WELCOME and WELCOME BACK PARENTS & FAMILIES!!

Zag Dining has been working hard all summer to prepare for this new school year. We are so excited to meet the class of 2015 and to see all the familiar faces back on campus- we have missed you. We are also thrilled to show off what we have been working on all summer!  Here are a few highlights!

This summer, we took our Sustainability efforts a step further through many different outlets. We sent our Chef Thomas Shelton to a five day farm school just Northwest of Spokane called Quillisascut (http://quillisascut.com/).  If you are from the Seattle or Spokane area, you may have been fortunate enough to have delved into their famous cheese.  Here, our Chef learned all about cooking in season and the true art of “Farm to Table” cooking.  Chef Thomas will be doing special menus and educating our team as well as students about the importance eating locally and in season through cooking demonstrations and video.

In addition, some of our management staff was also able to take tours of two different farms in the area, a Hydroponic farm as well as a wheat farm.  Both tours were extremely informational and successful.  C&S HydroHuts (http://cshydrohuts.com/), located just East of Spokane, will be assisting our Resident Dining program in starting an indoor garden that can grow and produce fresh vegetables all year long!  We will also be using some of C&S HydroHuts products in our menus this fall.   Our most recent tour was with Shepherd’s Grain (http://www.shepherdsgrain.com/), a wheat farm located just West of Spokane.

Which brings us to some exciting news…We are expanding our bakery on campus while using sustainable practices and local wheat from Shepherd’s Grain!  We are hiring some excellent experienced bakers and are excited to reduce some of our carbon footprint!

In other news, Iggy’s Pizza has moved to Cataldo! The move was imperative in order for us to not only extend our hours of operation, but to also expand our menu!  Not only will Iggy’s now offer Regular and Whole Wheat Crusts, baked from scratch using Shepherd’s Grain, but they will also be offering items like hot sandwiches, wings and other specialty items.

By popular demand, our SubConnection and Jazzman’s Apps are now available in the Android Market! And……The Apps will now take Dining Dollars/Bulldog Bucks!  We also will have QR codes all around campus for special dining coupons and offers, so be sure to look out for those!

This year, our in our Resident Dining Restaurant, we will be featuring foods from the Mediterranean as well favorite foods from our Student Board of Directors. Every Tuesday we will feature special items from the Mediterranean theme of that month.  September and October is El Toro, which focuses on cuisine from Spain. November and December we will serve up La Famiglia from Italy.  January and February we will pretend its summer here in Spokane and take a trip to the Mediterranean Beaches.  Lastly, for March and April, we will feature menu items inspired by Greece!  Every Thursday will feature favorite meals that were chosen by our Student Board of Directors.

Here are some more excited new items to our Resident Dining restaurant:

• We will now have tofu and other vegetarian options at every station at every meal.
• We are expanding our made to order omelets station! We will now have two chefs at the action station to expedite the line.  And by popular demand, we will now have sausage, along with our traditional goodies like bacon, ham, veggies and tofu.
• With our expanded bakery, we will have fresh bread at every station at every meal.
• We will have a new bakery/dessert station that will be manned by a baker for a more personal touch!
• Also by popular demand, every meal will have a fresh raw vegetable crudités bar with hummus, cottage cheese, and tofu.
• A new Hydration Station has been installed! The Hydration Station will feature 3 different Fruit or Veggie infused water.
• Our Tossed-To-Order Salad is expanding! We will now have more Chefs mixing up your favorite salads.  We will always have our core Garden, Caesar, Buffalo Chicken and Chef’s salads available, but now we will also have Chinese Chopped Salad, Beef Fajita, and Mediterranean Tuna salad. Plus, we will also feature two special salads. The protein options are also being increased with your choice of Beef, Tuna, Chicken, Tofu, Sesame Tofu, Ham, Turkey, Eggs, and Bacon. There will also be a variety of cheeses available. All these salads will be offered at Lunch, Dinner and Brunch.  Brunch will also feature the option to have your salad in a wrap!
• Our cooking classes are now being taught by our Executive Chef Thomas Morisette! He will hold the classes on Sundays from 2pm-3pm and focus on budget and healthy/local cooking!  Look out for some guest chefs as well!

Along with all of these new food offerings, we also are launching our “Stay Healthy” campaign. Zag Dining has purchased a computer program where students can keep track of their nutrition goals, either by themselves or with the help of our resident dietician or a staff member.  Students can take body scans to find out their BMI’s, Hydration Levels and weight within 30 seconds.  They can create fitness and nutrition goals for themselves and log all their food and activity with our accurate and easy to use nutrition calculator and activity log. In order to promote students staying healthy, we are offering prizes, like iPads, for those who use it!  We want to help dispel any fears of “Freshman 15” by helping students make the right choices.

The programs mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. We have many promotions and fun events planned for this year and a lot of giveaways as well! With this new lineup, we are so delighted to welcome the new students and returning students back!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us! We want to ensure that all your student’s needs are being met!  509.313.6936, Sarah.Clifford@sodexo.com , www.zagdining.com or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/zagdining or on Twitter @ZagDining.