustainability Summit, which I strongly support and view as a potential catalyst for the NEC’s educational series on sustainable business practices in collegiate foodservice.

As president-elect, I will assist Timothy Dietzler in analyzing feedback from the membership needs assessment survey. Membership feedback will be important as NACUFS begins preparation for the development of the 2015–2019 Strategic Plan. The next president-elect will become president in 2014 and preside over the term when the strategic plan is scheduled to be completed.

Ultimately my accomplishments as president-elect will be influenced by two overarching themes: change and transition. After 22 years of exceptional service to NACUFS, Executive Director Dr. Joe Spina will retire.

I have prior board of directors experience specifically during times of significant change within NACUFS. As president-elect, I envision assisting and being flexible during this seminal transition for the association and its leadership.

Top NACUFS Experience: •A ttended the NACUFS Leadership Institute in 1986, which was a career-solidifying and lifechanging experience for me.

• S erved as regional president during the transition from Regions V and VIII to the Continental Region in 2005-2006.

•A s national education committee co-chair, I had the opportunity to facilitate many regional and national education programs.

•C hairing and/or co-chairing three regional conferences. Hosting a regional conference is one of the most personally and professionally rewarding experiences for you and your foodservice team.

Other Relevant Experience •E xtensive work in Sustainable Business Practices on a local, regional, and national level • Th e only two-time chair of the University of Montana campus-wide Charitable Giving Campaign; created the Student Charitable Giving Campaign; and recipient of the Outstanding Workplace Philanthropy Award from Montana Shares.

•T ransitioned Montana Tech from an outsourced foodservice to a successful and profitable self-operated college foodservice.

•A dvisory board member (current) for the UM College of Technology Culinary Arts Program.

•A uctioned fundraising dinner for eight at our home annually raises over $1,000 to benefit the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center.

CANDIDATE Director of Dining Services Faith Baptist Bible College & Theological Seminary

Top NACUFS Experience: • 2006 Marketing Institute •2 000 Richard Lichtenfelt Award Winner •2 000 Food Service Directors’ Roundtable •1 994-1998 Region VI President (two consecutive terms) • 1991 Professional Development Institute Other Relevant Experience • Employed by a small, student-centered educational institution • Volunteered on a number of NACUFS national and regional committees and task forces • Presenter at NACUFS regional and national conferences • Volunteer in community and church-related activities

A lot has changed since I last presented myself for consideration as your at-large director. NACUFS is in the midst of an executive director search, the first in more than 20 years. With economic uncertainty, budgets are tighter than ever affecting every campus. Through all this one thing has not changed—my commitment to the members of NACUFS. I am truly humbled and honored to be nominated for the responsibility of your at-large director.

The position of at-large director for NACUFS primarily serves as the liaison for the strategic planning committee to the board of directors and works with that committee to evaluate how new initiatives and policy proposals relate to that plan. Additionally, the at-large director serves on your board of directors, the executive and finance committees, and chairs the nominations committee for national office.

Starting this fall, the strategic planning process once again enters into preparation for a new five-year cycle.

The beginnings of this cycle are founded in the needs assessment survey, which was emailed to all members in February and available at all regional conferences this spring. Your input into this process is invaluable and needed for the future planning within NACUFS. Little did I expect over 40 years ago when I entered the labor market that the work I love would lead me as it has. I would never have imagined being so involved in the workings of a national association or caring so much about the association’s future and its individual members.

NACUFS has been a great support to my work and ministry. I continue to learn and grow with every opportunity which is presented. I promise to make sure I do everything possible to maintain and increase those opportunities and that there is support for every member in the future.

My family, administration and staff support my candidacy and I trust you will also.

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Terry D. Waltersdorf, FMP

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Thank you to the 2012 National Conference Committee Co-Chair Art Korandanis College of the Holy Cross

Education C. Dennis Pierce University of Connecticut

Industry Liaison Richard Hynes Hobart

Special Arrangements Ward Ganger Phillips Exeter Academy

Co-Chair Merrill Collins Connecticut College

Food and Beverage James Barnett Yale University Law School

Marketing Keone Weigl Syracuse University

Sponsorship David May University of New Hampshire

Chief Ideas Engineer Melanie Marken Peet’s Coffee & Tea

Food and Beverage David Hill University of New Hampshire

Protocol Sr. Maureen Schrimpe University of Maryland

Sponsorship Kenneth Toong University of Massachusetts

Culinary Challenge Jonna Anne SUNY at Geneseo

Golf Martin Dudek College of the Holy Cross

Registration Gail Finan Cornell University

Transportation Matthew Biette Middlebury College

Dining Awards Robert Landolphi University of Connecticut

Housekeeping Cameron Schauf University of Rochester

Registration Mary Kennedy Bowdoin College

Treasurer/Budget Michael Kmec Connecticut College

Education Patricia Klos Tufts University

Industry Liaison Ronna Davis Signature Solutions by Logoworks

Showcase William McNamara SUNY at Cortland

Volunteers Ginnie Dunleavy Rhode Island School of Design Staff Liaison Sandy Smith NACUFS

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rises are inevitable. Some are shortlived—such as the malfunction of a drain during a busy lunch period— and require simple remedies. Others are devastating—such as Hurricane Katrina—and disrupt lives and businesses for years. Still others—shootings, influenza pandemics— leave scars that take years to heal.

Though crises occur, planning for the inevitable can minimize the impact a crisis can have on a dining department, its employees, and customers. Many dining departments and their colleges and universities have emergency preparedness plans that cover many different types of situations. The plans have been developed over time and are updated after each event.

It’s the continual updating and keeping the plan top of mind before a crisis occurs that proves crucial when the time comes for

implementation. In this issue, you’ll find guidelines for preparing a plan and valuable suggestions from your colleagues who lived through crises and agreed to share their firsthand experiences. Some insight comes from putting written plans into action and some comes from the kind of hard-won knowledge that can only be learned from living through a crisis with all of the forces at work.

We designed this feature to serve as a reminder to update your crisis management and emergency preparedness plans and continuously train every staff member so they will be as ready as possible to spring into action when necessary. Being prepared puts you in better control. In a crisis or emergency, being in the proverbial driver’s seat during the response is extremely reassuring for everyone involved.

—Donna Boss Contributing Editor

planning crisis

Preparing for and Responding to Crises

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Are You Ready?

CRISIS

PLANNING

JUMPING INTO ACTION DURING THE TUSCALOOSA TORNADO

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA

By Kristina Hopton-Jones Director, University Dining Services University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa

(Editor’s note: Soon after a tornado hit the University of Alabama campus, Campus Dining Today reached out to Kristina Hopton-Jones to ask if she would keep day-by-day notes on the crisis and share them with CDT. Following are her notes and observations, shared in the hope they might help others with their crisis planning and response.

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72 n April 27, 2011, an EF4 tornado swept through Tuscaloosa, Ala., and directly hit the campus of University of Alabama (UA). (EF5 is the highest ranking possible for tornadoes.) It was part of the 2011 Super Outbreak, which unleashed 358 tornadoes in six states over a four-day period, and was the country’s worst natural catastrophe since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Ours was the second-most devastating U.S. tornado on record. The tornado was a mile wide, killed at least 342 people, including six UA students, destroyed nearly 10,000 homes and buildings, and caused at least $5 billion in physical damage.

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At 10:50 a.m. on April 27, an alert was issued warning of possible severe weather.

The UA Emergency Operations Center was activated and staffed by 11:30 a.m. By 3:30 p.m., the first tornado warning was issued and students and UA employees were urged to take shelter. At 6:00 p.m., the tornado hit the city. The news reported that though the campus suffered no structural damage, power was out, trees were down, and off-campus areas where many students, faculty, and staff lived had been destroyed or damaged.

On the evening of that first day, with power out all over campus, Bama Dining [a division of Aramark, the campus’ foodservice contractor] had to feed the entire campus population that had not yet evacuated, as well as prepare for several more days of dining service before power would be fully restored.

Wednesday, April 27 Situation:

• No power across campus starting at about 4:30 p.m.; full campus population in need of food.

• Limited personnel on hand to feed students who had few-to-no options other than Lakeside Dining, the central command center for emergency foodservice operations.

• Lakeside was constructed with a generator for emergency lighting and power for one walk-in cooler and one walk-in freezer.

(Note: Wi-Fi works in Lakeside with emergency power.)

• With no power, fountain machines were not operational. Bottled water and tea were available.

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• Many staff members had to leave work early when the city/county schools and many daycare centers were closed early.

• Garbage from all disposable ware was a big problem. With no power, the compactor was not available to accommodate the large volume of garbage.

• Text messaging was essential. But there was limited-to-no cell coverage for voice communication.

Response:

• Bama Dining utilized Twitter, Facebook, and its website to communicate changes in operations during the emergency service period. Staff also kept university relations informed of the food situation to include in campus-wide emails.

• Power resumed for about an hour and a half, and managers jumped behind lines and fryers to cook hamburgers and French fries.

• Bama Dining managers worked very late to clean and organize for the morning service.

Results:

• L akeside Dining: 2,815 dinners served from 4:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

• Meals delivered: UA Emergency Call Center, 20; UA Police Department, 50; Rec. Center, 200, plus 72 cases of water; Emergency Operations Center at Stadium, 50.

• Total meals served for dinner: 3,135 Lessons:

• Create policy on dining-in during an emergency situation. There was a problem with loitering.

• Create pre-made signage that has fill-inthe-blanks for handwritten information.

• Have a large number of flashlights available.

• Have small generator or some other source of electricity for power strips to accommodate a lot of cell phone recharge stations.

Personal Reflections:

My boss was in the basement with us when she got a call from her husband, saying her home was hit. We all jumped in our cars to head to her house. (She was the first person to come to my house after a tornado on April 15, 2011. She held a huge flashlight in the rain that night so that my heroes from work could try to cut the trees off of my husband’s and son’s cars.) It seemed impossible that there was as much destruction as they were talking about on the radio because the University of Alabama campus looked as beautiful as ever! I put my phone down and forgot about communicating with anyone … then it hit me—there are thousands of students at UA who need to eat tonight. I ran to my phone and got short text updates on what was going on. I had to get back to campus!

I worked at Lakeside Dining until about 11:00 p.m. when the last students were fed. Overall, they were very appreciative of the staff for working in such a weird situation. I was soaking wet from the humidity and activity of the night, the hem had come out of my pants, and I had blisters on my feet from climbing over trees in my boss’ neighborhood, then walking miles emptying garbage cans over and over at Lakeside.

A student needed a ride to my side of town.

I told him I didn’t know how we would get there, but I would do my best to get him home.

Because we needed to go right through where the storm hit, we had all kinds of delays and had to change course repeatedly to find open roads. We made it by about midnight. I had not talked to my kids or husband in seven hours, and they did not expect me to make it home. When I drove up, my boys (teenagers) came running out to hug me. That was the best part of the day!

Thursday, April 28 Situation:

• The power was still out and two generators had to be delivered from neighboring institutions.

Response:

• Two large trash containers were delivered to accommodate the rapidly growing waste.

• With no lights in the walk-ins, flashlights were delivered.

LINC-capable telephones or walkie-talkies would have been great. I don’t have a car charger for my phone, so I was so relieved to have a car adapter for a standard plug to charge my cell phone as I drove around campus.

Personal Reflections:

The day was so weird. Traffic was routed around affected areas, so I didn’t know what the damage looked like except for my boss’s neighborhood. No power at home or work to see any newscast. No time to listen to the radio to hear what is going on.

It was so busy coordinating everything that needed to be done and we were all running on adrenaline. The sun was shining; UA campus looked impeccable as ever, students were ready to help their neighbors, but we were in a news vacuum and didn’t know what was going on right down the street.

Friday, April 29 Situation:

• No signs of any potential hazards or violations found in Lakeside Dining.

• Do not communicate with media at all.

Have standard response stating that all media requests should go through university relations.

Personal Reflections:

Bama Dining management had been so incredibly amazing. Everyone gave 110 percent, even with no end in sight. Later in the day the adrenaline started to wane. We were getting short with each other; we had all been running around like crazy, just doing what needed to be done.

We got called to go into Alberta City to assist with feeding the National Guard. We had to wait for a while to go in because President and Mrs. Obama were visiting the area.

I was not prepared for what I saw. I drive down University Boulevard twice every day, going to and coming from work. I could not recognize any landmarks, the church that just constructed an addition was ruined, the soup kitchen I served lunch at a couple of weeks previous was missing its roof, and people’s homes were completely gone. I finally cried and I saw Air Force One flying away from Tuscaloosa in the distance.

Response:

The last week of the semester was cancelled, as was graduation.

• Power was restored to Lakeside Dining and a few other buildings on the north side of campus. Dining service did not resume in Ferguson Center with the approval of the union management.

Today

Results:

• 786 meals served for lunch; 480 meals served for dinner.

Today, life on the University of Alabama campus is back to normal, as are the university dining services operations.

But the professionalism, dedication, and sheer courage of dining services personnel is anything but normal and serves as a continuing inspiration to everyone on the UA campus. ◆

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Lessons:

Lessons:

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• 1,914 meals were served for lunch and 1,062 for dinner.

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AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

By Dawn Aubrey, PhD, MBA, CCA , FMP, CEC Director of Dining Services University of Illinois

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Rain, rain, go away, come again another day. But you need to be prepared if the rain does not go away. The time to prepare is when it is not raining.

he purpose of the Campus Emergency Operations Plan is to provide operational guidance for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery actions to prevent or minimize injury and/or death to people and damage to property resulting from emergencies and/or disasters of natural, manmade, or technological origin. The plan is the guide for campus response and recovery operations and outlines specific actions in support of local and Champaign County response and recovery activities.

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Level two (2) is an emergency that is not anticipated that is either natural or via a man-made source. These types of events have a higher probability of disrupting daily normal operations; for example, a severe weather event or an active shooter. These types of situations exist for several hours to a few days, and are addressed through Building Emergency Action Plans.

Crises are unavoidable and inevitable.

Knowing this, we are obligated to prepare.

Any event that prevents us from providing services in the typical, expected manner to our customers falls into one of three categories:

Level three (3) can be anticipated or not anticipated with either natural or manmade origins. These types of events have a major impact and prevent normal business operations from functioning in the intended manner; for example, an earthquake or pandemic flu. These types of events are addressed through the Business Continuity Plan and exist from a week to months.

Level one (1) is a non-emergency, which is known and anticipated; for example, an athletic event or visit from a dignitary. These types of events are addressed through normal business operations over a brief time period.

Each event that affects your ability to provide services is unique and won’t allow for a onesize-fits-all response. Preparations that are made need to be documented in a plan that is adaptable and flexible according to the crisis

• Planning: Activities to prepare the indicated response strategies.

• Response: Actions taken to address instantaneous short-term effects of a crisis.

• Recovery: Making the services and those providing the services whole to return the service level to normal.

Thinking of potential situations that could affect dining’s ability to provide service to our customers is the basis of how our plan developed.

The detailed portion of the plan for university dining is segregated into critical functions: Why do we need a function, who performs the function, and how will we perform it? In more detail, each critical function is defined by including a function description, person responsible for performing the function,

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planning

• Prevention/mitigation: Actions taken to neutralize the effect of an anticipated event.

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The introduction of the plan is developed where the plan purpose and scope is defined including a definition of how the business continuity plan fit with other preexisting plans. Resource identification for plan development must include all services provided to customers. Planning assumes that an emergency can happen at any time, day or night, succession of events during an emergency are not predictable, and that the plan may be used in part or in its entirety depending on the circumstances. As the

plan is developed there are four emergency response phases that are taken into account:

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that has occurred. The purpose of a plan is to document business recovery procedures and duties to allow you to return operational capabilities quickly following emergency response and when triage is done. Plans have a variety of names depending on the institution or agency that they are designed for. University Dining is part of University Housing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. University Dining has a plan, which is part of the University Housing Business Continuity Plan, which is reflected in the Comprehensive Emergency Operation Plan of the university.

In the event of a large-scale natural or man-made disaster, we expect the university would suspend classes for a period of time. The plan assumes all of students would remain on campus for a period of time; however, realistically, students who are able will travel home or leave with friends. Knowing that leaving may not be an option for some students, we must prepare for those who do remain on campus. ◆

Be aware that as bad as things are, they can get worse, and expect the unexpected. Redundant emergency plans need to be in place. If plan A won’t work, there must be plans B and C. The associated financial and HR/labor contract implications need to be discussed in detail and determined in advance.

ADV I CE : Identify alternate travel routes to your facilities based on a variety of scenarios. In our situation, several key bridges were out of commission for days and weeks, complicating access to campus and significantly increasing travel times. Also, work diligently to have administers informed as to what is realistic and feasible, based on staffing, food, beverage, and supply limitations as well as transportation and trash removal requirements. Have detailed emergency plans in place with your primary vendors.

—Greg Black Director, University Dining University of Iowa

• Communication

Learning from Experience

• Event Planning

TH E D I SASTE R :

• Food Production and Sanitation

Four years ago, in the summer of 2008, a very serious tornado touched down not far from the University of Northern Colorado.

• Menu Management • Point of Sale • Receipt and Storage of Food and Non-Food • Seniority Staffing Each critical function is outlined, as function components requires dialogue with campus, community and vendors.

For example, the critical function of the

I M PACT O N TH E CAM P U S AND D I NI NG S E RV I CE S : I was in our largest dining room, Holmes Dining Hall, and we happened to have 150 football players eating dinner there at the time. The managers and I quickly and calmly announced to the players that they should follow us to the tornado shelter. With that many people, our tornado shelter was packed pretty tightly.

It didn’t help that there was the distinct odor of a hard day’s practice in the air. We

I M P L E M E NTI NG T H E C R I S I S M ANAG E M E NT P L AN: We had just completed a review of our tornado procedures a few weeks prior to this event, so all of our managers knew exactly what to do.

We grabbed an emergency kit complete with flashlights, a hand-crank radio, playing cards, and the current work schedule so we could account for everyone. We also had a stock of bottled water in the shelter, so we passed out water to those who were quickly getting to know each other better. Our tornado shelters in other locations are spread out, so we do periodic training on how many people can fit into each area, where they are located, and how to best guide a dining room of more than 500 people to safe shelters.

L E SS O NS L E ARNE D: You can’t be prepared for everything, but by planning out as many scenarios as possible, you can at least have the pieces in place to handle what is most likely to occur.

We took the lessons we learned and incorporated them into our planning procedures. We have an emergency response team (ERT) that meets once a month to focus on updating current procedures, developing memorandums of understanding with other departments and community entities, developing emergency menus, flow charts, and pre-formatted responses for a variety of scenarios. Our ERT focuses on one topic every year to update in our emergency procedure plans. In the past few years, we have updated several topics including foodborne illness, fire, tornado, pandemic, power outage, and supply interruption plans.

This year, the ERT is focusing on safety and security. We have been reviewing everything from our employees arriving and leaving work safely, theft policies, vehicle safety policies, active shooter training, and food security inspections and policies. The FDA has some great resources to help organizations plan for food security, so we are taking advantage of that and incorporating their information into our internal procedures.

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Departmental critical functions are identified and each critical function is reduced to the functional components.

Contact information is confirmed for all staff members. Key people are identified with their individual skills outlined and potential work locations for that individual, such as having remote desktop for their office computer. A leadership succession plan is developed to outline who is the decision-maker. Each functional component includes documentation of the component dependencies—who produces what we need and who needs what we produce, consequences of a slow recovery and coping —and what we would do if some resources were not available or moved. Ultimately completing the critical function process will result in identification of actions that will mitigate the impact of an event. Critical functions, as defined by university dining, include (in no particular order):

receipt and storage of food and non-food, would require refrigeration for perishable food items without utilities. Our prime vendor and other product group vendors have been contacted about the possibility of providing refrigerated trucks for food storage. Each vendor we asked committed refrigerated trucks and other resources as requested, but this was only the beginning. The conversation continued to include alternate routes in the event roads are closed. Through the process, it became evident we need to plan for when trucks and well-intentioned vendors cannot physically arrive at our location. It became clear that we would need additional support and may not have other options.

This considered, we realized that a level of self-sufficiency is a necessity in the event of a level three (3) disaster. The amount of supplies required for students, staff, faculty, and emergency personnel will exhaust local supplies.

were there for an hour and a half until we received the “all clear” from the campus police department. We have land-line phones in our tornado shelters that are equipped to display emergency messages, and are able to receive these emergency messages on our cell phones, as well.

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and documentation for what the function components are. Each function component has a document description, locations of the document, both electronic and physical, and a description of back-up/loss protection measures with any additional information as to the length of time and procedure to restore the function. Each function is also given a dollar value to measure the impact of recovery methods so that appropriate resources are assigned to the recovery effort.

For several months our east campus facilities were kept operational with temporary power and steam generators. Working closely with our prime vendor, we never experienced any water or food shortages. Trash removal was not a problem.

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AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

By Dawn Aubrey, PhD, MBA, CCA , FMP, CEC Director of Dining Services University of Illinois

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Rain, rain, go away, come again another day. But you need to be prepared if the rain does not go away. The time to prepare is when it is not raining.

he purpose of the Campus Emergency Operations Plan is to provide operational guidance for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery actions to prevent or minimize injury and/or death to people and damage to property resulting from emergencies and/or disasters of natural, manmade, or technological origin. The plan is the guide for campus response and recovery operations and outlines specific actions in support of local and Champaign County response and recovery activities.

T

Level two (2) is an emergency that is not anticipated that is either natural or via a man-made source. These types of events have a higher probability of disrupting daily normal operations; for example, a severe weather event or an active shooter. These types of situations exist for several hours to a few days, and are addressed through Building Emergency Action Plans.

Crises are unavoidable and inevitable.

Knowing this, we are obligated to prepare.

Any event that prevents us from providing services in the typical, expected manner to our customers falls into one of three categories:

Level three (3) can be anticipated or not anticipated with either natural or manmade origins. These types of events have a major impact and prevent normal business operations from functioning in the intended manner; for example, an earthquake or pandemic flu. These types of events are addressed through the Business Continuity Plan and exist from a week to months.

Level one (1) is a non-emergency, which is known and anticipated; for example, an athletic event or visit from a dignitary. These types of events are addressed through normal business operations over a brief time period.

Each event that affects your ability to provide services is unique and won’t allow for a onesize-fits-all response. Preparations that are made need to be documented in a plan that is adaptable and flexible according to the crisis

STEPPING UP

WHEN IT COUNTS

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By Lisa White with Donna Boss

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Responding to an emergency requires sound judgment and quick action.

Here is a sampling of how college and university dining directors and their staffs stepped into action when disaster struck.

Cut-off Campus T HE DISASTE R : The University of California-Santa Barbara experienced winter flooding in 1998 and fire in July 2008.

IMPACT ON T HE C A M PU S AND DINING SE RV IC E S: In the flood, heavy rains the previous night and through the morning hours caused more runoff than the drainage systems on campus and within the community could handle. Roads were flooded, making it difficult to get on campus. In retail, the career staff reported to work but the chancellor announced a campus closure around 8:30 a.m. that same morning.

Campus remained closed for one day.

For the fire, campus was not closed, but was turned into a Red Cross evacuation site for the affected community. Our campus recreation center became the site for displaced families and our events center became the site for those with frail health from assisted living facilities.

IMPLEMENT IN G T HE C R ISIS MANAGEME N T PLA N : We have a campus emergency plan. The emergency operations center opened, which took responsibility for all campus emergency communication as well as assigning campus personnel to check buildings and campus safety.

LESSONS LE A R N E D : All emergencies are unique, and it’s impossible to predict outcomes. Having a plan is a very good idea, but can only be implemented if staff shows up. Road closures it made it difficult, if not impossible, to get to work during the rain and floods. Good communication from top down is

essential. Once the decision was made to close campus, communication moving forward was easy. It was the decision to close campus that took time and put us in limbo. The majority of our staff members begin work between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., so they came in and started production not knowing if the campus would remain open. We have great communication with our suppliers and distributors. They were ready and available to assist.

A DV IC E : Get in touch with all staff to confirm reopening dates and times. For FEMA reimbursements, be sure to keep all invoices, receipts, etc. —Sue Hawkins Director, UCen Dining University of California-Santa Barbara

Iced Out T HE D ISAST E R : On January 27, 2009, a major ice storm hit Murray State University in Murray, Ky.

IM PAC T ON T HE C A M P U S A N D D IN IN G SE RV I CE S : The ice storm hit on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the president shut down the campus and told students they had to go home. The residential colleges were without power or water. The only places open on campus were Winslow Dining Hall for community meals and Lovett Auditorium, which with steam heat became a warming center. Dining services was given the task of feeding anyone and everyone in the campus community. All units were closed except for

I M P L E M E NTI NG TH E CR I S I S M ANAG E M E NT P L AN: We did not have a plan effective enough for a disaster of this magnitude. The ice storm was the worst disaster in Kentucky history. It left 55 dead, 700,000 without power, and $250 million in damages. You cannot plan enough for something this devastating. A plan had been written and the university followed through with some of the plan, but not all.

In the 2009, the campus of Northern Arizona University had significant snowfall, receiving approximately four feet of snow in two days during the last week of classes for the fall semester.

I M PACT O N TH E C AMP US AND D I NI NG S E RVI C E S : Finals were cancelled for the rest of the term and rescheduled for spring semester. We had limited hours and offerings across campus, with the focus on residential facilities.

I M P L E M E NTI NG T H E C R I S I S M ANAG E M E NT P L AN: We have a standard emergency response plan in place for all types of events, including wildfires, pandemics, and snow. Since this particular storm was so well predicted, we were able to refine our standard procedures and receive additional food deliveries in advance as well as plan for staffing shortages.

L E SS O NS L E ARNE D: Focusing staff and supplies in centralized locations made working conditions safer overall. Students did not mind walking a greater distance for dining, since classes/finals were cancelled. The overall atmosphere was positive.

L E SS O NS L E AR NE D :

ADV I CE :

Don’t panic. Panicking will only make you look like you don’t know what you’re doing, and the employees need a leader when faced with a disaster such as this one. Have a plan in place for employees to report to work when disaster strikes. Also, always have a large stockpile of water.

We utilized our campus text-message service to make sure students knew what would be open and when; but other than that, there wasn’t much out of the ordinary.

—TC Eberly Director, Campus Services and Activities Northern Arizona University

ADV I CE : Have a plan. Make sure the local radio stations know your plan. Follow through with the plan.

In dining, we had no choice but to get back to normal. Classes resumed, students were back in the resident halls, and they wanted to eat.

—Terri M. Benton Associate Director of Dining Murray State University

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There was no telephone or cell phone service on campus, so everyone who worked in dining had to report to Winslow. Many of the employees could not get out of their driveways or down their roads because of downed power lines and trees. One employee walked for several blocks to report to work. The employees who could get to Winslow worked long hours to make sure people in the community had something to eat and clean water to drink. One of the cooks made coffee in a large stock pot for the workers. I remember one family that came to Winslow had four foster children and had lost all their food in their refrigerator and freezer; they literally had nothing to eat or clean water to drink. We, of course, fed anyone who came in the door. By Sunday, we were open and feeding any students who arrived back on campus. The campus re-opened on Monday, Feb. 2, 2009.

Significant Snowfall

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Winslow Dining Hall, where we operated with only minimal back-up power and cooked a few hot items outside on charcoal grills.

Bomb Threat T HE DISASTE R : The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa experienced a bomb threat in November 2011.

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During the bomb threat, all dining facilities located in the threatened buildings were closed for one hour. We had to quickly get food in a safe holding place and get staff in a safe waiting place.

IMPLEMENT IN G T HE C R ISIS MANAGEME N T PLA N : We had to have a safe place for the staff to stay during the threat, so we called the student recreation center to see if the community room was available for the 60 Lakeside Dining staff members. The 18 Burke Dining staff members went to a building nearby and waited in the basement.

ADVICE: Make sure you communicate everything with your university's public relations department and make sure they are the only ones disseminating information. Make sure everyone knows what the business continuity plan is and have one available at each location for emergencies. Show your appreciation to your team in some way. Recap as soon as possible to document things you would do differently while the situation is fresh in your mind. Give yourself two weeks to get the revised plan in place and any supplies that are needed. If you wait any longer, it will be put on the backburner because of new issues that arise.

—Kristina Hopton-Jones Director, University Dining Services University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

A River Runs Over T HE DISASTE R : The Iowa River flooded in June of 2008, affecting Iowa City and the University of Iowa.

IM PAC T ON T HE C A M P U S A N D D IN IN G SE RV I CE S : Access to Iowa City and the campus was somewhat restricted during the height of the flood, but the city was never totally isolated.

Summer camps that were taking place were suspended and participants asked to go home.

The convenience store located in Mayflower Residence Hall and the various foodservices located on the ground floor of the Iowa Memorial Union (IMU) were the only campus foodservice facilities directly impacted by the flood. C-store operations in Mayflower were suspended as flood waters rose; the basement and ground level of the building were eventually inundated. Efforts to recover began in earnest as soon as the waters receded.

Making the building ready for fall occupancy in August was a top priority for the university. A smaller, temporary C-store in another location was also part of that plan. The necessary repairs were completed and the building was open for residents by August 2008.

Retail foodservice in the IMU has still not recovered, as this area is part of the larger university flood recovery plan that includes the university, the state, and FEMA. Services in the affected area include a food court, C-store, coffee shop, and snack bar, collectively generating more than $2.5 million. The public cafeteria on the first level of the building continues to operate along with a temporary C-store, and coffee shop. Final recovery is scheduled for January 2015.

In the meantime, the residential dining Burge Market Place, located on the same side of campus as the IMU, has experienced a significant increase in the number of daily customers. Designed in 2005 to accommodate a maximum meal period of 2,700, it now serves well over 3,300. This situation has contributed to overcrowding at times within the servery and a shortage of seating within the dining room. To offset this, we have created “meal equivalencies” at three of our retail, limited-service Campus Cafes, also located on the east campus.

IM PLE M E N T IN G T HE CR I S I S M A N AGE M E N T PLAN: Our department and the university did have an emergency plan in place, but it fell short of meeting the needs of this unexpected “500year” flood. Our plans have since been updated to meet the needs of a disaster of this nature and beyond.

For several months our east campus facilities were kept operational with temporary power and steam generators. Working closely with our prime vendor, we never experienced any water or food shortages. Trash removal was not a problem.

were there for an hour and a half until we received the “all clear” from the campus police department. We have land-line phones in our tornado shelters that are equipped to display emergency messages, and are able to receive these emergency messages on our cell phones, as well.

ADV I CE : Identify alternate travel routes to your facilities based on a variety of scenarios. In our situation, several key bridges were out of commission for days and weeks, complicating access to campus and significantly increasing travel times. Also, work diligently to have administers informed as to what is realistic and feasible, based on staffing, food, beverage, and supply limitations as well as transportation and trash removal requirements. Have detailed emergency plans in place with your primary vendors.

—Greg Black Director, University Dining University of Iowa

Learning from Experience TH E D I SASTE R : Four years ago, in the summer of 2008, a very serious tornado touched down not far from the University of Northern Colorado.

I M PACT O N TH E CAM P U S AND D I NI NG S E RV I CE S : I was in our largest dining room, Holmes Dining Hall, and we happened to have 150 football players eating dinner there at the time. The managers and I quickly and calmly announced to the players that they should follow us to the tornado shelter. With that many people, our tornado shelter was packed pretty tightly.

It didn’t help that there was the distinct odor of a hard day’s practice in the air. We

We had just completed a review of our tornado procedures a few weeks prior to this event, so all of our managers knew exactly what to do.

We grabbed an emergency kit complete with flashlights, a hand-crank radio, playing cards, and the current work schedule so we could account for everyone. We also had a stock of bottled water in the shelter, so we passed out water to those who were quickly getting to know each other better. Our tornado shelters in other locations are spread out, so we do periodic training on how many people can fit into each area, where they are located, and how to best guide a dining room of more than 500 people to safe shelters.

L E SS O NS L E ARNE D: You can’t be prepared for everything, but by planning out as many scenarios as possible, you can at least have the pieces in place to handle what is most likely to occur.

We took the lessons we learned and incorporated them into our planning procedures. We have an emergency response team (ERT) that meets once a month to focus on updating current procedures, developing memorandums of understanding with other departments and community entities, developing emergency menus, flow charts, and pre-formatted responses for a variety of scenarios. Our ERT focuses on one topic every year to update in our emergency procedure plans. In the past few years, we have updated several topics including foodborne illness, fire, tornado, pandemic, power outage, and supply interruption plans.

This year, the ERT is focusing on safety and security. We have been reviewing everything from our employees arriving and leaving work safely, theft policies, vehicle safety policies, active shooter training, and food security inspections and policies. The FDA has some great resources to help organizations plan for food security, so we are taking advantage of that and incorporating their information into our internal procedures.

CRISIS

The associated financial and HR/labor contract implications need to be discussed in detail and determined in advance.

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Be aware that as bad as things are, they can get worse, and expect the unexpected. Redundant emergency plans need to be in place. If plan A won’t work, there must be plans B and C.

PLANNING

L E SS O NS L E AR NE D :

ADVICE:

CRISIS

PLANNING

Practicing the plans on a regular basis is key to successfully handling an emergency.

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Two years ago, the ERT was focusing on updating the power outage procedures. We typically serve up to 3,000 customers during our busiest meal period. The ERT developed menus, emergency supply lists, procedures, and equipment needed, and then started to put a plan in place. We tested the plan by inviting other campus departments to dinner.

We had our facilities management department actually shut off the power to the building, and then we put our plan into action. Our managers broke out emergency lighting, our cooks went to work getting the meal ready based on the emergency menus, and we fed our customers.

In this scenario, we assumed that this was “day three” and we were now serving what was on the emergency menus and not what was prepped. This menu consisted of spaghetti, alfredo sauce, marinara sauce, garlic bread, canned fruit, bananas, pudding, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tomato soup, bottled water, juices, and lemonade. Our cooks worked in the dark with headlamps in the cooler, we had a small generator provide lighting to the kitchen and dining room, and we used disposable plates. Any heat came from gas stoves with a carbon monoxide tester from our Environmental Health Department to make sure levels were not too high. Our department and university invested in a generator the size of a semi trailer that could supply power to the entire building.

Our ERT also worked on a policy and procedure for supply interruption. We needed to know that we could still feed our campus community if we were unable to receive food for a week.

In this scenario, we still had power, but no food deliveries. This could happen for many reasons, including a pandemic, road closures, severe storms, and trucking company strikes.

We looked at our inventories and developed an eight-day menu. We may not be able to open all of the stations we normally offer, and there will be a lot of creativity going on among our kitchen team, but after completing our mock exercise, we found out we could do it.

—G. Hal Brown Director of Dining Services University of Northern Colorado

Contamination in Kalamazoo T HE D ISAST E R : On November 18, 2008, a water main broke in Kalamazoo. As a result, Western Michigan University (WMU) campus lost water pressure.

This loss of water pressure introduced bacterial contamination into the water, requiring a boil water alert for a defined portion of the city of Kalamazoo, which included WMU’s campus.

The alert ended the following day.

IM PAC T ON T HE C A M P U S A N D D IN IN G SE RV I CE S : Schools in the area were closed; however, WMU classes and schedules proceeded.

IM PLE M E N T IN G T HE CR I S I S M A N AGE M E N T PLAN: All drinking water fountains on campus were covered with bags and postings were immediately placed on the doors of all buildings announcing the boil water alert.

Information was provided to all students, faculty, and staff by way of campus electronic announcements and updates, including university website announcements, “GoWMU” announcements, and the main university Web portal for students, faculty, and staff.

Significant emphasis was directed at the residence halls and on-campus apartment residents, which totaled approximately 5,300 people, plus dining services. Our branded beverage supplier delivered pallets of bottled water, which were deployed throughout campus, with particular emphasis on residence halls and apartment residents. The director of dining services was summoned to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to provide recommendations for the amount of water needed per person housed on campus and amount of water need to maintain dining operations. It was determined that five-gallon bulk water would be the best option for dining.

Upon receiving basic parameters of the boil water alert, immediate decisions were made prior to consultation with the health department in order to move as quickly as possible. All beverage dispensing equipment and ice machines were shut down; the only beverage provided in the dining halls was milk.

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CRISIS

PLANNING

All water had to be boiled for 10 minutes at a temperature of 212°F prior to use in food preparation. In the dining hall operations, our menu was followed; however, the step of boiling all water for 10 minutes prior to use in cooking was implemented. On the day of the alert, all units boiled water for 10 minutes in the kettle before closing for the day so water would be rapidly available in the morning.

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Consultation with the health department confirmed dining services took all the proper steps and added one more step, which was that all hand-washing had to include dipping hands in sanitizer.

Dish machines with hot water sanitation were appropriate to use, and use of strong sanitizer on all food contact surfaces per procedure were to be followed.

Dining services ordered five-gallon bulk water for use in the dining hall to dispense as a beverage for students and to make coffee. Air voids were used to dispense the water.

In the retail locations, dispensed beverages were no longer available, and dispensers were all shut down and bagged off. All beveragedispensing equipment was sanitized prior to service once the boil water alert was lifted.

WMU has done extensive planning with emergency preparedness. The EOC, which is a command center staffed by designated and trained individuals from the five functional emergency response teams on campus, was activated. The EOC coordinates all incoming and outgoing information for numerous constituencies, provides decisions to operations, and ensures immediate response and recovery to the emergency is properly coordinated and executed. Dining services is part of the Human Services Team, which is one of the five functional teams. The Human Services Team is tasked with response to the physical, health, and psychological needs of individuals in an emergency situation. The length of the boil water alert was unknown, so planning projected it would last two days.

There was not a specific plan written for this emergency. However, due to the defined structure of emergency response, including several exercises for “mock” disasters over the

past several years, the EOC, the functional response teams, and communication processes were defined. The priority of life-safety has been well-defined, followed by protection of property and maintaining university operations, so everybody is working from the same set of priorities.

The Human Services Team has emergency response action guidelines. All contact information is updated quarterly.

Dining services has an emergency response decision-making team, which includes the director, assistant director, and systems administrator. The team has developed a dining service emergency checklist, which is updated with each emergency exercise or event. Updated contact information is maintained. Dining services’ participation in university-wide emergency exercises has been extensive.

LE SSON S LE A R N E D : Managing the response to questions from the media is very time-consuming. It’s important to keep a log of key communications pertaining to the emergency because during the response and recovery there are periods of fatigue and stress that make you start questioning exactly what was said. When your calm wavers, bring in a back-up person and remove yourself from the situation.

A DV IC E : Be very specific regarding the emergency and what the expected actions are. Use direct and simple language, using the concept of “three”: Three key facts about the emergency, three actions that people need to do, etc. Be timely with communication to constituents by getting postings up for students immediately, communicating with staff with specific instructions as quickly as possible and ensuring that information about the status of the emergency is disseminated throughout dining services. Communicate needed supplies or information in a very decisive manner, and be prepared to explain specifically what the concern is so vendors and resource people can properly follow through or provide additional suggestions. Keep updated lists of all contacts, including vendor contact information, health department contact information, and all staff and resource people contact information.

Keep this information at work and at home

Western Michigan University

A Tornado’s Aftermath TH E D I SASTE R : In the spring of 2011, a tornado swept through Louisville, affecting the campus of Sullivan University.

I M PACT O N TH E CAM P U S AND D I NI NG S E RV I CE S : The Louisville tornado happened late in the evening over the weekend. The storm took out power on campus, damaged buildings, and a tree fell on one of our shuttle buses.

Fortunately, the student housing division wasn’t in the tornado’s path. As a result of the power outage, our gourmet restaurants— Winston’s and Julep’s—were shut down for the evening and the catering operations were moved to another facility so we could continue to operate.

These two units were closed for less than 24 hours. We have a phenomenal maintenance crew that was on site within 45 minutes to cut down trees using heavy machinery. There is not a lot of bureaucracy to deal with, since we are a smaller university.

I M P L E M E NTI NG TH E CR I S I S M ANAG E M E NT P L AN: The first thing we did is operate off of a Dean System, an electronic notification that goes out to executives and senior management on their phones. This updated us on weather from the National Weather Service. Then we started determining our plan of action and structuring food. We also notified students about what was happening, letting them know if we needed to shut down. In this case, we tracked the storm system to determine if we needed to feed students in the lower levels of our housing developments. We made sure to

Collaboration is key. Efficient and effective communication is important, and one person is needed to take charge and orchestrate the situation. You don’t need a lot of people chiming in at the beginning. In the last disaster, I happened to be here so I orchestrated the plan.

We carry $700,000 worth of food inventory, so it is important to keep that out of the danger zone. Also, it’s important to get on a phone chain list to contact vendors. By doing this, within 90 minutes we had refrigerated and freezer trucks to store our perishable food. It took just two hours to relocate this food after mobilizing everything.

PLANNING

Director of Dining Services

L E SS O NS L E ARNE D:

CRISIS

—Judy Gipper

assess problems and quickly determined what we needed to do to get rolling. The team was then assembled and a plan was put in place. We were very efficient, tactical, and strategic.

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ADV I CE : Be clear, strategic, and tactical. Make sure students and food are released into a secure environment following the disaster. Everyone needs to be kept fed and hydrated until the lights are back on. Computers and alarms need to be reset.

I was incredibly proud of my staff. I have 165 employees who report to me and 18 executive chefs. Everyone pulled together, understanding the severity of the situation and what needed to be done. Our job as leaders and educators is to provide everyone with clear and concise direction.

—Scott Stromer Director of Food and Beverage Operations Sullivan University

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and programmed into your cell phone and laptop. Take the time to write a detailed afteraction report. This provides reflection on what decisions were good and what was unnecessary.

Storms & Quakes T HE DISASTE R :

PLANNING

On August 23, 2011, the most powerful earthquake to strike the East Coast in 67 years, a 5.8 magnitude, was felt from South Carolina to Maine, including Pennsylvania.

CRISIS

In September of 2011, rainfall from Tropical Storm Lee flooded communities from Virginia to New York, including the area around the Pennsylvania College of Technology.

With the flooding, our campus was closed for about three days. Many students, staff, and employees were unable to get to the campus.

Dining units ran on emergency snow closure schedules.

IMPACT ON T HE C A M PU S AND DINING SE RV IC E S:

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88 During the earthquake, no campus closure or evacuations were required, and there were no changes to dining services.

IMPLEMENT IN G T HE C R ISIS MANAGEME N T PLA N : We implemented our plan with the flooding and have since added a section on earthquakes, which we didn’t have at the time.

The college promptly updated students and staff thru the PCT alert system using email and text messages. This is a wonderful tool because it saves time, as we didn’t need to make numerous phone calls to staff.

The director and assistant directors of dining services, as well as other office personnel, were unable to travel to the campus due to flooding in their hometowns. Directors maintained communication with each other and dining service managers via cell phones to ensure there were no problems in the various dining units.

Campus police maintain a copy of dining service’s emergency manual. This keeps them informed of our procedures and what part they play in the planning/implementation process.

Each dining service manager has a copy of the emergency manual, which includes information on what to do in the event of natural disasters, power outages, on-campus emergencies, service emergencies (equipment failure, fires, etc.), disaster plan menus, relocation of dining unit(s)

to other facilities, phone chains, pandemic procedures, campus-wide phone chain contacts, and other situations.

I was proud of the way staff kept the dining units running smoothly. Students received great customer service. Employees who had the ability to get to campus during the flood were asking to come to work and assist where needed.

A group of students who lived on campus volunteered in the community and assisted with clean-up. They could have stayed on campus and enjoyed their time away from classes, but they wanted to help those in need.

The campus community assisted students and staff members who lost so much during the flood. Monetary donations, as well as donations of clothing and appliances, were given to several families.

LE SSON S LE A R N E D : Maintain good communication. Be prepared to make adjustments in menus/service due to lack of staffing. Earthquakes can occur in Pennsylvania.

A DV IC E : Review the emergency plans with your management staff and employees. Periodically test their knowledge of what to do if “—” happens. Update manuals as needed, and keep staff aware of the updates. Directors should keep a copy of emergency manuals at home and/or accessible via computer, just in case they are unable to get to campus. This was especially true in regard to flooding when roadways and bridges were closed. This allows you to manage the situation, even if you are not on campus and/or unable to get to campus.

—Noelle Bloom Assistant Director of Dining Services Pennsylvania College of Technology

A True Test T HE D ISAST E R : Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005, and was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. Baton Rouge, home of Louisiana State University, was one of the areas affected by the storm.

There is a tremendous knowledge base on a college campus to make things happen and happen fast. Students actually created a database to handle all the volunteers, and set up a Web-based system overnight to send messages to volunteers to their phones to let them know when it was their turn to come into work.

The sense of volunteerism, especially among the students, was amazing. One of the saddest things I’ve ever seen was the line of buses coming on campus with little kids, all with cardboard tags with their first names, separated from their parents. And then to watch these college students come up to them and hug them and play with them or read to them and take their minds off of their problems was just amazing. At LSU, we were fortunate that there was a football game and the concessions department was fully stocked with bottled beverages and ice, since our local supplier was wiped out in the storm. We were able to provide some of the water back to the supplier for other customers.

L E SS O NS L E AR NE D : I now work at George Mason University in Northern Virginia, and the lessons learned from Katrina are being implemented in the disaster planning for this campus.

The George Mason campus is identified as evacuation point for those in D.C. We plan, practice, and review what we would do in case of an emergency. The campus Office of Health and Safety is responsible for leading the efforts.

There is now an emergency operations center and a backup location. People are assigned to be in the center to bring the resources together and be able to react quickly to situation at hand.

Having multiple food suppliers in case we are not able to source from our normal channel is a priority, as is having an agreement in place as well as a standing order. We are reviewing the original list of equipment that is on the emergency generator grid and making choices so we are as efficient as possible, and yet serve the community. The fuel tank was resized to have fuel for a 72-hour window.

ADV I CE : Have a meeting during which you look at what would happen if your supplies were shut off for 72 hours. What foods could you prepare with limited kitchen equipment or service locations?

Is it worth devoting a staff meeting once a year to review what the response should be?

One of the things I realized is that you have to listen to people, and not just say, “It’s only my way.” That person you think has a crazy idea might actually come up with something no one else has thought of to get the job done. You need to get to the end goal, no matter what it takes.

—Mark Kraner Exec. Dir., Campus Retail Operations George Mason University (formerly, Director of Contracted Auxiliary Services, Louisiana State University)

PLANNING

We’re a little gun-shy now, but we are ready for the next disaster on a higher level than ever before. We have set up an emergency operations center that will become the one place to go and the one voice for the campus in an emergency. We have built into our policy what we as a foodservice department will and won’t do; for example, no running meals around to departments. We have stepped up and gone to a digital radio system and backed it up so we have continual access to each other.

CRISIS

The day after Hurricane Katrina hit, there was no public transportation, which a lot of people rely on to get around. Yet 95 percent of my staff showed up for work and they worked until there was no more to do. All I had to do was say, “This is what needs to happen,” and they would make it happen. They were courteous and caring; they reached out to the evacuees and took them into their homes, and there was never any expectation of “what’s in it for me.” My staff was amazing. They were there no matter what.

We’re undergoing a $20 million renovation of some of our facilities, and as we build and select equipment, we are looking for what can be converted from natural gas to propane gas, what can be put outside so we can continue to cook and how we can get potable water from alternative sources. Having multiple food suppliers in case we are not able to source from our normal channel is a priority, as is having an agreement in place as well as a standing order.

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Living with Uncertainty

IM PAC T ON T HE C A M P U S A N D D IN IN G SE RV I CE S :

T HE DISASTE R :

IM PLE M E N T IN G T HE CR I S I S M A N AGE M E N T PLAN:

On March 27, 2009, a flood affected Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn.

IMPLEMENT IN G T HE C R ISIS MANAGEME N T PLA N : Our department handled internal communication very well. We walked away from campus that Friday not knowing when or to what we’d be returning. Our management team met the day before to finalize our crisis communication plan until we were able to return to campus. Every day around 5:00 p.m., each manager and supervisor phoned his or her direct reports to share an update on the latest news from campus regarding what the water situation was, if any buildings were flooded or in danger, anticipated date of campus reopening, and also to check in and offer moral support to staff members who were battling to keep the water away from their own homes. There were some days when the “news” was exactly the same as the day before but we called anyway, every day at 5 p.m.

LESSONS LE A R N E D : It seems simple and logical in hindsight, but we could have just as easily walked away and told staff we’d call them when we had some news, but I think calling every day helped all of us maintain a sort of routine, and it definitely helped when we finally received notification that campus was to reopen and we needed to communicate the return‐to‐work plan.

All units within dining services were closed for approximately 45 minutes.

I was at home at the time and received a phone call several minutes prior to the warning. I gave instructions to the manager on duty to continue business as usual but to be alert.

Within five minutes of that conversation, the warning siren sounded and I immediately called the manager on duty and instructed her to shut off all equipment and move everyone to the lower level of the building. During our conversation, the fire alarm sounded, and I immediately responded to the building within three minutes to assess the situation. Because we had two conflicting situations—a tornado warning meant to stay inside the building and a fire alarm meaning evacuate the building —I just used my better judgment, which was deemed later to be the correct choice.

LE SSON S LE A R N E D : Always remain calm, give detailed instructions and have a workable recovery plan. We scheduled a meeting shortly afterwards for our staff and talked about this incident and put together a future plan.

A DV IC E : Be willing to take charge because lives may depend on your leadership skills.

Always be specific with instructions because there’s usually no time for second guessing.

Give praise at the end because you have done your best with the help of others.

—Janet Paul Rice Associate Director, Dining Services

—Mike Ferguson

Concordia College

Assistant Director of Dining Services Ferrum College ◆

Severe Storm T HE DISASTE R : Ferrum, Va., home of Ferrum College, experienced a severe hail and wind storm accompanied by a tornado warning in March 2012.

The two phrases, “business continuity planning” and “disaster recovery” are often used synonymously. However, business continuity planning is a comprehensive approach to make sure your business continues after a disaster or emergency.

Disaster recovery, on the other hand, refers to the process by which business is resumed after a disruptive event. Disaster recovery plans are usually included in business continuity planning. How both are implemented has impact on a business’s ability to function after a disruptive event until its normal facilities and systems are restored.

AN ACTION PLAN CHECKLIST This checklist provides a guide for the key steps to go through in developing a disaster action plan, beginning with the establishing of a crisis management team to the specification of procedures for dealing with supplies, logistics, communications, training and exercises/drills, and more.

These key steps make up the essentials of a disaster action plan—they should be employed by any type of facility and are the minimum requirements for dealing with any kind of disaster.

THE CRISIS MANAGEMENT TEAM o Identify members of a core team with defined roles for preparedness and response planning. The planning process should include representatives from the business (bank, etc.), the company liaison to foodservice, the contract company if applicable, employees at various levels, unions if applicable. o Identify the roles and responsibilities of each employee or position. o W ho are the people required to keep the essential parts of the business running? o Get the support of all senior-level managers for the entire disaster action plan. o W hat are the core skills required to keep business running? o What training is required? o Are there sufficient back-ups for people and skills in view of absence (if employees can’t come to work)? o Identify a pool of retirees, volunteers, etc., who may be able to provide backup. o Can you train and prepare an ancillary workforce? o I f there is a pandemic or other reason people shouldn’t or can’t get to work, who are core people required to manage the disease contingency plan? These people should consider

PLANNING CRISIS

Business continuity planning and disaster recovery are processes that help organizations prepare for disruptive events.

They are designed for risk avoidance. The event may be as overwhelming as Hurricane Katrina and the terrorist attacks on 9/11 or as annoying as the breakdown of a critical piece of equipment right before peak production begins.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control, Michael Stapleton Associates, International Association of Foodservice Distributors, “Disaster and Emergency Preparedness in Foodservice Operations,” by Ruby P. Puckett, MA, RD, and L. Charnette Norton, MS, RD, and CSO [Crisis Security Officer] magazine and website.

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Excerpts from the Society for Foodservice Management (SFM) Planning for Crisis: Business Continuity for Food Services, 2006.

Reprinted with permission.

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social distancing—even working from home, very early in the pandemic phase. Who will supervise their work? Who will perform functions they are performing while onsite?

o Do you need to train anyone so he/she will be prepared? If so, what training will you offer?

o Are there any systems that rely on periodic physical intervention by a key individual to keep them going?

How long would the system last without attention if there was no one looking after it?

o Develop specific checklists for each type of disaster. Though many steps/ procedures are similar before, during and after a crisis, there are variations based on the types of storms, contamination, contagious diseases, etc.

Prepare a business impact analysis o Conduct a risk assessment for your business and department to determine how likely each of the disasters is and what the possible impact each will have on your business in the short, medium and long term. For example, the risk assessment level for an earthquake in Vermont is low, whereas the risk assessment level for a hurricane in Florida is very high. o Develop and plan for scenarios likely to result in an increase or decrease in demand for your products and/or services before, during and after a crisis. How will this affect your purchasing? Need for supplies? Allocation of resources? o Under certain disaster situations, foodservice may be asked to cater off-site locations. Plan for the need to obtain additional food and employee-hours in a crisis situation.

Plan for each type of disaster

o Develop short-, medium- and long-range plans. It is not always possible to predict how long a disaster such as a terrorist attack or a pandemic will last.

Suppliers o W ho are the essential suppliers, vendors, and service providers required to maintain business operations, by location and function? Meet with these individuals to determine what they might be able to provide during a crisis. o Determine what to do if suppliers cannot make deliveries. o Identify and contact your competitors in the local area. In times of crisis, you may need to contact a competitor for assistance, support, supplies, etc.

Supplies o Purchase emergency supplies and find a safe, secure place to store them.

o Determine the effect of disruption on the business. This will determine how much money should be allocated for establishing back-up systems, remaining open or shutting the doors of a dining facility, arranging transportation for employees, etc.

o Develop a system of evaluation and replacement so items are up to date, functioning, and ingestible.

o Build in recovery time. Business can’t necessarily get up and running immediately. How will you phase into normal operating procedures?

o Identify limited and/or restricted areas of access. What will be the impact during a crisis?

Chain of command during a crisis. o Identify people who can back up those with key roles if key people can’t perform their functions.

Logistics o Identify exit and evacuation routes.

o Familiarize yourself with the location where deliveries are made. Could those areas be restricted during a crisis? If so, what alternative plans must be made? o Identify the means of identification needed for internal employees, visitors, suppliers, emergency personnel. Do they need badges? ID’s?

o Decide how inspections of the contents of employee lockers, computers, bags and automobiles will be handled, if needed. o Select a place for the storage of emergency supplies, including items such as flashlights, and also food and water. o Set up systems for sanitary procedures.

Remember, water supplies may be cut off. o Develop plans for use of alternate work sites.

Security and safety o Determine who can enter foodservice areas and who will give them access. o Determine which companies and individuals can deliver food and supplies, the type of vehicle they use, license plate numbers and proper identification. o Review contracts with suppliers to make sure their food handling practices support your need for a Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. Review all “normal” procedures for receiving and storage and use this to determine if you can remain HACCP compliant during a disaster. o Set up a system for monitoring areas where supplies are delivered and stored.

Theft and contamination must be deterred as much as possible. o W hat system is in place to detect missing products and damages? What is the system of reporting such abnormalities?

Look for shipments containing abnormal odors, liquids, and powders. o Call in an engineer to determine if your entrances and exits are secure. o C heck also trash removal areas, loading docks and any areas with access to and from the building. o If a disaster causes food and water damage or contamination, determine how to secure and/or remove these products so they will not be consumed. o Select a site for storage of hazardous chemicals.

o Set up procedures for determining if the water is safe to drink and/or use for other purposes. o Determine what you will do to detect power outages and gas and chemical leaks. o Set up a system for validating computer security systems.

Sustenance o Develop menus that can be implemented with and without use of power. o Determine which pieces of equipment should be used if you have power. o If you don’t have power, what is your back-up plan? o Determine levels of service in order of priority. Are you equipped to serve visitors, emergency service providers and others who may need food and water? Are you able to handle employees’ families if they should arrive at the facility? o Consider purchasing MREs (meals ready-to-eat) rather than stocking with all the essential foods. These have a long shelf-life, and though they aren’t as tasty as your cuisine, nutrition rather than taste and enjoyment should take precedence during a crisis.

Communications o Select a key command person in charge of communications who can set up systems, including the monitoring of incoming and outgoing calls, giving instructions to staff and facilitating communication for any reason. o Collaboration is a must. Work with business leaders in different departments to develop a plan. Once the plan has been developed, it must be tested. Then, it must be disseminated to everyone who may be affected by a crisis. o Set up a system for notifying employees about the crisis and communicating

planning

o Determine where employees’ personal items should be stored.

o Set up procedures for dishwashing and cleaning of equipment.

crisis

o Determine who is allowed in various departments. Is media allowed?

o Select a site for storage of personal protective equipment.

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o What information is required?

with them during and after a crisis.

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o Develop contact lists for crisis hot lines, employees, emergency services, vendors and suppliers.

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Knowledge management o Knowledge will need to be stored in easily accessible shared locations, because key people may become sick or die.

o Develop lists of outside individuals/ agencies that provide emergency assistance, such as the Red Cross, fire and police departments and hospitals.

o Consider setting up shared locations for contingency planning information.

o Set up procedures by which you recommend sources of professional help to employees. Some companies have strict regulations governing this practice.

o Arrange for back-up of all data, including laptop computers.

o Identify employees and key customers with special needs and incorporate the requirements of such persons into your preparedness plan. Inform everyone on your staff what procedures will be taken.

Training and exercises/drills

o Devise communications materials that provide employees with information they will need so as to understand what might happen during an emergency or disaster and what is expected of them during this time.

Media Communications o Establish a crisis communication team. o Determine who is the “spokesperson” for the organization. o Identify precise procedures for handling media calls and requests for interviews.

Also, plan for surprise visits. o If you are authorized to speak with the media, anticipate questions you will be asked and answers you will give, along with their political and social implications.

Business planning for absence o Determine the critical numbers and skills required to keep essential sectors of the business running. At what absence level does business stop? o Determine who will make the decision to shut sections of the business down if absence rates threatened safe business continuity. o Determine if people can logistically work from home (social distancing).

o Determine where essential business information should be stored.

o Determine if you will be able access data upon disaster recovery.

o Set schedules for disaster and emergency training. o Set up practice sessions. The most advanced sessions should simulate as much projected “reality” as possible. o Debrief, revising your plan as needed. o Don’t scrimp on the costs of planning and training. During the testing phases, address all possible weaknesses and gaps and fix them in the next draft of the disaster action plan.

Establish policies to be implemented during and after a crisis o Establish policies for employee compensation and sick-leave absences unique to the situation (storm, pandemic, etc.) Will transportation be subsidized? o Establish policies for flexible worksite (e.g., telecommuting) and flexible work hours (e.g., staggered shifts). o Set up authorities, triggers and procedures for activating and terminating the company’s response plan, altering business operation and transferring business knowledge to key employees.

—continued on page 98

By Dean Wright, Director of Dining Services, Brigham Young University, and Lori Mason, Director of Education, NACUFS

E D U C AT I O N

Training That Prepares You for a Crisis

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H1NI,

earthquakes, civil disobedience, tornadoes, fires, bomb threats, energy failures, chemical/ hazardous materials accidents, shots fired—these are all emergencies collegiate dining services have experienced in the past few years. How aware are you of the world around you?

Safety presentations on flights usually include a statement asking passengers to be aware that the nearest exit may be behind them. But, have you ever noticed how few people actually look over their shoulder to check out the nearest exit?

It doesn’t take that much more effort to be prepared.

Facing the challenges of preparing for any emergency can be a daunting task. The NACUFS Facilities Management Institute provides the basic framework for participants to construct their own emergency preparedness plan, making them better equipped to handle the next crisis.

How prepared is your operation? Do you have an emergency plan? What about contingency plans and communication avenues? Even if your school has a written plan, is it updated and tested on a regular basis? Don’t forget the emergency aftermath—do you have a business continuity plan?

DD E epartments U C AT I O N

The purpose of any collegiate dining services emergency preparedness plan is to support the general campus plan with the major goals of:

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1. Saving lives.

2. Preserving and protecting property (both personal and university).

3. R estoring university and dining services’ critical functions so the mission of the university can continue.

In order to accomplish this, every foodservice operation should have, in writing, a plan which addresses the three components of an emergency: the preparation planning, the first 72 hours, and long range business continuity. The NACUFS Facilities Management Institute provides the basic framework to help foodservice professionals write and understand an emergency plan that includes all three components.

Preparation Planning

Dean Wright, director of dining services at Brigham Young University and the facilitator and primary presenter at the Facilities Management Institute, explains to participants that the primary responsibility for emergency preparedness within dining services usually rests with the director. The director may, in turn, appoint an emergency preparedness coordinator who is primarily responsible for training.

“Understanding roles and lines of authority is key when dealing with a disaster,” Wright says.

Wright uses this example to prove his point: “A well-known theme park was prepared when facing a potentially hazardous materials emergency a few years ago. The established lines of authority helped everyone organize and do their jobs. The foodservice director reported to the director of risk management and ‘worked the plan.’ However, when the situation warranted bringing in the National Guard, the chain of command changed and director of risk management then reported to the commander of the Guard. While instructions changed from the plan the theme park had developed, there was no glitch as the risk management director took new directions from the commander and these directions were then implemented by the foodservice director. There was order in what could have been a very confusing situation, which helped the employees perform their tasks and helped calm the guests.”

The dining service organization should have an emergency preparedness coordinator who works directly with the campus risk management office to assure that the department provides a range of training in emergency and disaster response. The department’s emergency preparedness coordinator also can provide fire prevention/training, accident prevention/safety training, hazardous materials response, and other safety/security or emergency planning training. Several of these components are discussed further during the Facilities Management Institute, including a preview of an attention-getting “Shots Fired” training video that emphasizes both the importance of awareness and preparation, as well as the need to take immediate action.

Planning for the first 72 hours

Wright emphasizes, “In a major disaster, the first 72 hours are the most critical for the foodservice department. During this time the department must be prepared to respond without assistance from outside agencies.” A thorough emergency preparedness plan should consider what you would do if one or more of the following scenarios occur: • • • • •

Extensive damage to your building(s).

Telephones (including cellular phones) are inoperable.

PCs, cash registers, and other equipment are inoperable.

The dining service’s offices are intact, but not accessible.

Files and hard copy records are not accessible.

While one may think, “this will never happen on my campus,” unfortunately, these five scenarios often do happen. How prepared is your department to face these realities? Role-playing scenarios will help your department develop a comprehensive plan of how to survive the critical first 72 hours.

1. Contact information—Identifying key contacts within your foodservice.

2. Primary product or service provided—Listing the critical campus product or services you provide and the critical time limit (the period of time after which a lack of this service causes a significant negative impact on the school’s ability to provide for instruction or the health and safety of its students and staff).

3. Required campus support services—Listing those products or services critical to your daily operations.

4. Hazardous materials—Listing any hazardous material under your responsibility.

5. C ritical equipment—Listing the time after which a failure to provide this equipment could cause a significant negative impact on the school.

6. Critical vendors—Including contact name, phone, product or service, and critical time limit.

7. Locations —Listing all locations where your dining operation has offices or other operations.

8. Call log—To be used in an emergency.

9. Inventory sheet—Handwritten in case electronic media is inoperable.

10. Time sheets—Copies of printed time sheets.

An emergency will test your department to the limit. The principles discussed in the Facilities Management Institute will help prepare you and your school to be more aware of the world around you and be better prepared to face the challenges that come in a variety of emergency situations.

Whether you are currently in the role of foodservice director or emergency preparedness coordinator, or hope to advance into one of these roles in the future, you and your organization will benefit from the training you have to be prepared before a crisis situation happens.

In addition to crisis management preparation, the Facilities Management Institute focuses on best practices related to designing and maintaining sustainable and energy-efficient facilities; optimal layout and space planning; equipment selection and maintenance; sanitation; and the latest technologies in food equipment technology. Participants tour Miami University and hear from Kathleen Seelye, president of Ricca Newmark Design/Envision Strategies, Robert Leandro, director of facility and physical plant at Harvard University, and a series of product line experts from sponsor, Hobart Corporation. The next Facilities Management Institute will be held June 23-27, 2012, at the Hobart headquarters in Troy, Ohio. To learn more, go to www.nacufs.org/institutes. u

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What happens after the critical 72 hours? Participants at the Facilities Management Institute discuss the foundations of the business continuity plan (BCP). By creating a BCP foundation plan worksheet your department will be on its way to having a plan to face the future and get back to work after the emergency. The BCP foundation worksheet includes the following information which should be readily available in any foodservice operation:

DD E E U PA CR AT M I OE NN T S

Planning for business continuity

10 crisis

planning

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no-compromise basics your detailed written Crisis plan should cover

1)

Develop a core team with defined roles and responsibilities. Do not exclude any function or activity. Select locations where will you, your core team and employees will go if your facility is shut down or inaccessible.

2)

Designate employees who will serve a back-up function in emergency situations, in case those employees with primary responsibilities in an emergency are unavailable.

3)

Analyze risk. What is the likelihood of disasters in your area? Develop specific plans and procedures for each possible disaster.

4)

Have a well-defined communication plan, including a communication “tree” which clearly indicates how to communicate with internal employees during and after a disaster and what to do if telephone lines and/or cells aren’t working. Test methods of communication under disaster scenarios among employees, with customers and with the world outside your facility.

food, water and supplies, procedures for the safe and sanitary handling of food, water, supplies and any other materials and interaction with other departments.

Emergency procedure practice drills are crucial. During practice drills, be sure the hypothetical scenarios are presented with sufficient realism to engage the emotions of employees. It is necessary to see how employees react under stress. In addition, emergency procedure practice drills should be conducted so as to reveal where there are weaknesses in planning or in employee performance. Evaluate every drill and work to improve errors or shortcomings.

6)

Contact suppliers and establish plans for business continuity in many different situations. Remember that access to your facility may be limited if not impossible during a disaster.

7)

Take steps to ensure that local emergency response agencies— firefighters, police and EMTs—become familiar with your facility and that you develop good working relationships with them.

8)

Remember: Develop lists of all individuals with whom you may need to communicate.

These lists include business and home telephone, cell phone and pager numbers, email addresses, and other pertinent information, such as personal contacts.

Keep enough food, water and supplies on hand to survive for a minimum of three days and preferably seven days.

Disasters can be unpredictable and you must be prepared.

5)

Take care of yourself as much as possible, because if you become ill or weak, you can’t lead and help others.

Require all employees, including management staff, to participate regularly in training programs, which should include everything that will prepare employees for expected and unexpected events during an emergency or disaster: the emergency and disaster plan, the disaster feeding plan, the location of all

9)

10)

Be sure to update your disaster action plan whenever there are changes in personnel, equipment or the facility as a whole, such as redesigns. u

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