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BREAKFAST
 Flying Star Serves Up All-Day Breakfast

Like most diners, you can get breakfast at the Flying Star Diner all day. What makes this diner different is that it is one of six stations at Market Central on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.

“It is a beautiful station in itself,” said Jodi Ludovici, resident district manager with Sodexo, the campus foodservice provider. “There are little twinkling lights above the signage there that make them look like stars. It really is very appealing. We have the traditional diner look with the modern edge.”

The choice to serve breakfast all day was not done solely to be like other diners. “What it comes down to is that we find here, and at some other campuses I have been on, that breakfast is more popular from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. than it is from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.,” said Tod Shoenberger, director of operations. “Students are looking for that comfort food all the time during the day.”

Flying Star includes a number of breakfast options. “Part of that breakfast all day includes omelets to order and the traditional breakfast fare — your bacon, your sausage, your eggs, waffles to order; we do have that program as well,” he said. “A couple of the unique things we do there are the breakfast sandwiches, cinnamon-sugar French toast and different kinds of egg burritos.”

HAND-HELD FOODS
 RetoolingOperations

When Mott Community College in Flint, Mich. decided to bring food service back on campus after a two-year hiatus, the administration decided it would make sure the new operation would be successful. One way that it is successful is the inclusion of a large amount of hand-held foods for its on-the-go campus population.

“Part of our dilemma with food services is that we had attempted for years, like a number of community college colleagues, to run foodservice operations,” said Scott J. Jenkins, vice president of Student and Administrative Services at the college. “Foodservice operations were in a college center building and it was on a lower level. We tried a number of different venues to increase volume, but everything we did really just did not create enough volume for our operation to sustain itself. We were losing about $100,000 a year, with every kind of contract we could work out.”

The decision was made to shut the foodservice operations down and increase the number of vending machines on campus. “When we shut down, we had always anticipated opening another foodservice operation,” he said. “We knew we needed to get away from what we were doing and totally rethink the whole operation.”

BRANDING ON CAMPUS
 USC Opens New Beverage Operation

The new George Lucas School of Cinematic Arts Building at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles features a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf location, the first on the campus.

“We did a thorough review and had a series of meetings with all potential brands and options. We ended up being able to get a great arrangement, and worked out a deal and felt the Coffee Bean brought a uniqueness,” said Scott Shuttleworth, director of hospitality at USC. “We had a lot of Starbucks that were already on campus and it gave us a uniqueness for that venue. It is a very well-regarded brand, and they were able to work closely with the dean and follow our design aspects for the conceptual integrity of the platform in the School of Cinematic Arts. They are great brand partners, great to work with and so far it has been very well received by the School of Cinematic Arts and the university.”

 Buffalo State “Jumps” for Asian Food

When Buffalo State College in New York was trying to decide which outlets to add to its brand-new retail food court, foodservice staff traveled with students to different campuses to see what would be the best fit.

“The college brought a group of students to Kent State [in Ohio], and the Jump Asian Express concept at Kent was something they were really interested in,” said Deirdre Kennedy, general manager for Sodexo, the campus foodservice provider. “They really liked the Asian options.”

The location offers a variety of Asian cuisine. “Every day, we have two pre-made stir-frys with beef and chicken; based on the menu mix, we have a planned menu of two options every day with white rice, a stir-fried rice, a variety of vegetables, lo mein noodles and egg rolls — vegetarian and Southwestern chicken,” she said. “Along with that, we also do stir-frys to order. You can customize your stir-fry. That way, we have the ability to do stir-frys with beef, chicken, shrimp or vegetarian. Those are the different styles of food that we do off of that area.”

DESIGN
 Hitting Home Runs on a Daily Basis

When Boise State University in Idaho expanded its Student Union, it not only added a new dining space — the Boise River Café — but also a new chef and new cuisine.

“We have added 67,000 square feet to the Student Union,” said Jack Rahmann, director of the Student Union, whose food service is operated by Aramark. “The new dining hall seats 425 guests. We also remodeled a good portion of the 185,000 square feet of the Student Union. So all tolled, it is now 252,000 square feet.”

Rapid growth on campus — and in the city of Boise itself — made the expansion necessary. “Our student enrollment has grown very steadily over the last 10 years,” he said. “We are rapidly approaching 20,000 students. Fourteen years ago we had 14,000 students.

“The growth is not just in numbers, but the level of activity on campus. We are seeing a lot more use of the Student Union at a lot of levels. There were more residence halls built three years ago, which upped the board dining participation, and we are the board dining facility in the Student Union.”

• AROUND THE CAMPUS

Bates College to Provide Nutritional Guidance for Campus Dining Bates College in Lewiston, Maine has partnered with nutrition navigation system Guiding Stars to provide students with nutritional information. First implemented in 2006 and now used in approximately 1,400 grocery stores, the science-based Guiding Stars system rates foods with zero to three stars highlighting items according to good, better or best nutritional value, respectively. The Bates partnership is Guiding Stars' first with a college. Guiding Stars is a simple, at-a-glance tool that allows students and other Bates diners to easily choose foods that offer the most nutrition for the calories. “At Bates, we believe strongly in nourishing mind and body by offering food that's fresh, delicious and healthful,” said Christine Schwartz, director of Dining Services. “Guiding Stars lets us do that much more effectively — it gives our customers an easy guide to enhance their menu choices.” The Bates-Guiding Stars partnership began in April, with the intent to start labeling pre-packaged foods during the summer and expand the program to all foods offered at Bates, including the college's proprietary dining hall recipes, by the beginning of the Fall semester in September 2010. “We salute Bates' longstanding commitment to high-quality, innovative food service and nutrition education,” said John Eldredge, director of brand and business development at Guiding Stars Licensing Company. Guiding Stars' evidence-based, proprietary algorithm for assessing nutritional value credits a given food product for the presence of vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and whole grains. It debits the food item for the presence of trans fats, saturated fats, cholesterol, added sugars and added sodium. The system employs the most current recommendations from such established health-standards agencies as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agricul-ture (USDA). • Sandwich Challenge Issued Rich's has issued a challenge to college and university foodservice professionals to come up with their ultimate sandwich creations in a contest to promote the launch of its new Freezer-to-Oven (FTO) Fresh 'n Ready Classic Sandwich Breads. The deadline for entry into the contest is June 22, 2009, and recipes can be entered in three categories: healthy, regional favorites or hot/cold. The grand-prize winner — the Ultimate Sandwich Innovator — will receive a $175 gift certificate to www.allheartchefs.com, while each category winner will receive a $75 gift certificate. Rich's will also promote the winning operations and their recipes at its booth at the 2009 National Association of College & University Food Services (NACUFS) National Conference in Milwaukee, Wis. The company will also feature the winning recipe in promotional materials and in On-Campus Hospitality. Winners also receive free registration to the 2010 NACUFS National Conference in San Jose, Calif. For more information about the contest, visit www.numberonesandwich.com.

Epic Flood Brings Out Best at Concordia When record floods hit the area around Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., Dining Services stepped up to help out the campus — and the city. During the week of March 23, classes at Concordia were cancelled and groups of Dining Services staff and student workers joined sandbag efforts, while many took to the kitchen, preparing nearly 2,000 sandwiches for volunteer flood fighters. Along with the sandwiches, thousands of bottles of water, as well as chips and cookies, were donated and distributed at sandbagging sites throughout Moorhead and nearby Fargo, N.D. While volunteer efforts were taking place, residential dining and cash operations were in full swing, preparing and serving meals for their usual customer base, along with members of the community who were on campus to assist in the flood fight. “The menu and our operations had to be constantly evolving to adhere to the changing situation,” said Debra Lee, director of Dining Services. When water was shut off on campus, Dining Services was ready. Plans had been made to streamline the menu to items that were convenient and would eliminate water usage. Plates, silverware and cups were quickly replaced by their disposable counterparts and trays were removed from the servery. On Saturday, March 28, the campus closed and Concordia, along with the surrounding neighborhood, was evacuated due to the threat of the rising river and sewer backup. Prepared menu items were donated to Daily Bread Food Bank, a local non-profit organization that offers food to those in need. “This situation brought out the best in our team. We were able to continue serving the campus quality food while assisting in our community through food and sandbagging efforts,” said Lee. “Everyone on our team helped achieve success in Dining Services and throughout the community during this emergency.” Because of quick action and thousands of volunteers, the majority of the Fargo-Moorhead community avoided flood waters. Concordia College and Dining Services reopened April 6 with a new sense of pride in their students, staff and community.

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