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Spa Foods massage students’ cravings for healthful choices
by Mary Caldwell
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Program: Spa Foods
Rollout: August 2008
Company: University of Connecticut Department of Dining Services
Location:
Storrs, Conn.
Units: UConn Storrs campus Dining Services operates eight residential dining facilities, six coffee shops, a food court, a convenience store and a catering department. Spa Foods are sold at the coffee shops and convenience store.
Total weekly meals served : about 120,000
Spa foods items served weekly: about 4,200 items
Representative Dishes: Fruit Plate with Maple Vanilla Yogurt, Curried Fruity Tuna Wrap, Turkey Wrap with Honeyed Apple Cabbage
Price: $1.75- $4.20
Menu developers:
Dennis Pierce, director of Dining Services, and Rob Landolphi, culinary operations manager |
Aramark from Dennis Pierce’s daughter, a University of Connecticut student, helped spark development of the campus Dining Services’ line of Spa Foods.
“She’s one of my better sources of input,” says Pierce, who is UConn’s director of Dining Services. “She’s a runner, and she’s very conscious about what she eats, and so I heard the lament: ‘Dad, I’m always on the go and I eat a lot in the coffee shops, versus eating in the dining units, when I’m going from class to work. You need to come up with more healthy options.’”
While mulling over his daughter’s comments, Pierce began musing about how busy and often sleep-deprived students are today, juggling classes and work, and how interest in healthy lifestyles has increased.
“If they all had an opportunity to go to a spa,” he thought, “wouldn’t that be great, because it would give them the opportunity to regroup.”
So he asked, “Hmmm, spa, why can’t we put out a line of spa food?”
He enlisted the expertise of Rob Landolphi, the university’s culinary operations manager. After consulting with Amy Pumerantz, a registered dietitian from the campus health center, Dining Services set a goal of creating full-flavored dishes that would have fewer than 450 calories and 10 grams of fat or less.
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