Site to assist dining decisions

Since Chartwells took over as the food service provider, students have another resource at their disposal in the form of an online campus dining and nutrition guide.

Dine On Campus lets students know what's going on with dining operations and about the events that Chartwells will offer, said Marissa Dinello, marketing manager for Chartwells at Buffalo State.

So far, the biggest challenge the site is facing is raising awareness of its existence on campus, Dinello said.

"We're advertising it in a couple places," she said. "In the retail area we have the scan posters where you can actually scan it and bring it up on your smartphone which takes you to the website."

Dine On Campus is also mentioned on all materials that are sent out to students, including the coupons that are offered, Dinello said.

"We just did a Tim Hortons promotion where we handed out about 250 free small coffee coupons to raise awareness about our Tim Hortons location," Dinello said.

She said the promotion coupons are handed out randomly to students in the retail food court now, but once awareness has been raised, will be offered exclusively online.

Senior Director of Dining Services Manny Lezama said they also utilize The Daily Bulletin on the school's webpage.

Through the site, students can purchase meal plans and add funds to their cards in the form of Bengal Bucks and Dining Dollars, Dinello said.

Located on the homepage is the My Meals Assistant feature, designed to break down meal plans for students, and takes them through a questionnaire to help them decide which plan is best for them, Dinello said.

The website provides many nutrition guide tools to help students make health-conscious food decisions, said Jill Troian, Resident Dietitian for Buffalo State.

The main nutrition features include Sound University, Balanced University and a nutrition journal where students can create their own account to track the foods they've eaten, along with other nutrition charts and tools, Troian said.

 "I think everyone just needs to raise their awareness of what they're eating and we're really trying to make them more aware," Troian said.

Lezama said that he feels it is the responsibility of the food service provider to take an interest in the eating habits of the students, which the school is doing by providing a dietician and web nutrition tools, but that they still need to provide foods that they know are not going to harm the students while giving them healthy food options.

As of right now, feedback has mostly appeared in the form of the comment boxes provided in the two food courts, but there is a place for student feedback on the website, Dinello said.

"Students can give feedback on small cards that are in the different locations called Speak Up and we write back to those students within 48 hours," Troian said.

Chartwells also provides the YouFirst program at all of its campuses, which has many components Dinello said.

One component of the program is Simply Recognize, in which students nominate associates for their hard work so they will be compelled to continue providing guests with top-quality guest service, Dinello said.

Another portion is the Simply Celebrate birthday party that will be thrown for all guests each month.

The website also offers Submit A Recipe, a feature where students can submit a favorite recipe, whether from home or just one they love, and there will be a day in residential where staff will cook all the foods that students have requested, Dinello said.

The next planned event is Project Clean Plate, which will take place on Friday in residential dining, Dinello said.

The project is promoting for students not to take more food than they want to eat because there are many people who are hungry and going without food.

For the project, Dinello said they will measure how much food students are throwing away, weigh out the amount over a few hours, and then use that amount as a benchmark.

"We're going to take the benchmark and set a goal for ourselves and see how much we can actually reduce our waste," Dinello said.

Dinello said that based on what they are able to accomplish with this project, they plan to make donations to shelters or food drives.

Lezama said with that intention, Project Clean Plate is partnering with Buffalo State to create a food pantry so that anyone who has problems finding money for food can utilize this service rather than resorting to stealing or the embarrassment of asking for free food.

"In a way it was embarrassing for me to deny (students) and say no I can't give you food again," Lezama said.

Some students had come to him multiple times for help and others were coming at the end of the day looking for leftovers to eat, he said.

The food pantry will allow students to communicate with the organization internally and will allow Buffalo State to give back in the form of canned goods, dry foods, cereals and other foods of that nature, to students in need, Lezama said.   

Jennifer Waters can be reached by email at waters.record@live.com.