East Carolinian

Issue date: 9/11/08 Section: News

Media Credit: staff photo

There's new food in town, and it's on College Hill.

Todd Dining Hall, now known as The Fresh Food Company, opened its doors on Sept. 3 with a smattering of new food options for students and staff. With new vegetarian dishes offered at every meal and almost every food item cooked right in front of students, Todd is definitely a different place than a mere six months ago when construction began on the dining hall in April.

Seven show kitchens dot the landscape of the new dining hall, including an "action station" by the salad bar that is used for making stir-fry chicken, wings and other scrumptious entrees.

Despite all the changes, some things have stayed the same-like barbecue and fried chicken Wednesdays. Others like freshly tossed Thai salad and weekly sandwich specialties are totally new additions.

Joyce Sealey, food director at ECU, says that students are enjoying the new menu.

"They love it," she said. "There's more offerings [and] everything is basically prepared right in front of them."

Why The Fresh Food Company? Sealey says that the market-style atmosphere is becoming common for businesses and educational institutions around the nation.

"Universities around the country have embraced the Fresh Food Company concept that focuses on serving fresh, locally-grown foods and making preparation more visible to the customers," she said.

Food isn't the only thing that's fresh at Todd. New equipment-including a meat smoker and pizza deck oven-have been added to the entourage. The pizza deck is used to make a variety of pizzas each day, and the meat smoker is used to prepare different meats for lunch and dinner, including ribs, flank steak and smoked salmon. A daily pasta selection is offered as well, and a specialty sandwich item is on the menu each week, including a vegetarian option (mozzarella and tomato and vegetable paninis are just a couple of these veggie alternatives).

Other additions? Homemade potato chips, two soups offered daily and lots more choices for both meat-lovers and vegetarians.

"You decide what you want," Sealey said. "It's always up to you to decide how healthy or unhealthy you want to be."

The renovations to Todd cost $3 million, paid for by proceeds from student meal plans. Sealey said that this year students subscribed to meal plans have gone up, with 7,145 students enrolled this year compared to 6,317 students last year.

Besides new food and a new set up, another addition (or subtraction?) has been initiated at Todd. Trays are no longer provided for diners at Todd, although a few remain for people with medical or physical challenges. This change was initiated to curtail food and water waste.

A test pilot last November showed that it took approximately 2,000 gallons of water to wash dining hall trays, and about .12 to .24 more food was thrown away when trays were available to diners. Over the course of two days that trays weren't in use, waste was reduced by 2,813 pounds.

For students who don't have a meal plan: prices at Todd are $4.80 for breakfast, $7.20 for lunch and $7.60 for dinner.



This writer can be contacted at editor@theeastcarolinian.com.

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