Dining Services has recently begun offering a new online nutritional site which will show a detailed calendar of UT’s dining options in the cafeteria for each week.
This link shows all 6,000 recipes available from Sodexho.
“I’m excited for this, I think its going to be nice,” said Wade Burghardt, Marketing Manager for UT’s Dining Services.
In addition, multiple food items like vegan, carb-friendly, vegetarian and well-balanced icons link to alternative food choices.
Clinking on each food item displays specific nutritional information about each product.
However, Sodexho’s IT unit is facing problems linking this site to sites such as UT’s Dining Services main URL.
Burghardt says he hopes this program will be running correctly soon.
Franchises
Prior to the introduction of the new system, Dining Services did not have nutritional information on its website for on-campus franchises.
Burghardt has since added such information for all franchises in Stadium Center.
For example, Dairy Queen has a poster of its nutritional information.
In the future, Brughardt hopes to print, laminate, and bind all franchise nutritional information for students to access at each respective location.
Nutritional info
In addition, Burghardt is working to update all nutritional information tags in the cafeteria, as Sodexho has updated this information in regards to listing food allergens such as gluten- free options.
Burghardt says he and his team are aware of gluten allergies and non-gluten options.
Organic and locally grown
Not only eco-friendly products, but produce is available in the cafeteria as Dining Services works with Fresh Point Produce to obtain locally-grown food and to buy organic products when its available and at a reasonable price.
In addition, all Sodexho outlets, including UT, stopped using trans fats in January 2006.
However, Sodexho alerts that not all trans-fats have been eradicated, as they are still working to complete the conversion. At Jazzman’s, organic coffee options exist, and all milk products are hormone-free.
Survey
Recent survey results from last semester show a low participation level as only 92 students participated.
It is required that a survey be conducted every semester. Overall, the ratings reveal students who took the survey were “satisfied.”
In addition, it was revealed that Grill 155 is the most popular place to dine on-campus.
Student Reaction
Freshman Jamie Wasley enjoys the food at UT.
“There are lots of things to choose from, stadium, Spartan Club, cafe etc.The food is generally really fresh, consistent, and there is lots of variety. I know lots of schools that have it much worst than us.”
On the other side, UT Sophomore Alejandra Grijalva expressed her concern with the hours.
“I have more of a problem with the hours of operation rather than how the food is,” she said, “I don’t like how they expect us to be able to eat with the hours they have.”
Burghardt encourages student input on all aspects of dining.
“Let us know your opinions so we can work together. We want to know where and why students are eating at certain places. I want students to be happy,” says Burghardt. Burghardt can be reached at sodexhomarketing@ut.edu.