Family Weekend and more…
Family Weekend is always one of my favorite weekends. Many family members come on campus and dine with us at the DCs. This past weekend, we also featured 20 recipes from home as part of the Taste of Home special. We also gave away cookbooks – Taste of Home – Volume II. Earlier in the week, staff from each DC were busy selecting the recipes from parents, whose students frequently dine with us. On Saturday, when I walked into Worcester, I was greeted by a parent, who told me what a great job we are doing in food services and that the food was not the same when they were in school. I was also able to reconnect with several parents that I met during the new students’ orientation program in the summer. We are becoming friends and I always tell them that we love to have parents join us and we will continue to get better.
As for the recipes from home, I was able to try a bit of everything. The
Spicy Cajun Corn & Shrimp Chowder from the Bernier Family was especially delicious. It had a combination of New England Chowder with a touch of Cajun flavor. I had two bowls of it. Many of the recipes that were submitted are UMass students’ favorites and we will implement as many of them as possible.
Later in the evening, I attended the football game at McQuirk stadium where UMass was playing Stony Brook University. It was also Band Day, with many high school bands playing along with the Minuteman Marching Band. UMass Dining is responsible for concessions and catering at the stadium. One of my jobs was to walk around to check in with managers, Brenda and Paul. We were busy everywhere. I ran into two Dallas Cowboys fans during my tour. We had a great chat as if we were old friends, and shared our passion of being Cowboys fans for many years.
This Sunday afternoon, several of us joined our chancellor, the UMass Alumni Association and the UMass Marching Band, as part of the UMass delegation in the Amherst 250th Year parade. It was great fun as we walked 2 miles from the downtown back to campus. We had a banner to let people know that Award Winning UMass Dining Services supports local agriculture and we are proud of it. I was yelling “Go UMass” most of the way; it is surprising I have any voice now at all. It was so nice to see so many people cheering for UMass and UMass Dining. I felt blessed to see so many friends and acquaintances lining the streets. As for UMass Dining and our mission of providing great food, we will march on to deliver – Go UMass!
This is Ken Toong and thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.
Ken Toong
Director
Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu
You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong