Students want more variety in food choices

Some students at Norwich University are not happy with the food selection that is available to them on a daily basis and would like the dining facilities to make more frequent changes to add variety to the menu.

According to Conor Eaton, 21, senior history major from Garland, Maine, the food service needs to improve the menu. Sodexo does try unique dishes but they never seem to be that good.

"I would prefer that they cook things with a lot less grease, more natural food instead of the over-processed (stuff)," Eaton said.

Other students seem to agree with Eaton, that more fresh foods are needed in the dining hall, not just fresh produce but fresher tasting dishes.

"We need more healthy food like fruits and vegetables, something fresh. The vegetables seem old and they don't taste very good," said Derrell Sparrow, 21, criminal justice major from the Bronx, N.Y.

Norwich University and the food service strive to keep students eating healthy, said a food services representative.

"[Sodexo] tries to do a lot of programs on resident dining and on health, being healthy, eating right. This is like talking to the choir, these guys are healthy, everybody is healthy here," said Marie Chilson, administrative assistant to the production chef.

"Apples, oranges and fresh cantaloupe are available every day. Two factors go into what is going to be made and how it's going to be made, labor and volume," Chilson said.

"When serving 1,200 to 1,500 people in a meal, sometimes the labor involved in the meal makes the meal prohibitive," Chilson said. Meals have to be prepped two to three days in advance; it is a huge factor if something is labor intensive, according to Chilson.

"We are part of a district which covers part of Vermont and other states and these menus come down from corporate and the regional manager, who covers New England," Chilson said. "The regional chefs are the ones who design the menus."

The dining hall serves from a menu that is set up by the Sodexo food company, not by Norwich University, according to Chilson.

"Sodexo uses a program called food management services. This program runs menus for a week at a time and the district chef sets up a four-week cycle; this four-week cycle is set up so that it makes it easier to plan, prep and have the food in house," Chilson said.

"[Sodexo] changes the four-week cycle every semester. Basically we have weeks one, two, three, four and then on week five we do the menu from week one again. It's a rotating menu. Our weeks go from Friday morning to Thursday night," Chilson said.

"The meats that we use are limited, we have beef, chicken, pork, turkey and fish. We don't use fish very often because students don't eat it and it is expensive. You see a lot of chicken because chicken is not expensive and food cost is huge a factor. We are a business; yes, I know you pay your money, but it is a business," Chilson said.

"Norwich and Sodexo are not unwilling to take suggestions from the students; although there is no easy solution, input is greatly appreciated," Chilson said.

"Students haven't been using it this year but down by the pizza station, over the bread there is a black board that says, ‘We Hear You' and there are cards so students can share what they like or dislike," Chilson said.

"Anyone who is intent on changing the food needs to get together and look at the whole picture and come forward with suggestions. Sodexo likes to get the students involved if they could but we have never really had anyone that interested," Chilson said.

However students feel that the food does seem to drastically change for the better when events are happening at Norwich.

"We have been told that we buff it up for faculty and staff and parents weekend or the trustees and it is true, we do. We want to put our best foot forward to show people what we can do. But a lot of the stuff you see comes right off of our menu," Chilson said.