Although I had never been to New Mexico (the Land of Enchantment, says the state motto), I had heard about its natural beauty and its Mexican-, Spanish-, and Native American-influenced cuisine. Upon arrival, I enjoyed a green chile cheeseburger from a quick-service restaurant across the street from the hotel. What a treat: it was flavorful and delicious, and the chiles didn’t overpower the burger at all. Later at the symposium, I learned that some of the best chiles in the world grow in the fertile fields along the Rio Grande and Hatch River.

The symposium was an intense, two-and-a-half-day whirlwind. After a food historian talked to us about the state’s famous chiles, we jumped into a series of roundtable discussions, a workshop, and a dozen peer-to-peer discussions. The symposium culminated with a presentation on the business management strategy Six Sigma.

Facilitated by two of NACUFS’s exemplary leaders, Tim Dieter of Villanova and Julaine Kiehn of the University of Missouri, the peer-to-peer discussions were the highlights. During the discussions, we talked about topics affecting our industry candidly, and we listened and learned from one other. Even though every school is different, it was fascinating to hear what works and what doesn’t for others.
Here are 6 topics that especially caught my attention:

1. As the number of students from Asian countries continues to increase, the demand of Asian foods is also rising. For instance, the University of Illinois is seeing interest in Korean food and the cuisines of Southeast Asia grow among students. UCLA just opened its first Pan Asian-themed residential dining facility. And back home at UMass, sushi and stir-fry are now more popular than chicken fingers.

2. Foodservice directors continue to purchase more ingredients locally, including beef, pork, chicken, and eggs. Some are starting to grow their own produce. UC Santa Barbara, Ferrum College, and Wooster College all offered examples. Our own UMass’s permaculture garden also has a great story to tell.

3. To control costs and reduce food waste, more schools are eliminating trays in the cafeterias. UC Riverside even posts the food waste per person per meal every week in each dining commons. When UMass went trayless two years ago, we saw food waste drop by 30%.

4. Since most of the dining operations of NACUFS members need to be financially self-sufficient, every school has to find creative ways to increase revenues to sustain and enhance their programs. This means providing more value to our customers through catering, meal plan reconfiguration and program enhancement, as well as offering premium menus. What works varies widely at each university. The University of Connecticut only offers an unlimited dining meal plan in which students can eat as often as they choose. In contrast, at UMass we offer both unlimited plans and other options including the commuter plan, free Friday dinners at the DCs, and dining at the University Club in the evenings.

5. Convenience stores and food trucks are increasing in popularity. To meet the demand of students looking for more quick grab-and-go options, schools with large commuter populations are adding C-stores and/or purchasing food trucks. For example, Michigan State University combined its residential and retail operations under one department. That’s how we run our retail and residential operations, too. In addition, our BabyBerk Food Truck provides convenience and excitement for customers—not to mention great food at a great price.

6. And finally, there was a lot of talk about marketing and telling your story. Ohio State University recommends developing marketing strategies and measuring their results to determine effectiveness. In other words, good marketing must be able to increase revenues and customer satisfaction. Back at UMass, guest chef series and weekly specials generate greater attendance at meal time while providing excitement.

I was glad to be part of the NACUFS-led discussions—there is so much we can learn from one another. In the end, it’s all about putting students first and taking good care of them.

This is Ken Toong. Thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.

Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu

You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong

1. Stealth health is part of the daily offering.
Rates of obesity and diabetes are increasing at an alarming rate in America. More than ever, our students are demanding that food not only taste good but be good for them. During our recent survey last fall, more than 73% of our students wanted more healthy choices. Most schools already offer healthy choices, including “stealth health” programs in which food is made healthier behind the scenes. Stealth health opportunities include reducing sodium, serving more vegetables and whole grains and promoting healthy eating. Operators of College Dining programs can take leading roles in implementing healthy programs.

2. Food trucks are the next mega trend.
Curbside mobile cuisine served from our own food truck, Baby Berk, has generated so much excitement on campus that we are looking into purchasing another one soon. The secret of success is serving simple great food and providing exemplary customer service.

3. Noodles, noodles and more noodles.
From udon to pho, our customers cannot get enough of them. Noodles warm your tummy and remind me of the comfort food in Hong Kong, where I was born. We plan to have our chefs hand-pull noodles right before our guests’ eyes while they dine. In addition, rice noodles have the benefit of being gluten-free.

4. Grow your own food on campus.
You can’t get fresher food than when you grow your own on campus. Not only does it help reduce the carbon footprint but it also builds awareness around where food comes from. Permaculture gardening—cultivating gardens that are designed to ecologically sustain themselves—will become more widespread. It is part of an ecological design for creating sustainable communities and involves people working together to care for the planet.

5. Sustainable seafood is a must.
Serving sustainable fish and shellfish is good for business and good for the environment. What are you waiting for if you are not serving sustainable seafood already?

6. Melamine is out, china is in.
Melamine dishes have been popular in campus dining because they are lightweight, practical and unbreakable. But with growing concern about whether the presence of melamine in dinnerware could pose a safety risk, schools such as UMass are switching back to china dinnerware. It is the right thing to do.

7. Simple food, healthy eating.
Our customers want comfort food that is simply and freshly prepared and food that is less processed. This requires creating healthier dishes with a plenty of flavor and finding ways to incorporate locally produced, seasonal foods.

8. Late-night dining is second nature.
Students have a different lifestyle than most of us. We notice that students use late-night meals as a way to treat themselves, to meet their friends and to build community. At UMass, 30% of students dine from 9:30 p.m. to wee hours of the morning.

9. Coffee has to be good.
Students want high-quality coffee that is freshly ground and freshly brewed and made in front of them. If the coffee is organic and shade-grown, even better.

10. Campus Dining has become a place to shop, to eat and to be entertained.
Eataly in New York City is the largest artisanal Italian food marketplace in the United States. It includes a retail center for Italian delicacies, a culinary educational center, and a diverse selection of boutique eateries. After witnessing the success of Eataly, I think we are ready for a food superstore on campus.

This is Ken Toong. Thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.

Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu

You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong

Our student lifestyle has changed—students want to be able to eat anywhere, anytime, and anyplace on campus. We noticed students enjoy grab-n-go concepts during the day, while at night they prefer to go back to their familiar dining locations to share food and stories at a table with friends.

Sure, $55 million is not a drop in the bucket. However, we feel this campus upgrade is needed. Most of our facilities were built nearly 50 years ago. But as our dining concepts become more sophisticated and the number of students on a meal plan grows, we need new facilities that can better handle changes, and in a more energy efficient, greener way.

We also want to be more entertaining, which brings me to my next subject: Eataly. Brought to New York City through a partnership of culinary stars, including Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, Lidia Bastianich, and Oscar Farinetti, it is the largest artisanal Italian food marketplace in the United States. It includes a retail center for Italian delicacies, a culinary educational center, and a diverse selection of boutique eateries. I consider it a food superstor, but it’s not like a department store. A visit feels more like a walk through the entire culinary landscape of Italy, from its meats and cheeses, to its endless pastas and its desserts. It is a comprehensive homage to all things Italian food from Sicilia to Veneto—and then some. The breadth and depth of the offerings here lift it nearly to museum status.

My wife and I visited the venue about a month ago. We didn’t spend as much time eating as we did simply browsing and exploring. The dining area, a mishmash of concepts, had customers seated together or near each other. Eataly is a space where different people can have different dining experiences while seated almost side by side in the same space. It felt like an old-world market, modernized.

Eataly is not the perfect food superstore. There isn’t any Asian, Mexican, or New England fare. Some of the prices are on the expensive side. I’d like to see a similar concept that includes sushi, stir-fry, tapas and tacos. Still, Eataly is impressive. Some of my managers, our chef, an architect, and a food consultant will be heading to Eataly this week to gather ideas that might impact our renovations. You never know—we might come away with major inspiration for a new eatery at UMass.

This is Ken Toong. Thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.

Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu

You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong

Were you one of the enthusiastic shoppers crowding the retail centers across the country? I admit that I was. This year, we started earlier than ever. My daughters and I left home at 1:00 a.m. when the local Target and Best Buy opened their doors. I knew it would be crowded, but wow: when we arrived at the shopping center, it looked like several thousand people were braving the cold weather to shop.

If the lines on Black Friday were any indication, the holiday shopping season is off to a good start. This year, Black Friday sales were up about 7 percent (about $1 billion) compared with last year.

We waited patiently and the lines moved swiftly. We chatted with a friendly couple behind us to pass the time. I was looking for a flat-screen TV and one of my daughters was looking for a Kindle. After entering the store, we noticed that everyone was looking for a flat-screen TV like the one I wanted. Nearly every third customer had one in a shopping cart. I was a little disappointed to find that the TV was long gone by the time I got to the aisle. Fortunately my daughter found what she was looking for and we left shortly after. Looking back, it was quite an experience to see so many people showing up in the wee hours for a good deal.
At UMass Dining, we always try to put the emphasis on having a positive dining experience while keeping value in mind. That’s why we offer so many special each week. Our 4th Annual Ultimate Cranberry Sampling will be held this Wednesday, November 30, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at all of the DCs. You can sample everything from cranberry-sausage tortillas and spicy cranberry-chicken drummettes to drenched cranberry cake. Jeff LaFleur, the executive director of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association (who is also a cranberry farmer and UMass alumnus), will give a “Cranberries 101” presentation from 7 to 7:45 pm in the Berkshire Room.

Come and enjoy this delicious native fruit, and listen to Jeff’s presentation.

This is Ken Toong. Thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.

Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu

You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong

With our own food truck—Baby Berk—roaming campus grounds since September, I figured that it would be a good idea to see how other food trucks operate. We can always learn something new. From San Antonio, it was about an hour and 15-minute drive to Austin. El Naranjo was supposed to be off Interstate 35, just south of 6th street. But when we arrived at Rainey Street, the truck was nowhere to be seen. Instead we found ourselves in a residential district lined with bars in homes and trailers in front yards.

It was only around 5 p.m., so we thought we were too early. To kill time, we chatted with a couple of University of Texas students. Soon, our adventures in the Austin food-truck scene were set into motion. The students told us about several other great food trucks around Austin. Later, a retired couple pointed us in the direction of G’Raj Mahal across the street. We started there.

G’Raj Mahal was a trailer with tables and benches set up outside. You order your items from a server; they bring out your food promptly. The coconut naan was simply amazing—good enough to eat on its own! I ordered kashkmiri with chicken, which was creamy with deep flavor. And the sagg was tasty as well. It was worth the $28 for food, and the service was fast (we got there just at the start of the rush). Overall, it was some of the best Indian food that I’ve had in a while.

Next, we walked back to Rainey Street to look for El Naranjo. Still, El Naranjo was nowhere in sight. We enquired after its location at a restaurant nearby. They told me it had moved to 12th street. It turns out that the food truck’s former location on Rainey Street will be turned into a brick-and-mortar restaurant because of the popularity of the mobile concept.

We finally arrived at El Naranjo, which was stationed on a parking pad with two other trucks. We could not wait to try the famous moles built around the smoky, earthy flavors of dry-roasted chilies and Mexican herbs, such as hoja santa. To taste the authenticity of the food truck’s offerings, we ordered the tinga verde tacos (shredded chicken in green sauce). They were spicy but also excellent and fresh. The heat from the green sauce made my eyes teary, and the cochintta (black beans with marinated pork and onions) was yummy. And the guacamole was the best I’ve ever had. I loved the friendly service and I was also able to snap a picture or two with the cooks in the kitchen. I thought I already knew a thing or two about Mexican food, but on my trip to Austin I discovered a new style of Mexican cuisine that I have to admit was unfamiliar to me. The bill came to only $15 with a beverage, and it was well worth it.

We completed our food truck chase at Osmo’s kitchen, located across from El Naranjo. It’s owned by a nice husband and wife chef team that graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. After a great chat with the couple, we learned that they are famous for Southern Louisiana cuisines like chicken & Andouille Gumbo and po’ boys. We were so full at this point, that I opted to just try the rice pudding as a finale to our evening feast. For only $2.50, it worth every penny, and it simply tasted great.

After visiting these food trucks with great-tasting, authentic food, excellent personal service, and a real sense of community, I have a good feeling of what food trucks can offer to a town and the people they serve.

This is Ken Toong. Thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.

Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu

You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong

Although it’s easy to take electricity for granted, all it takes is a power failure to remind us how much we depend on it. Life would be very different without electricity: no heat, no hot showers, no refrigeration, no computers, and no lights. Luckily, we had power on campus, and thanks to the Physical Plant, there was enough voltage available to support the university’s electrical needs.

Whenever there is a storm and the university is closed, the Dining Commons tends to be busier than usual. This time, it was even more hectic. We had a natural disaster on our hands. We not only served students but also people from the local community who joined us for dinner because they didn’t have power at home. Since the Sunday after the storm, we served more than 75,000 students and guests. Yet despite the snow, most of our staff showed up for work. They are heroes.

What made the timing of the storm even more challenging was that our annual Trick or Treat Halloween Lobster Dinner was scheduled for October 31st. It is always one of our most popular nights, so we went ahead with plans even though there were extra guests and a staff shortage.

Then came a phone call from the Dean of Students Office asking if we could also accommodate the off-campus students who didn’t have meal plans. Our answer was Yes. We offered free meals at all our DCs to students without meal plans. We wanted to alleviate some of the hardship of students living off campus without power by providing nourishment, and we also wanted to build community.

We provided free meals for three days. The off-campus students whom I talked to were overwhelmingly appreciative of the kindness shown to them, and they were very grateful to join their fellow students at the DCs. We ended up serving more than 8,000 students who didn’t have meal plans. Some of these students have never been to a DC. We welcomed them to join us and share our resources. And perhaps, after experiencing the food and hospitality, some will return as regular customers.

This is Ken Toong. Thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.

Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu

You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong

But there’s more to the program than free food: we also want to build a bond with parents. We do so in other ways, too. Our Taste of Home program, in which we make recipes from students’ families, is a big hit. Each year, we receive more than 200 recipes from parents. Many of these recipes represent our students’ favorite home-cooked meals; others are treasures that go back two or three generations. From this program, we also create the Taste of Home cookbook, now in its fourth edition. Each year, we produce more than 5,000 copies of the cookbook, which is popular with parents.

Last week, during Family Weekend at UMass, we had even more opportunities to meet parents. Family Weekend is an event on campus for visiting parents and their students. We participated by featuring dishes prepared from nearly fifty family recipes. I enjoyed every one that I tried. (I also lost count of how many samples I tasted.) The food from the recipes was not only delicious but also healthy. Most of the recipes also used wholesome ingredients—even the Mac ‘n Cheese was made from scratch.

I had the pleasure of meeting some of the parents at Worcester DC who sent us their recipes. They were so excited to see their recipes on the menu. I asked whether we followed their recipes accurately, but they assured me we were doing just fine. One parent even preferred our version to hers.

Most of all, Family Weekend is a great opportunity to demonstrate to UMass parents the quality of the food we serve. Even though it’s hard to match home cooking, we give it a good college effort—at every meal.

This is Ken Toong. Thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.

Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu

You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong

We love to see parents visit our campus, and we are always eager to show them our dining program. It is one of the reasons that we implemented a family dining program five years ago. Any family member who visits a student on a meal plan eats for free. It is always a good thing when our parents dine with their students and experience our award-winning dining program. (After all, they are often the ones paying the bills, and saving them the cost of a meal during their visit is the least we can do.)
But there’s more to the program than free food: we also want to build a bond with parents. We do so in other ways, too. Our Taste of Home program, in which we make recipes from students’ families, is a big hit. Each year, we receive more than 200 recipes from parents. Many of these recipes represent our students’ favorite home-cooked meals; others are treasures that go back two or three generations. From this program, we also create the Taste of Home cookbook, now in its fourth edition. Each year, we produce more than 5,000 copies of the cookbook, which is popular with parents.
Last week, during Family Weekend at UMass, we had even more opportunities to meet parents. Family Weekend is an event on campus for visiting parents and their students. We participated by featuring dishes prepared from nearly fifty family recipes. I enjoyed every one that I tried. (I also lost count of how many samples I tasted.) The food from the recipes was not only delicious but also healthy. Most of the recipes also used wholesome ingredients—even the Mac ‘n Cheese was made from scratch.
I had the pleasure of meeting some of the parents at Worcester DC who sent us their recipes. They were so excited to see their recipes on the menu. I asked whether we followed their recipes accurately, but they assured me we were doing just fine. One parent even preferred our version to hers.
Most of all, Family Weekend is a great opportunity to demonstrate to UMass parents the quality of the food we serve. Even though it’s hard to match home cooking, we give it a good college effort—at every meal.
This is Ken Toong. Thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.
Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu
You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong

Recently, I attended the dedication ceremony of the Franklin DC Permaculture Garden. I was joined by more than 250 others, from students and guests to Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet. Permaculture, a sustainable land-use design based on ecological and biological principles, takes patterns from nature and mimics them. It also can support the cultivation of fruits and vegetables. But because it is modeled after nature, a working permaculture garden is not only sustainable but also easy to maintain.

Getting it started, however, was no small task. With its mission statement, “From grass to food in under one year,” the UMass permaculture project involved 500 college and K12 students. Working together, they transformed a quarter acre of grassy lawn outside the Franklin Dining Commons into a permaculture garden.

Here are some amazing numbers:

– Nearly 100 students, faculty, Amherst community members, permaculture designers, and other specialists arrived on a Saturday last spring for a workshop to discuss permaculture at UMass and share ideas. Talk about passion and community building.
–The project involved 500,000 pounds of compost—spread by hand
–Volunteers planted more than 1000 edible plants.

Here’s how the project started:

More than a year ago, several students, including Ryan Harb, who now works for Auxiliary Services as a sustainability specialist, proposed turning the Franklin DC lawn into an ecologically sensitive garden. Since it would give the students eating at the DC an opportunity to watch the garden grow, I thought it was a great idea. I had no idea that it would involve quite so much work or so many volunteers.

After several meetings with students and help from the Physical Plant, the campus department that maintains our grounds, we started the undertaking. To enrich the soil, we added minerals and mixed in compost, cardboard from our kitchen, and wood chips from the Physical Plant. (It was the three R’s—reduce, reuse, recycle—at their best.) Then in March we held a Permaculture Garden Design Workshop, which we opened up to the larger Amherst community.

The dedication ceremony, a culmination of more than a year of work, was a rewarding and emotional experience. Chancellor Holub thanked the students and staff for creating one of the first permaculture gardens at a large public university. He also attested to the great flavor of garden’s cherry tomatoes. Frances Moore Lappé, who in addition to being an author is also an anti-hunger activist, presented an inspiring speech about sustainable food sources. And Ryan Harb praised the student volunteers, especially since the project was, essentially, a grassroots movement. He proudly proclaimed that UMass was one of the first and most successful large operations in the country to regenerate underutilized land and turn it into food.
The permaculture garden project has indeed been a worthy cause. At Auxiliary Services, we have a responsibility that goes beyond serving good food, and we were glad we could support student sustainability efforts and contribute to this movement. The garden also complements UMass Dining’s dedication to local farmers and sustainability. We need to provide an educational component whenever possible for our customers and to enhance campus life. This project has been an ideal way to show how students and different departments can come together to do well by doing good.

My heartfelt thanks to Megan, Nathan and Ryan; they are the true champions of the permaculture garden and their dedication and passion for the cause is second to none. If you want to learn more about UMass Permaculture, visit their blog:

http://umasspermaculture.wordpress.com/

This is Ken Toong. Thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.

Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu

You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong

Food trucks aren’t exactly a new idea. Warm-weather countries in Latin America and Southeast Asia have used them for years selling classic street food fare. Taco trucks have also been mainstays in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area for nearly as long. Yet it wasn’t until 2008 that an enterprising L.A. chef named Roy Choi added a few twists to the art of providing mobile food to the masses.

First, he offered a culinary novelty that you couldn’t get anywhere else. Second, he used Twitter to tell people where to find him.

Roy Choi and his Kogi BBQ truck sparked a fanatical following, and a slew of other gourmet food trucks have been popping up ever since across the country serving everything from gourmet grilled cheese to samosas. Now we have our own truck on campus.

UMass is not the first university to deploy a food truck. Both the University of Washington in Seattle and the Rhode Island School of Design have trucks serving students. Some schools work with outside vendors who drive their trucks to campus and charge a fee. What makes the UMass food truck unique is that we started the program from scratch with the input from students and staff. It took almost a year to get it off the ground, starting with the planning and finishing with wrapping the truck with catchy graphics. Meanwhile, our executive chef, Willie Sng, and our director of retail dining, David Eichstaedt, worked together with staff to design the menu and train the staff.

We want the food served from the truck to be fresh, fast and reasonably priced. We also want to keep sustainability in mind. Everything is made on-site and the service is impeccable. Since the food truck is mainly on campus, we are planning to change the menu every three months or so to keep the food interesting.

So, what are we serving now? Gourmet burgers using all-natural beef from New England topped with local cheeses and vegetables. To make it even more exciting, students suggested we should name each burger after the name or theme of each dining commons and even the Bluewall to reflect the specialty. So far, the burgers are selling well. Baby Berk is the most popular and the others are not far behind. There might even be a burger war going on…

Our customers love our signature burgers and want us to move Baby Berk to be near them. We are still working on determining the prime locations, so please send us your suggestions. And look for Baby Berk a corner near you!  www.twitter.com/UMassBabyBerk

This is Ken Toong and thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.

Duff Goldman (right), pastry chef and television personality.

On this September 11, the 10^thanniversary of 9/11, my flight home was delayed. It was a strange feeling to travel that day and think back to when I was fortunate to be safe in my office when the tragedy occured. While waiting in the airport, I couldn’t help but think about what we can do as a community to improve, to become stronger and healthier. These ideas were very much on my mind after attending the Flavor, Quality, and American Menus leadership retreat, a thought-provoking conference for volume-foodservice professionals.

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and the University of California, Davis, co-hosted the annual conference held at the CIA’s Greystone campus in St. Helena, California—the heart of the Napa Valley. Despite the picturesque surroundings, the objective of the conference was work, not sight-seeing. We were taking a hard look at areas affecting volume foodservice, particularly sustainability initiatives, regional menu trends, and the need to help our consumers meet the dietary guidelines put forth in new MyPlate recommendations. The audience for this retreat comprised 35 professionals from a variety of backgrounds, including chain restaurants, campus dining, and contract foodservice operations. Presentations came from leaders from the CIA and UC Davis, guest chefs from U.S. cities with “hot” food scenes, and regional food writers. It was an intense but productive three-day conference that began each day at 7:30 a.m. (sharp) and finished at 6:30 p.m.

Some of the trends and ideas discussed:

- We want authenticity: consumers care about where their food comes from and how it is prepared.

- More than half of us reject processed foods. According to an American Grocery study, 53% of customers are trying to buy as many natural foods as possible.

- We belong to local communities of eaters. Trends such as food trucks, farm-to-table menus, in-house butchery efforts, and neighborhood markets foster relationships with food producers.

- We are the world. By 2050, the global population will increase by one third to 9 billion, adding tremendous pressure on global food demands. In preparation, we need to transform food and agriculture policy to meet the challenges of the future.

- Sustainability “seasons” the food service industry. As global population grows, the demand for sustainable food sources will continue to grow, with significant environment and social impacts.

- Food service operators need to develop strategies to double consumer fruit and vegetable consumption to support the 2010 MyPlate guidelines.

- Costs and profit are not equally weighted in foodservice. While profit is the major concern of chain operators, campus dining operations tend to put students first.

At the conference, attendees concluded that we all need to provide more freshly prepared foods that still have great flavor with fewer processed ingredients. We need to provide servings in which half the plate comprises fruits and vegetables. We also need to serve everything in the most sustainable manner we can. It might be a tall order, but at UMass Dining we are up for the challenge.

This is Ken Toong. Thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.

Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu

You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong