Special Diets Are Our Specialty
By: Zag Dining
Parents and Family,
College is complicated enough; enjoying a meal at the resident dining hall doesn’t have to be! Choosing meals can present undue anxiety for the growing number of students who arrive on college campuses with food allergies or gluten intolerance. Last year alone, Zag Dining chefs worked personally with nearly 200 students with a variety of dietary needs and restrictions. To meet these challenges, Zag Dining’s menus and programs are designed with the varied needs of today’s college students in mind, and our professional staff work hard to exceed student expectations every day. We offer the following programs to help students stay healthy and on track.
Specialty Foods: Is your student committed to a vegan, vegetarian or gluten free diet? The COG, located in the John J. Hemmingson Center is a two-level dining facility that caters to all three diets. Zagriculture is a restaurant-style station in the COG that includes vegan and vegetarian options at every meal, every day. Students can also look for the square VG, V and GF icons at the other five stations, or they can help themselves to convenient specialty items like non-dairy milks in the specialty foods cooler. Selections in the cooler vary and evolve with student tastes and preferences. Students can fill out a comment card or simply ask a chef or manager for the special food they are craving, and we will do our best to provide it.
Food Allergies: Does your student have specific food allergies? The COG’s restaurant-style station, World’s Fare features our Simple Servings platform. This platform serves items free from eight common allergens every single day (no milk, eggs, wheat, soy, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, or fin fish). Other allergen free items can be found at other stations, depending on the menu each day, by using the Bite app and setting personal menu controls.
Bite is available for free at the App Store or Google Play, and is continually updated to help your student get the most out of their dining options at Gonzaga. By setting menu controls, your student can not only see which station in the COG is serving which items, they can choose to see only options that are mindful, vegan, or vegetarian. They can also set it to indicate any menu item that includes dairy, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, wheat, soybean, fish, or mustard. If your student has special dietary needs, Bite helps them know exactly what is available, and what they should avoid, removing guesswork and providing some dining peace of mind.
Bite has features beyond menu controls, as well. Your student can check out upcoming special offers, plan their meals for the week, and even connect to their FitBit for complete nutritional and fitness information. They can also use the Tell Us feature to provide feedback. Your student’s input helps us serve them better!
For students not dining in the COG, there are always a variety of healthy and allergen-free options available at The Marketplace, The Bulldog, and Duff’s. The menus and options change often, so if your student needs help finding something, don’t hesitate to ask a Zag Dining employee for assistance.
Registered Dietitian: Zag Dining is committed to enhancing the health and wellness of all students, faculty and staff members on campus. Individuals with food allergies, intolerances, and medical conditions, as well as any student with nutritional questions or concerns, will have access to a Registered Dietitian, where their individual dietary needs can be safely addressed. Please reach out to our Campus Executive Chef, Thomas Morisette (Thomas.Morisette@sodexo.com), Director of Resident Dining Operations, Lance Mailem (Lance.Mailem@sodexo.com), or any member of our management team for information and access to Sodexo registered dietitians.
We are dedicated to feeding Zags, and we love a challenge! If your student has any questions or concerns about the food and dining options available on campus, we would love to hear from them. Our chefs and managers are always available to personally talk with students to help get them comfortable with life on campus, and to provide as much guidance and support as necessary.
After all, your student has more important things to worry about than what’s for dinner.
For more information about Zag Dining’s program, please visit Zag Dining.
Sincerely,
Zag Dining
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