It’s your senior year of high school and you’re about to make the biggest decision of your life thus far. You’re about to pick which college you want to attend for the next four years. As you start looking into colleges, you realize that your diet will no longer consist of home-cooked meals from your mom. Trying to decide on a college isn’t always about the cafeteria, but for some students it is a large deciding factor.
Students at UTM typically say they chose the university because of its safety, small class sizes or affordable price tag, but future students may be more likely to choose to become a Skyhawk because of their options in the cafeteria.
Danielle Jones, the marketing manager for Sodexo at UTM, spoke with The Pacer regarding the options that students have available to them. She said that students with peanut, tree nut, shell fish, gluten, or red meat allergies can all find accommodations in the Skyhawk Dining Hall. Further than that, if a student has a restricted diet, but not an allergy, Sodexo is also able to help the students meet their needs.
“I think most students just don’t realize that we can always create a specialized meal plan for them, if they’ll come talk to us,” Jones said.
She said that often during the SOAR sessions, she will meet with students and their parents to fully cover the options that a particular student may need to have customized for their health. However, students who develop restrictions during the year, or are placed on diets later down the road, are always able to speak to any of the managers or chefs at Sodexo throughout the year to find out what options will best meet their needs.
Sodexo also has one specific chef, Chef Angela Booker, who specifically cares for the special diet options during breakfast and lunch rotations.
“She really cares about her students like her own children. She checks on them and wants them to know what they’re eating. But she also wants to know what they like,” Jones said.
As a student with special dietary restrictions, this writer personally, has worked with Chef Booker off and on for the last two years regarding my strict low-carb diet. Not only has she been careful to tell me about foods I can eat, she’s never hesitated in asking for my opinion on the way items are cooked. She’s even offered to make me something special on days when my options were particularly limited.
Though there are not specific meal plans for students with a restricted diet, Jones said that students could easily customize any plan they wanted using combinations of gift cards and pre-purchased, a la carte Captain’s Cash. Sodexo gift cards can be purchased online, tax-free, and can be used in all locations where Captain’s Cash, Skyhawk Silver or meal-swipes are accepted. Sodexo gift cards also receive the same 20 percent off discount that Captain’s Cash offers for all purchases. Meal plans and gift cards can both be found online at utm.sodexomyway.com.
Students concerned about their diet can also check nutrition facts for their meals in the cafeteria by utilizing the Bite app on their smartphones.
Bite allows students to connect to the menus for Captain’s Coffee, The Hangar and the Skyhawk Dining Hall based on location. It will then populate the menu for the week, categorized by meal and preparation station within the cafeteria. Each item has the nutrition facts and ingredients listed for each entrée and side dish. The app also allows users to automatically log food to their Fitbit activity watch. The code for students to access UTM’s services on Bite is 69DZ3.
Jones said that though there are only roughly a dozen students on campus who have declared allergies to the cafeteria, she knows there are several more with restricted diets and special needs for meal preparation. Though the Skyhawk Dining Hall does not have the certification or separate station that larger universities have that specifically cater to those with allergies, Sodexo does have a case of meal preparation materials specifically used for those with allergies. The “purple case,” as she refers to it, comes with specific instructions for use and cleaning.
“We have two purple cases and they are highly sanitized and cleaned in the same system after each use to prevent cross-contamination,” Jones said.
Sodexo also offers gluten free pizzas, wraps, gravy and entrée substitutions on a daily basis as coordinating with their standard menu. Jones said what many students don’t know is that they also can order any Sodexo products for catering events or for themselves personally, online. Catering trays and items can be purchased using Captain’s Cash and are not limited to the times when school is in session. The catering staff is available year-round and can coordinate meals with students, faculty and staff at any time, upon request.
“Our gluten free pizzas can also be sold individually. We’d prefer them to be ordered 24-hours in advance, but students can order online and then pick them up at the register when they need them,” Jones said.
People with allergies are not limited to the Skyhawk Dining Hall and can also find accommodations at other on-campus dining locations including Chick-fil-A and Sandella’s, in the food court. All three of the restaurants in that portion of the UC have nutrition facts readily available and Sandella’s now offers gluten free wraps, pizzas and salads as well.
Sodexo accommodates for allergies, but their options expand in many other categories that students may not be aware of. According to Jones, they are the third largest food service company in the nation and as such, are constantly looking for ways to expand. Jones said several options that students don’t always know about, in addition to allergy accommodations, are the ability to purchase special-event dessert packages and submit family recipes to be made in the cafeteria as well.
As students make that important decision of where to call home for the next four years, maybe it will be easier to smell Mom’s cooking knowing that her recipes have been submitted and may be featured at their school’s cafeteria.
It may be your home away from home, but Jones hopes that the cafeteria will always be a step into the kitchen your stomach growls for.
Sodexo uses special preparation equipment for students with food allergies. All allergy-safe equipment is washed and sanitized separately. | Pacer Photo/ Rachel Moore
