Investigating the MU Campus Dining Services
Investigating the Campus Dining Services at MU
What is the MU Campus Dining Services Project?
"Enhancing the Mizzou student dining experience." That is the slogan that the Campus Dining Services at the University of Missouri proclaims. Food is an integral part of everyone's lives, much less the lives of college students who often don't eat properly and rush about juggling an overload of assignments. With food being such an important part of life, the MU Campus Dining Services Project is dedicated towards researching different elements of the MU Campus Dining Services and how they operate to serve students.
The University of Missouri Columbia has a Gold rating in STARS(1) for sustainability. Furthermore, the University of Missouri Campus Dining (2) website claims that the MU dining is "a top 10 dining program." It also claims to be the "most innovative wellness and nutrition program in 2017." The homepage for the Campus Dining Services (CDS) prides itself on its services it provides to students. This begs the question, how accurate are these claims?
Fresh fruit is available for MU students to purchase with their meal plans at The Mark dining hall located on MU's west campus in Columbia, Mo. on May 4th, 2019.
The MU Campus Dining Project seeks to answer this question by focusing on three aspects of the CDS: Nutrition, Sustainability and Student Employment.
Investigating Campus Nutrition
Sweet snacks, pastries, and a waffle maker are available for students at MU's The Mark dining hall on May 4th, 2019 in Columbia, Mo.
Inadequate nutrition is known to affect students' mental and physical performances, making proper eating habits and access to nutritious food an important facet of daily life.
Shekynah Doze, a dietetics and nutrition student at the University of Missouri, doesn't dine on her own campus. Doze has a vegan diet and eating habits and nutrition is of a great concern to her. She doesn't think choices for vegan students on the MU campus are sufficient.
"The person that has dietary restrictions, you need to be more educated, way more educated than the person that’s actually handling your food or serving it," says Doze. (3)
Kristen Hasan, the registered dietitian for the University of Missouri Columbia, says that the issue isn't lack of options.
"I think our biggest issue when it comes down to the communication of that information is that we have a website that houses that information," says Hasan. The information is stored on an online tool known as Zoutrition. However, the design is anything but user-friendly. Its interface isn't welcoming and it is hard to navigate.
"You can't complain too much, because if you really don't want to die you have to do your research," says Doze.
For those who are not concerned with a strict vegan diet, the nutrition value of foods is still questionable. Emporium, known to most students as a healthier dining location, had some shockingly high foods with sodium. In fact, the ham and Gouda sandwich has 107% the daily value of sodium, and a salad has 470 calories and 56% of the daily recommended sodium intake (4).
"Working for the dining program has made me realize that if we are not careful, what we eat won't be the best for us." says Zikry Koh about the campus food choices on May 4th, 2019 in Columbia, Mo.
Perhaps it is just where you go and what you eat. In Plaza 900, a buffet style dining establishment right next to Emporium, a salad and fruit bar can be found. For those who choose to eat in a more unhealthy way, or want to cheat on their diet, daily deserts can be found, such as cookies, brownies, and pies.
Claudia Khaw has the story on nutrition at the University of Missouri Columbia.
What is the MU Campus Dining Services Project?
"Enhancing the Mizzou student dining experience." That is the slogan that the Campus Dining Services at the University of Missouri proclaims. Food is an integral part of everyone's lives, much less the lives of college students who often don't eat properly and rush about juggling an overload of assignments. With food being such an important part of life, the MU Campus Dining Services Project is dedicated towards researching different elements of the MU Campus Dining Services and how they operate to serve students.
The University of Missouri Columbia has a Gold rating in STARS(1) for sustainability. Furthermore, the University of Missouri Campus Dining (2) website claims that the MU dining is "a top 10 dining program." It also claims to be the "most innovative wellness and nutrition program in 2017." The homepage for the Campus Dining Services (CDS) prides itself on its services it provides to students. This begs the question, how accurate are these claims?
The MU Campus Dining Project seeks to answer this question by focusing on three aspects of the CDS: Nutrition, Sustainability and Student Employment.
The University of Missouri Columbia has a Gold rating in STARS(1) for sustainability. Furthermore, the University of Missouri Campus Dining (2) website claims that the MU dining is "a top 10 dining program." It also claims to be the "most innovative wellness and nutrition program in 2017." The homepage for the Campus Dining Services (CDS) prides itself on its services it provides to students. This begs the question, how accurate are these claims?
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| Fresh fruit is available for MU students to purchase with their meal plans at The Mark dining hall located on MU's west campus in Columbia, Mo. on May 4th, 2019. |
The MU Campus Dining Project seeks to answer this question by focusing on three aspects of the CDS: Nutrition, Sustainability and Student Employment.
Investigating Campus Nutrition
 |
| Sweet snacks, pastries, and a waffle maker are available for students at MU's The Mark dining hall on May 4th, 2019 in Columbia, Mo. |
Inadequate nutrition is known to affect students' mental and physical performances, making proper eating habits and access to nutritious food an important facet of daily life.
Shekynah Doze, a dietetics and nutrition student at the University of Missouri, doesn't dine on her own campus. Doze has a vegan diet and eating habits and nutrition is of a great concern to her. She doesn't think choices for vegan students on the MU campus are sufficient.
"The person that has dietary restrictions, you need to be more educated, way more educated than the person that’s actually handling your food or serving it," says Doze. (3)
Shekynah Doze, a dietetics and nutrition student at the University of Missouri, doesn't dine on her own campus. Doze has a vegan diet and eating habits and nutrition is of a great concern to her. She doesn't think choices for vegan students on the MU campus are sufficient.
"The person that has dietary restrictions, you need to be more educated, way more educated than the person that’s actually handling your food or serving it," says Doze. (3)
Kristen Hasan, the registered dietitian for the University of Missouri Columbia, says that the issue isn't lack of options.
"I think our biggest issue when it comes down to the communication of that information is that we have a website that houses that information," says Hasan. The information is stored on an online tool known as Zoutrition. However, the design is anything but user-friendly. Its interface isn't welcoming and it is hard to navigate.
"I think our biggest issue when it comes down to the communication of that information is that we have a website that houses that information," says Hasan. The information is stored on an online tool known as Zoutrition. However, the design is anything but user-friendly. Its interface isn't welcoming and it is hard to navigate.
"You can't complain too much, because if you really don't want to die you have to do your research," says Doze.
For those who are not concerned with a strict vegan diet, the nutrition value of foods is still questionable. Emporium, known to most students as a healthier dining location, had some shockingly high foods with sodium. In fact, the ham and Gouda sandwich has 107% the daily value of sodium, and a salad has 470 calories and 56% of the daily recommended sodium intake (4).
Perhaps it is just where you go and what you eat. In Plaza 900, a buffet style dining establishment right next to Emporium, a salad and fruit bar can be found. For those who choose to eat in a more unhealthy way, or want to cheat on their diet, daily deserts can be found, such as cookies, brownies, and pies.
Claudia Khaw has the story on nutrition at the University of Missouri Columbia.
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| "Working for the dining program has made me realize that if we are not careful, what we eat won't be the best for us." says Zikry Koh about the campus food choices on May 4th, 2019 in Columbia, Mo. |
Claudia Khaw has the story on nutrition at the University of Missouri Columbia.
Investigating Campus Dining's Student Employees
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| Zikry Koh is an international student at MU, and believes that his job at The Mark dining hall provides him with opportunities for growth on May 4th, 2019 in Columbia, Mo. |
Zikry Koh is a student employee for The Mark on 5th Street, which is a dining hall located inside of the Mark Twain residence hall. Koh is an international student from Singapore, and he is studying respiratory therapy at MU.
International students are only allowed to work on campus unless they have the paperwork allowing for major-related internships and jobs. Many students such as Koh turn to campus dining jobs on campus. However, Koh doesn't feel that he's being restricted and enjoys his work.
"I began working for campus dining because I felt like I would excel at it, especially with my background in customer service," says Koh. "I like my job because it keeps me on my toes and I learn how to handle new situations every day."
When asking Koh if he knew anything about the scholarship opportunities or competitive pay, Koh wasn't aware of said opportunities despite these opportunities are well documented on the University of Missouri website (5).
Koh believes that the conditions for student employees are good. The employees are always paid higher than the minimum wage the employers are well aware of the students' busy schedules, and work around their timetables.
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| Koh prepares food for a student in the deli section of The Mark dining hall on May 4th, 2019 in Columbia, Mo. |
Investigating Campus Sustainability
Kathryn Kidd is a student employee and project coordinator for the Sustainability Office at the University of Missouri Columbia.
"I started working at the sustainability office my freshman year," Kidd stated. "It started out as just volunteering, and I was kind of ignorant as to what sustainability actually meant. When I first came, I really thought of it as just an environmental thing about recycling. We like to have a broader definition."
According to the Missourian, the MU Campus Dining Services purchases more than 30 million individual pieces of cutlery and containers a year for just five of their dining locations. A lot of these products ends up being thrown away along with the waste that they contain. The containers and cutlery at five locations on campus equal at least 250 tons of waste per year.
The Campus Dining Services has attempted to compost their food but many of their efforts have either dwindled or are not in effect any more.
"The food services tried to do a composting, and I think that where that went, from my perspective, is that composting is very difficult," said Kidd. "It is very easy to contaminate compost. In a dining hall situation where the students don’t care and are going to be dumping everything in one spot, it was pretty difficult."
Emily Aiken is a past volunteer for Tiger Pantry, a food bank at the University. She is involved with many sustainability efforts and personally tries to cut down on food waste by using reusable containers and straws.
"I think Mizzou knows that it needs to be more sustainable," said Aiken. "There are people that complain about it, there are advocacy groups on campus who are pushing for a more sustainable campus. I also think it is up to the students to voice their concerns."
Aiken details that the Tiger Pantry would donate the food they have to other food banks in the area that have the permission to give out expired food past a certain date after the expiration. It's more sustainable than throwing out the food, so Aiken believes it's a win.
However, Aiken used to be a part of the Residential Hall Association, and knows that they stopped composting. She also works at Starbucks on campus, where they used to save coffee grounds and give it to different gardens that would reuse the grounds. However, they get thrown away now instead of being reused.
Aiken believes that if students speak out on the issue and the University administration listens and takes action, there could be great improvements.
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About the Authors
Trenton Moore
Trenton is a junior transfer student to the University of Missouri Columbia. He is a competitive video game player with a particular interest in Super Smash Bros., and plans to go into eSports journalism.
Claudia Khaw
Claudia is sophomore who transferred from Malaysia. She aspires to be an author as well as a magazine journalist in her home country. In her free time she likes to read and listen to music.
Claire Bradley
Claire is a sophomore at the MU School of Journalism. She is majoring in Strategic Communications with a minor in Business, and she hopes to work as a graphic designer in the advertising industry. In her free time she likes to hike and spend time with friends and family.
Trenton Moore
Trenton is a junior transfer student to the University of Missouri Columbia. He is a competitive video game player with a particular interest in Super Smash Bros., and plans to go into eSports journalism.
Claudia Khaw
Claudia is sophomore who transferred from Malaysia. She aspires to be an author as well as a magazine journalist in her home country. In her free time she likes to read and listen to music.
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Links for Sources:
(1) https://sustainability.missouri.edu/
(2) https://dining.missouri.edu/
(3) https://soundcloud.com/user-716194890/j2150-final-audio
(4) http://zoutrition.missouri.edu/zoutrition#
(5) https://dining.missouri.edu/2018-scholarship-winners/
(5) https://dining.missouri.edu/2018-scholarship-winners/
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