Cal Poly Dining Working to Diversify Campus Food Options

By Lili Gevorkian on April 9, 2013

A few members of campus dining as well as one of the campus dining operations manager have recently embarked on self-led experiments to eat organic, dairy-free and gluten-free foods for the month of April. They are documenting what they eat, where they were able to obtain it, and the costs, all in hopes of incorporating more healthy alternatives on campus. This quest is fueled by the rising demand to provide students with gluten and/or lactose intolerance more options to properly sustain themselves while eating campus foods.

Metro Station, a designated buffet-style dining venue, will be completely redesigned in the upcoming years. A sous chef, who prefers to not eat certain types of foods, will be part of the integral process, helping map out specific sections for gluten-free food production. Certain measures will be taken, such as separating machinery and ingredients from foods containing gluten to prevent cross-contamination.

While current freshmen are disgruntled at the lack of healthy dining options and/or more locally produced food to purchase using meal passes, dining has begun to include more items in those designated venues. Sandwich factory now offers a variety of gluten-free and dairy-free goods as well as vegan options (Amy’s brand). Trail mix and Bobo’s gluten free, vegan oat bars along with vegan cookies are located right before check out. For the health conscious, Lucy’s smoothies now offers a variety of customizable green smoothies with blends including kale, spinach, cucumber, ginger, and/or swiss chard.

Aside from meal pass stations, Village Market in PCV now has dairy free yogurts, So Delicious brand coconut milk and almond milk, in plain, strawberry, vanilla, and blueberry flavors. They also carry dairy-free mozarella cheese, Daiya brand and lactose-free milk for those with lactose intolerance. Bob’s Red Mills brand products line the gluten-free section with an assortment of baking mixes and breakfast type foods. Raw Revolution Coconut Date Bars and NuGo Slim bars are both gluten and dairy-free. Brown rice tortillas and gluten-free breads reside in the freezer section, with other gluten-free products. Those with peanut (a legume, not a nut) and/or nut allergies can find products that suit their needs as well.

It’s no easy feat to change campus dining to meet all dietary needs even with dining members on board. Contracts with food companies, school policies, the large volume of students, faculty members, and visitors to serve, are just some of the examples that complicate process of transitioning campus dining into providing more real food.

“Real” food? What’s that? Cal Poly’s “Real Food Collaborative (RFC) uses the holistic term real to describe local, organic, fair trade and humanely produced products which are all less harmful and more nourishing to the people, animals, and environmental resources involved. The RFC is a group of students who are passionate about working with, learning about, and improving our food system, specifically at Cal Poly. We see strong potential at Cal Poly to increase both demand and availability of real food on campus.”

RFC’s aim is part of a nationwide challenge called The Real Food Challenge,” to increase the procurement of real food on college and university campuses, with the national goal of 20% real food by 2020.” Please click the link above for more information.

What can YOU do? Get involved! Find other like-minded people, usually in clubs that work for a specific purpose, and take initiative. Suggest ideas, collaborate, work out the kinks, and get into action.

Cal Poly’s RFC may consider holding a seminar on the different types of eating styles, whether personal preference or restricted due to allergies. We may also survey student dining requests and present the data/statistics before campus dining.

If you’re a Cal Poly student and are interested in Real Food Collaborative or would like to explore other clubs on the same note, come to Empower Poly Coalition (EPC) meetings on Tuesdays in Building 10, Room 206 at 7 PM. The EPC is the umbrella club for environmental and humanitarian efforts at Cal Poly.

This spring quarter, the EPC clubs meeting at that time/location include Fair Trade Club, Real Food Collaborative, Poly Permaculture, Divest, Zero Waste, and Sierra Student Coalition. There will be short training sessions during each meeting to share skills such as: utilizing social media, raising awareness, efficient communication, how to facilitate meetings, keeping attendance, and the importance of phrasing.

There’s also a student led food co-operative forming at Cal Poly this quarter.
Click here if you’re interested in helping out!
Email Jesse Gibson (jessegibson12@gmail.com) if you have any questions.

Remember: changing campus dining won’t happen overnight, but a collective effort by those passionate enough will improve dining options and bring progress for future students.

Join the EPC emailing list by clicking the link below to stay updated on future news!
Click here to join!

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