new concepts

Steal This Idea

Pizza of the day

We will use some leftover items, such as macaroni and cheese or barbecued chicken, as toppings for pizza. We label it as our pizza of the day, and it usually becomes our most popular seller that day.

Steal This Idea

Coffee conversations

This year we started coffee and conversation with the foodservice director. It was a huge success. It gives hourly staff the chance to sit around the table with me and talk about what’s going on and have an outlet for ideas and frustrations, challenges, opportunities and triumphs. Next year we’re going to do that three times a year. I do it with four groups of kitchen managers, so about 15 people in each one. We say up front there’s no retaliation here. What happens here stays here, unless there’s something that needs to be corrected, and then I’ll correct it.

We created a Sustainable Products Project blog using Blogspot, Google Maps and Google Earth. Once we identify local food items that we use they are imported into the blog. The item then has travel miles associated with it, location on campus where served and what makes it sustainable. Photos are also incorporated if available on Google Earth. Students and visitors can link to the blog from our homepage.

To help with work/life balance we offer our employees items like gallons of milk and loaves of bread. With the horrible winter last year, we found a lot of people were picking those items up so they didn’t have to make another stop on the way home.

Focused on seasonal ingredients, a new food truck will service the underserved areas of the Ohio campus.

Getting married? Ashland University, in Ohio, wanted to help engaged couples visualize what their wedding celebration could be like, and at the same time promote campus and local wedding services.

More and more schools across the country are opting for a pay-by-fingerprint system in the cafeteria to cut down on theft and speed up the lunch line.

Under a relatively new program called the Community Eligibility Option (CEO) all school meals will be free starting in September 2014, the district confirmed to WBEZ Thursday.

Starting this fall, Illinois State University students will notice a few big changes from Campus Dining Services.

Turn your medical-model tray service into a hot, fresh service by using serving tables and carts within your neighborhoods or units.

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