Nutrition & Dietary Needs

Our new concept dining includes selections at every meal for vegetarian and vegan diners, including soups, entrees, and pasta selections. Dining hall menus are marked by icons to make your dining selections easier.

All menus feature a regular rotation of vegan and vegetarian options, including an allergy friendly salad bar at Uppercrust. We make sure there are options at every concept where students are given the option to be vegan or vegetarian. This includes special entrees at Homestyle, Taqueria, Ciao, and Kimchi's.

Nine food items account for almost 90 percent of food allergic reactions: milk, eggs, nuts, tree nuts, fish, sesame, shellfish, soy and wheat.

We work hard to identify all dishes that are prepared with these select items. Look for icons on our dining menus to identify the known presence of these allergens. (This may not reflect the presence of these allergens at the production facility.)

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Nut-sensitive areas: All areas that contain nut products will have signs clearly displayed. Food on the hot lines will be nut-sensitive unless otherwise indicated by clearly displayed signs and servers on the lines will be informed ahead of time if a food product will contain any nut products and will make this information clear. Nut sensitive areas will be washed separately from areas that may contain nut products.

If there is ever any question or concern about any of the food products being served, students are highly encouraged to talk to a supervisor at the dining location.

Note: All retail locations on campus are considered areas that contain nuts. Students with nut allergies should use caution in these locations.

The Zone: An allergen sensitive station located in Knollcrest Dining Hall, that focuses on providing nutritious and quality food for those who have one or more allergies to the top 9 allergens. The Zone provides a safe space to help control cross contact while enabling students to have a varied and delicious menu of options for their meal. Our staff is educated in safe allergen protocols, and our menu features scratch-based cooking, including sauces and condiments. We choose dishes based on the needs and wants of our students. All dishes are gluten and dairy free, and staples at The Zone include at daily rotation of proteins and vegetables like beef kabobs, grilled chicken, baked beans, polenta, and rice pilaf.

OPTIoNS: Our campus has a wide range of special dietary needs, this includes alternative diets. OPTIoNS provides our diners with specific allergies, intolerances or sensitivities with a delicious alternative to some of their favorite foods, which NOW includes breakfast! This cooler is location near the Zone at Knollcrest.

While we work hard to identify the primary allergens in our dishes, we advise diners with allergies to do following:

• Pay attention to entrée name. Dishes made with common allergens often have that allergen mentioned in the entrée name.
• Establish a relationship with the chef. Simple conversations with the chef in your daily visit to the dining halls can make your dining experience a lot easier. The chef can go over ingredients used in recipes and how the meal was prepared.
• Read labels! We include allergy icons made by Creative Dining Services for each allergen) on all of our menus. Our chefs will be happy to tour the kitchen with you so you may view labels of the foods you will be eating.
• When in doubt...  Ask! Our staff would love to help and if we don't know the answer, we will do our best to find it.  But if you are ever unsure about an entrée, we recommend you avoid consuming it.

Pamela Smith, MS, RDN, CDE 

Pam Smith, a registered dietitian, is available Wednesdays in Health Services to answer your questions and help you plan healthy diets. You can arrange individual diet counseling appointments with Pam for things such as; healthy eating, food allergies, special diets, weight loss or gain, eating disorders and sports nutrition.

Pamela brings a multitude of experience in counseling clients of all ages.

In her role of Dietitian, she is responsible for student nutrition counseling, sanitation audits, long-term care coverage, recipe analysis and development and ServSafe instruction. Pamela is available Wednesdays in Health Services or by email to answer your questions and to help plan healthy nutrition plans. You can also arrange individual counseling appointments for things such as managing diabetes, food allergies, special diets, weight gain or loss, eating disorders, and sports nutrition.