Last fall, Northwestern University and its foodservice provider, Compass, sponsored the 21-Day Plant Forward Challenge in step with National Vegan Month in November. Support at the Evanston, Ill., school was strong—more than 300 students participated, a 58% increase over the first plant-based challenge the school had held just 10 months earlier.
“Students here are very interested in trying more plant-based dishes, and they have asked us to offer more of these options in the dining commons,” said Lisa Carlson, registered dietitian nutritionist for Northwestern Dining, in a statement.
Photograph courtesy of Northwestern
Vegan items introduced during the three-week challenge included grain meatballs with sweet-and-sour sauce, coconut bacon, hominy and squash soup, and hoppin’ John rice salad. Among students’ favorites were chayote Caribbean curry, portobello and cannellini bean ragu with polenta or grits, and three vegan desserts: red velvet cupcakes, chocolate oat cookies and blueberry crumble. In addition to the new menu options, Northwestern Dining held a teaching kitchen and Grand Finale event featuring a number of new dishes.
Students were encouraged to make pledges to enjoy one, two or three plant-forward meals a day, and participants reduced their carbon footprint by 5,770 pounds of carbon dioxide during the three weeks, according to Compass.
Photograph courtesy of Northwestern
Plant-forward dining options have increased 33% in Northwestern’s dining commons since Compass launched its first menu on campus in September 2018. This initiative was key to the company’s new global platform that focuses on wellness, as noted in its 2019 Corporate Social Responsibility Report. Overall, the company’s plant-based meat alternative purchases have totaled more than 2.3 million pounds, the report stated.
Compass plans to make the Plant-Forward Challenge an annual event at Northwestern during National Vegan Month.
Located steps from Lake Michigan in Evanston, Ill., the Global Hub at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management is meant to serve as a collaborative space for the school’s diverse community. The building is also home to The Marketplace, a 10,000-square-foot eatery that seats 320 and provides students from all ethnic backgrounds access to fresh, local and sustainable meals. Here’s an inside look at the new space, which opened in March.
Photo credit: Mike Crews
Three years prior to starting construction, Northwestern’s dining services began to meet with committees comprising students, staff and faculty to discuss what the foodservice program in the new building should look like. The team received requests for fresh, high-quality and sustainable dishes as well as vegan and vegetarian options, so it centered its offerings around that input.
Scott Hastings, general manager for Aramark operations at Kellogg, says feedback meetings take place to this day. “As we continue to find ways to use the building and try and be creative with the menus, we’re still meeting with students on a regular basis to get real-time feedback on what we’re doing,” he notes.
Photo credit: Bob Coscarelli
The Marketplace’s multiple food stations offer comfort foods, international fare, and a grill and deli with both vegetarian and vegan dishes. Central to the space is a brick pizza oven that Hastings describes as a “cornerstone” of the eatery.
Taking a page from fast-casual chains, students can choose between build-your-own pizzas or premade express ones. Hastings says that it takes around three minutes to make an individual pizza from start to finish, and on average, the oven cranks out around 95 pizzas per day.
Photo credit: Mike Crews
As its name implies, the Global Hub is for members of the Kellogg community from all parts of the world, a theme that’s also reflected in its foodservice. “In order to meet all the needs and requirements of the student body that comes from all around the world, [Kellogg] needs to have different offerings,” says Director of Facilities Dan McCrudden.
Avoiding a fixed menu, the dishes at the World Market station change constantly and feature varying types of global cuisine. “One day it could be stir-fry, one day it could be tostadas or burritos, and the next it could be kung pao,” Hastings says. “We really wanted to create a destination where we could highlight global cuisine and try to emulate as many different food styles as possible.”
Photo credit: Mike Crews
To address the request for fresh produce, a permanent salad bar with an assortment of vegetables as well as tofu and various proteins is a main feature. The back of house was designed to include enough storage space and refrigeration to keep up with the frequent deliveries of fresh produce. With the additions, Hastings says staff have plenty of room to complete daily prep tasks such as chopping fresh lettuce.
Photo credit: Mike Crews
Open from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, The Marketplace is primed for providing all-day eats. The space doesn’t close between mealtimes, and the stations were designed to transition seamlessly between dayparts. In the morning, the grill and deli station serves up breakfast sandwiches, while the salad bar transforms into a customizable yogurt and granola bar.
On Fridays, The Marketplace closes at 4:00 p.m., when it becomes an event space for students. Hastings says that student clubs usually book the space for happy hours or other social gatherings.
Photo credit: Bob Coscarelli