SA Dining Services Committee

Members in attendance: Mark Coombs mpc39 Chair Shane Sniffen ss475 Undergraduate Voting Member Mazdak Asgary ma286 Undergraduate Voting Member Nicole Rodia ncr6 Undergraduate Voting Member Keith Bodin knb8 Undergraduate Voting Member Ahmed Salem ass34 SA Voting Member Gregory Mezey gnm5 Committee Alternate Andrew Johnson atj4 Student Employee Voting Member Colleen Wright-Riva cw223 Director of Dining Services Chelsea Clarke cmc255 Victor Younger vby3 Richard Anderson rwa5 Tony Kveragas ajk9 Steven Miller sm107

The meeting began at 5pm. Mazdak arrived late and had to leave early for a conference.

Mark presented the minutes from the previous meeting and opened up the floor for discussion of items on the agenda.

Nicole mentioned her and Mazdak’s interest in having more nutrition information available for both pre-packaged and dining hall food. Dining responded that they are starting with pre-packaged products. They have already prepared labels for the salads and will be rolling those out soon. Schools with smaller dining programs have an easier time with this process, but the size of Cornell’s program will present some challenges. Some other schools have placards next to foods w/ nutrition information, while others have all the information online.

Colleen said that the Menu Management System currently in place has a database of over 6000 recipes, but much of the data is old. The system is capable of furnishing some basic nutritional information for dishes, but these may be innacurate when finally prepared because chefs may vary ingredients. As a start, though, all salads will soon have full ingredients lists, and they are working on sandwiches currently. This all requires extra work on the part of the staff. Dining is consulting a nutritionist for this project.

Colleen mentioned that one reason dining has for not including full nutritional information on all foods is that this may discourage those with eating disorders from eating. They may consider doing a pilot of the nutritional information at certain locations.

Nicole said she understands the concerns about putting too much nutrition information on the label, but that a full ingredients listing would be very helpful. Colleen said such a compromise would be possible. Ahmed inquired about the �and other ingredients� statement found on the ingredients listings of some foods, and said that such a statement is too vague. Greg asked whether it would be easier to put all the nutrition information online. Colleen said that schools with simpler menus do so, but that this would be unwieldy for Cornell. Shane said that if full nutrition information is not possible for all dining hall foods, then a color-coded system such as Tony suggested would still be very helpful.

Ahmed asked to clarify how omitting nutrition information helps people with eating disorders. Colleen explained that people obsessive about the food they consume might make unhealthy choices if too much nutrition information were available to them. Also, we want to make sure that all information given is correct.

Colleen summarized the consensus so far: grab-and-go products are the first priority for nutriional labels/ingredients lists, followed by basic (e.g. color-coded) information for dining halls, and finally a more systematic change to the menu database. Tony answered Shane’s question about number of recipies used, saying that about 600 are in use at any given time, with modifications to menus around campus happening frequently. Colleen mentioned the possibility of getting a nutrition class to help out with updating the database.

Colleen clarified to Ahmed what was meant by the color-coding/pie chart system. In brief, a food’s nutritional content (e.g. fat, sugar, salt, etc.) would be broken down visually in a pie chart or something similar. Steven said that they are currently working with the Wellness Center to get �high fiber�, �low fat�, etc. labels, which should first be seen by January.

Mazdak mentioned that in the past Cornell has had menus online. Colleen said that a major problem was that Dining currently has no web manager. Steven said that the new software will have nutrition information available, which he would like to put online, but it will take some time.

Chelsea remarked that the vegetarian and vegan labeling is not very good, for example not all meat products are listed in some items. Colleen said she will check on it. Steven said that they should be stringent about listing all ingredients.

Mazdak introduced the next topic, 24 hour dining locations, by presenting his 24 hour dining survey regarding Bear Necessities. Results show interest in late-night/early morning convenience store/grill hours on certain nights, particularly Friday and Saturday nights. Richard noted that it is difficult to tell the actual demand from a survey. They make such decisions by looking at the cost/benefit analysis of each extra hour they stay open. Traffic usually gets really thin around 4am.

Colleen confirmed that a pilot program for late-night dining will be in place, but that due to computer network restrictions service will have to end around 3am each morning. Richard says that in the pilot certain services will be open until 3am while others will be closed. Bear Necessities will reopen at 6am with partial service.

Greg expressed interest in having the grill in Noyes open later. Richard explained that the student participation in the two Noyes operations has been significantly lower since the opening of the houses on West Campus. Consequently, J�s Crossing is on the verge of losing money and keeping it open later would increase that possibility. Colleen further explained that before the West Campus houses, J�s crossing would net about $700,000 in sales, and that so far this year that have not even made it to $50,000. Richard mentioned that it would be easier to have the store in Noyes open later.

Ahmed brought up the point of having the caf�s in the libraries open later. Colleen explained that the hours are set by the libraries and they require the caf�s to close 1 hour before the library closes. Ahmed explained that during study week, the libraries are very popular and that students often pack the caf�s until they close. Since Uris Library is open 24 hours, he was unsure why the Tower Caf� must close so early. Victor explained that some parts of the library close earlier and thus the libraries make them close the dining facilities 1 hour before this. Mark interjected that he is working with the libraries to extend their hours.

Colleen mentioned that extending dining hours will result in increased labor costs. Ahmed countered that the caf� in Olin is very popular and they should try to stay open later because of its central location. Andrew was wondering how much the labor costs would actually increase and how much must be sold to cover the costs of staying open later. Colleen explained that Dining can calculate the amount of sales necessary to cover operating expenses and food costs during the additional time that a dining facility would be open. Richard gave as an example the new Noyes Rec. Center dining location. Their analysis showed that about $600–900 of sales must be generated to warrant keeping it open later than currently planned. Dining could calculate amount of sales to break even if hours were added to other locations as well.

Greg inquired if the dining workers were unionized and if extending their work hours would be difficult. Colleen explained that they must be paid a premium for working past 10 pm which is also applied to the hours they worked prior to 10 pm that day. Tony explained that if dining facilities were permanently open considerably later, they would have to hire additional employees. He also agreed that during the study and exam week period, many students may stay up later.

Mark recommended a second study of having Bear Necessities open later some time later in the semester since students are likely to have different habits during the study and exam time. Richard said that keeping Bear Necessities open until 3 am may be useful to students but they could also try opening at 6 am. For West Campus, he could look at the Noyes Rec Center hours and try to keep the store open as late as possible. Richard explained that it would be best to start the extended hours when the new facility is opened. If the additional hours are not profitable, then the hours can be moved back. Richard said he is always willing to check out extended hours and maintain them if there is demand.

Mark explained that if we plan on having a trial period of later hours for this semester�s exam period, we should publicize with posters and online. He expects increased business during study week due to the fact that students are often up later. Richard said that Dining is willing to push the hours to 3 am 7 days a week and try it in the spring, but he anticipates little business between 6 and 9 in the morning.

Victor explained that Uris Library is open until midnight but that he would check with the libraries to see if they could have one of the caf�s open later during study week. Ahmed suggested he should check why Olin closes at 10 pm.

Concerning West Campus, Richard said they could keep both of the new facilities (the convenience store, Cosmos, and the hot food location, West Side Express, open later next semester by staggering their closings to save labor costs. Greg agreed that we don�t want to add labor because it would increase consumer costs. Keith surmised that more West Campus students are on meal plans since the houses have opened and thus they are not going to J�s Crossing as much. Colleen explained that the meal plans still include BRBs but many students buy the smallest meal plans which have fewer BRBs. Richard elaborated that the groceries were still maintaining sales volumes but the Hot Truck has not been as busy lately either. Greg and Colleen agreed that it may be related the construction on West Campus.

Mark said that according to our meeting schedule, we had planned an optional meeting for next week, and that we will definitely be having it because we still have a few items on the agenda. We can also set a tentative schedule for next semester at that time.

Greg asked if Dining could introduce frozen yogurt on West. Richard pointed out that there will be gelato in Cosmos next semester. Colleen responded that it would not be possible to have frozen yogurt because they would have to have machines in all 5 of the dining halls. Andrew commented that machine maintenance would also be a consideration. Colleen recalled that Dining has a table-top machine. Richard suggested that they may be able to find room to put one in one of the new facilities on West in the future.

Nicole advocated the proposition to have Bear Necessities open until 3 am during study week and suggested that if the study week pilot is successful, to make extended hours during study week a regular occurrence. Due to the issue that the payment system must be down between 3:15 and 3:45 am, Andrew inquired if you could still take cash and credit cards during that time. Richard explained that the entire accounting system would be shut down and thus that would not be possible.

Mark clarified that Dining would be conducting a two-tiered trial of extended hours; one during study week and one during the regular semester. He suggested that we could revisit the plans for the regular week in the future. Richard confirmed his plans to have Bear Necessities open until 3 am this study week, Sunday, December 3 to Tuesday, December 12. He justified not extending the hours through Friday because most people will have left by then. He also confirmed that Dining would not be opening Bear Necessities earlier during this time period. Colleen clarified that we would not be piloting anything on West campus this semester.

Mark said that we would be trying the regular week extended hours in the spring. Richard suggested the week before classes start and the first week of classes. Keith asked if the dining halls would be open before classes start and Richard said yes, they open Monday for dinner and meal plans start Tuesday dinner.

End of Meeting, Nov. 10.

Respectfully submitted,

Shane Sniffen and Nicole Rodia