Experience of a Lifetime

So, last Wednesday UHDS hosted Soul Food Café at McNary Dining for the 3^rd year in a row.  Soul Food Café is one of several “Journeys through Culture and Cuisine” that UHDS has hosted over the last few years and last week’s event was designed to celebrate Black History month.  Each of these cultural events is an outgrowth of our Diversity Initiative which is a multi-faceted approach to creating communities that are open, caring and supportive of students from all cultures.  As a department, our Diversity Initiative is aspirational.  We know we have more work to do to creative inclusive environments, but we are dedicated and committed to the journey and we ask the rest of the campus community to join us and support us as we travel on our journey.

Working with our campus partners brings great energy to these events and I appreciate everyone’s involvement.  The Tye Curtis blues band also brought energy to last week’s event and they rocked the house.

The menu created by our culinary team was also truly exceptional and coming up real soon will be available daily at Cooper’s Creek BBQ which will open next month at Marketplace West.

Rich Turnbull

Just another person loving the Cooper's Creek ribs.

You may be noticing signs of spring as you walk along campus…the sweet smell of the daphne flower blooming and crocus flowers  bursting out of the ground….although spring is approaching, we are still in what we call “flu season”.  While the flu season varies from year to year, on average, it lasts through March.

The good news?  Healthy habits can reduce your risk for getting sick.

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention advises these good health habits for flu prevention

• Practice good hygiene!
• Eat nutritious foods
• Drink plenty of fluids
• Be physically active
• Manage your stress levels
• Get plenty of sleep

There are some key nutrients that will give you an immunity boost.  Try some of the highlighted choices at our UHDS dining centers.  Not only do they taste great, but they may provide you with a little extra protection this flu season.

• Beta Carotene, an antioxidant and source of Vitamin A, is found in dark leafy green or bright orange produce such as carrots, yams, cantaloupe and spinach.
• Vitamin C, an antioxidant, is found in fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, potatoes, citrus fruits, mangoes.
• Vitamin E, an antioxidant, is found in whole grains, nuts and seeds such as brown rice, whole wheat, quinoa, flax seed and walnuts–all great sources.
• Zinc, a mineral known for its cold fighting abilities, is found in most breakfast cereals, nuts, beans, poultry and red meat.

Be Well!

Tara Sanders

UHDS Dietitian

Tara.sanders@oregonstate.edu

Interested In “Social Networking”? Check Out Dinner in UHDS Dining Centers!

We have begun the Wellness Roundtable Series and it has been a pleasure to meet you and observe the “dinner scene” in UHDS dining centers.  Dinner is a much more relaxed and social and lacks the busy, driven pace that the lunch hour takes on.  Dinner is definitely about slowing down sharing a great meal  (and laughter) with friends.

It is no surprise that we like to eat together and studies show that social eating can be good for us by improving our sense of “social connectedness” which contributes to our overall sense of well being.  Some studies show eating in a social environment can actually improve one’s overall nutritional status; this is particularly the case for those who are socially and physically isolated.

There also can be relationship between social eating and weight gain and we may eat more calories when we are with others than we do when we are eating alone.  We also tend to take in more calories when we eat at restaurants compared to when we prepare food for ourselves.

On a bright note, we can also positively influence on each other….studies show that people with strong social ties (couples, friends, family members) that exercise and engage in healthy eating together have improved success in weight loss and overall health outcomes.

So by choosing a nice crisp apple for a side or a snack you may improve your health and you may be a positive influence on your friends!  Give it a try!

I’m looking forward to meeting more of you at the Wellness Roundtable, a fun “discussion over dinner” group in the UHDS dining centers for any and all that would like to join.  Look for the Wellness Table Talk sign in the dining centers; that is where we will be meeting. Scroll down my January 5^th blog to view timeframes and topics of discussion.

See you soon!  Be Well!

Tara Sanders

UHDS Registered Dietitian

Tara.sanders@oregonstate.edu

Welcome back to OSU!  Hopefully your break from classes was restful and enjoyable!

I’m looking forward to meeting with you all for the Wellness Table Talk Series beginning this term.  This will be an informal and fun “discussion over dinner” group that will meet in the UHDS dining centers for any and all that would like to join.  Look for the Wellness Table Talk sign in the dining centers—this is where we will be meeting.

The meeting schedule will be the same each month for the following dining centers:

McNary: 2^nd Tuesday of the month, 5-6 PM

Arnold: 3^rd Tuesday of the month, 5-6 PM

West: 4^th Tuesday of the month, 5-6 PM

Here is a sneak peak at some of the topics we will be discussingJ Although we will talk a bit about these topics, the conversation will be open to any and all wellness related topics you all would like to discuss!

January: Immune Boosting Behaviors

February: Make Your Calories Count: Energy Balance

March: Fruit and Vegetables: Why Color Is Important

April: A New Look At Sodium: Can It Cause High Pressure?

May: The Power of Whole Grains

See you soon!  Be Well!

Tara Sanders

UHDS Registered Dietitian

Tara.sanders@oregonstate.edu

Hello!  My name is Tara Sanders and I am University Housing and Dining Services’ registered dietitian.  Primarily, I:

• Consult with residents with special dietary considerations
• Work with the UHDS culinary team to promote healthy options and choices for all on-campus residents, including those with special dietary considerations (vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, etc)
• Maintain nutrition information software and post nutrition information on the UHDS online menus
• Provide nutrition programming and training to staff and students

This is an exciting time for UHDS Dining Services.  With nutrition and sustainability concerns on the forefront, our dining operations are constantly evolving to support wellness by providing nutritious and sustainably produced goods and nutrition education to the OSU community.

Starting Winter term, I will be joining you for dinner in each of the dining centers for the new Wellness Discussion Series.  Rather than a lecture style format, I will be hosting an informal roundtable wellness discussion on topics such as the benefits of whole grains, what do calorie counts mean and how can you make them work for you and wellness strategies for boosting brain power .  Along with wellness education, my other goal is to hear from you—your needs and your questions about nutrition and dining services.  Look for more information about the Wellness Discussion Series on the UHDS blog and the UHDS Facebook page.

Best of luck on finals and have a GREAT break from school!

Be Well,

Tara Sanders

Tara.sanders@oregonstate.edu

On Tuesday, Jeff La Magra and I were invited by Stahlbush Farms to tour their processing plant and biogas energy plant.  Stahlbush farms which is located just the other side of the Willamette River is the national leader in sustainable agriculture and food production.  Their biogas plant is the first of its kind in North America and generates enough electricity to provide service to 1100 homes by digesting the vegetable waste from its processing plant to create gas used to heat their plant and power generators to generate electricity.  We had a very interesting tour and as we continue to reach out to local farmers and ranchers to supply food for the 9500+ meals we prepare and serve every day, it made me think about a question we received the other day about how we go about purchasing the foods we use.

A few years ago we made a conscious decision to build our meal plan program around culinary excellence.  We recruited and eventually were successful in hiring Jeff La Magra who serves as our Director of Culinary Development.  Jeff heads a culinary faculty made up of our registered dietician, Tara Sanders; David Lewis and Dale Lawson at McNary Dining; Shakoda Hill at Marketplace West; and Bruce Hoerauf and Nathan McClure of Arnold Center and OSU Catering.  This creative team of culinarians works with local brokers, vendors, farmers, and ranchers to product test, evaluate and purchase the highest quality ingredients available.  We have an inventory of 7000-8000 food items in stock at any one time and over 450 items on our menus available on any given day.  It takes several vendors to supply all of our needs in order for us to provide our residents with the wide variety of choices available each day.

We buy locally when possible because we believe this is in alignment with the land grant mission of OSU.  We also know locally grown foods are generally fresher, of higher quality, last longer, support the local farm economy, and help in reducing our carbon footprint.  Our apples and pears come from Riverwood Orchard and Farms, much of our beef comes from Country Natural Beef, pork from local farms, lamb from Rainsheep Farms, berries from Willamette Fruit, bread from Williams Bakery, milk and dairy products from Spring Valley Dairy, cheeses from Tillamook and Rogue Valley and other local creameries, gelato from a gelaterria in Eugene, and a wide variety of other wonderful products from local businesses.

We use the power of a national Group Purchasing Organization, HPSI/CURB to ensure that we get the best pricing for the products we specify and we negotiate directly with national manufacturers to provide deviated pricing and marketing allowances which help reduce the cost of food to the students we serve by tens of thousands of dollars each year.  Our grocery bill is roughly $5 million per year and we serve approximately 2 million meals per year.  To prepare and serve those meals we employ nearly 100 full time staff members and about 600 part-time student employees.

Your thoughts, ideas, suggestions and questions are always welcome.  Please don’t hesitate to call me or email me.

Best regards,

Rich Turnbull

Associate Director

University Housing And Dining Services

Richard.turnbull@oregonstate.edu

541-737-0689

This week on November 18^th, UHDS will be hosting Taste of the Mediterranean at Marketplace West.  The event is a celebration of the cuisines and cultures of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.  It’s a menu as diverse as the area – we’ll have a variety of items from Spain, Greece, France, Italy, Morocco, and the Middle East.

Join us for this cultural celebration on Wednesday, November 18^th from 5-8 p.m.  Along with the extensive menu prepared by our talented culinary staff, we will enjoy live flamenco dancing by Portland Flamenco.  Tickets are available in advance at any UHDS dining center for $8 or at the door the evening of the event.  Marketplace West is located on the west end of campus, on Jefferson and 30^th Street.

Taste of the Mediterranean Menu

Spain

Calamari Frito

Green Beans in a Coriander Tomato Sauce

Paella (a regional Spanish rice dish cooked in a flat round pan) with chicken, sausage and shrimp

France

Ratatouille (French vegetable stew)

Snapper Provencal

Roasted Fennel with Orange and Kalamata Olives

Grilled Polenta

French Baguette

Italy

Bruschetta (toasted bread rounds) four ways – with tomatoes, garlic and basil, olive tapenade, goat cheese spread or caponata (eggplant salad)

Antipasto (cured meats and assorted cheeses) with marinated olives, pickled carrots, onion, peppers and cauliflower

Margharita Pizza (pizza with fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil)

Gnocchi (small dumplings) with basil pesto and Italian sausage

Vegetarian Wild Mushroom Ravioli

Greece

Dolmas (stuffed grape leaves)

Baba Ganouj (mashed seasoned eggplant) and Hummus with pita bread

Greek salad with Feta cheese, olives, tomato and cucumber

Moussaka (sautéed eggplant with tomato, peppers and ground beef)

Fried Pumpkin Patties

Middle East

Flatbread

Tabbouleh (bulghar wheat salad with parsley, lemon, garlic and cucumber)

Middle Eastern Lamb Stew

Lebanese Spinach with Carrots

Basmati Rice

Morocco & North Africa

Chicken Tagine and Vegan Tagine (braised slow cooked stew) with olives and preserved lemons

Garlic Shrimp

Moroccan Cauliflower

Toasted Moroccan Cous Cous

Dessert

Baklava (layered phyllo dough with chopped nuts and honey)

Apricot Compote with Pistachio

Cannoli

Sables cookies (French butter cookies)

Fruit Platter with a variety of melon and grapes and dried apricots, dates, currants and figs

I receive many inquiries about sustainability and our sustainable practices at Dining Services.  Sustainability has a variety of meanings.  Sometimes it’s used to refer to environmental concerns.  Sometimes it’s used to refer to nutrition and healthy food choices.  Sometimes it’s used to refer to social and ethical concerns around food production.  I tend to look at it from the perspective of, “What do I have control over and how can Dining Services purchasing and menu decisions impact the overall health of the OSU community while at the same time not becoming the Food Dictator?”

Fortunately OSU has taken a strong lead in sustainability issues and I’ve had the opportunity to speak in a variety of forums on sustainable practices in college food service.  While I’m flattered to be asked to speak, that doesn’t make me an expert.  It is something that I care about and continue to learn about and my opinions and beliefs have changed over time.

But let me share with you some of the things we are doing.  For the past several years we have been involved in composting pre-consumer waste.  This is food waste like damaged lettuce leaves that are removed prior to cleaning and chopping lettuce for the salad bars.  It includes carrot peels and all vegetable waste that occurs during the production of the over 2 million meals we prepare and serve each year.  For several years we have been requesting the opportunity to compost post-consumer waste which involves composting food and bio-degradeable food containers.  The regulations governing post-consumer waste are very strict.  The concern has to do with introducing human pathogens back into the soil and potentially resulting in contamination of food grown in that soil.  However, Allied Waste, our local garbage collector, has a composting program and we are working with them on a trial basis doing post-consumer waste composting at Marketplace West.  This has the potential of removing a significant amount of waste from the landfill as well as for providing local farmers with a nutrient rich source of compost for organic crops.

As part of this research we are converting our to-go containers to bio-degradeable products.  We are working with a local Corvallis company, Ecnow Tech, to provide and develop products for the food service industry.  This process of conversion will take place over a few years as there are still some product solutions that need to be developed.

Another area where I receive lots of questions has to do with shrinking our carbon footprint by buying locally.  We buy our beef from Country Natural Beef and other local ranches.  We also buy our pork and lamb from local ranchers.  The vast majority of our dairy products are Oregon products.  Our bread is local.  Much of our produce is grown locally, especially products we serve during the Oregon growing season.  Our first priority in purchasing is to buy local when possible, and organic when cost effective and practical.  Even if products like coffee are grown at significant distances from Corvallis we work with local roasters like Allann Brothers and Starbucks who utilize fair trade practices.

There’s lots of other stuff we are doing, so if you have questions don’t hesitate to shoot me and email or give me a call.

Best regards,

Rich Turnbull

Associate Director

University Housing And Dining Services

Richard.turnbull@oregonstate.edu

541-737-0689

Last week I talked about budget issues and the resulting change in hours.  After listening to a number of queries from customers we made some adjustments to those hours which were implemented on Monday.  In addition to customer feedback about dining hours, we also hear much feedback about the need for nutrition information in our dining centers.  This fall we have begun posting calorie information on menu boards, as well as posting full nutrition labels online for our regular menu items.  We are presently working on updating the nutritional information for all items on our menus, which are posted on the web at  http://oregonstate.edu/uhds/dining/menus/

Tara Sanders, the Registered Dietician for University Housing and Dining Services, will be working over the next several months to continue to update the nutrition information on the website.

I thought you might be interested in what we’ve seen in purchases this year compared to last.  While there are many factors that influence a purchasing decision, and I don’t pretend to claim that the posting of calories has impacted buying habits, it is possible that it has.  Here are last year’s top ten purchases compared to this year’s top ten purchases (in order of popularity):

Last year

1. Deli Sandwiches
2. Pizza
3. Stir Fry
4. Calzini’s
5. Teriyaki Chicken
6. Scrambled Eggs
7. Cereal
8. Chicken Strips
9. Cheese burger
10. Bacon Cheeseburger

This year

1. Deli Sandwiches
2. Pizza
3. Calzini’s
4. Breakfast Burrito
5. Scrambled Eggs
6. Stir Fry
7. Cheeseburger
8. Teriyaki Chicken
9. Chicken Strips
10. Bacon Cheeseburger

This also makes me wonder if there is some phenomenal item you’d like to see on the menu that we aren’t serving or if you have a recipe for something you would like for us to prepare.  Our culinary team meets twice a month and are continually working on new products, new recipes, watching trends in the restaurant industry, and trying to bring to campus the latest ideas in food trends.  If you have a recipe idea, please share that with us.  We are developing a Recipe From Home contest and any recipes you submit now, we’ll hang on to and enter into the contest later if you’d like us to.  Also, if you have thoughts on the posting of nutrition information, we’d like to hear that also.  It will help shape our decision making as we move forward to provide more information on the products we serve.

Best regards,

Rich Turnbull

Associate Director

University Housing And Dining Services

541-737-0689

Now that we’ve arrived at or near the middle of fall term I’d like to share with you some of the feedback we’ve received from our customers and how we’ve responded. During the summer it became evident that University Housing and Dining Services needed to reduce our department budget by approximately $2 million dollars in order to fund renovation and facility upgrades to keep our residences and dining centers safe and livable. The largest expense in Dining Services is the cost of labor of preparing and serving more than 2 million meals during the year. Labor hours and therefore labor costs are directly related to the hours of operation. So to make the adjustment necessary to achieve the budget reductions required in Dining Services we needed to reduce the hours of operation. Based on last year’s pattern of customer traffic I made adjustments that I felt would yield the greatest labor savings with the minimum impact on customer service.

Every year customer traffic patterns change a bit and this year is no different. Some of the reductions in hours have had a greater impact on customers than we initially thought. I have been carefully timing the length of time it takes for a customer to be served in each of our restaurants, monitoring sales in each of our 17 restaurants in 15 minute increments, and have read carefully the comments that have been submitted to our online feedback form. Before making further adjustments to changes in operational hours I asked each of our managers to hold off until the drop/add dates had passed and then to recommend to me, based on their observations and the feedback you’ve given us, what hours if any should be added back or modified.

I now have that information and would like to share that with you. At McNary Dining Center RainTree Coffee Co. will open a half hour earlier at 7:00am and close a half hour earlier at 3:30pm. At Marketplace West EBGB’s will also open a half hour earlier at 7:00am. Clubhouse Deli will stay open an hour longer until 7:00pm. Tomassito’s will stay open on Sunday’s an additional half hour until 7:30pm. At Arnold Center the Bistro will close a half hour earlier at lunch at 3:00pm, allowing us to keep Cascadia Market open an hour later until 10:00pm. These adjustments will be implemented by November 1st. I believe we can make these adjustments and still achieve our goal of reducing expenses of the Dining program by about $1 million. This has a significant impact on helping University Housing and Dining Services minimize rate increases for living on campus.