OPERATIONS
Performance Plate. Hebert has been a strong partner of the initiative, Mootz says, by making a point to highlight the station during dining room tours with student-athletes and issuing a constant reminder: Don’t know what to eat? Go grab something from Performance Plate. Mootz highly recommends that operators at C&Us connect with leaders of other divisions, as it sparks new ideas while also building buy-in across campus. However, the most important opinion is that of students, Estevez says. His team meets at least once a month with a network of 10-15 students to solicit feedback and make changes as necessary. One of those new changes is a big upgrade to the hydration station, where students can now enjoy homemade electrolyte drinks made from Mootz’s own recipes. Fruit juices—like lemonade, fruit punch, peach, strawberry, orange, and grape—are combined with salt and other ingredients to boost hydration. The program has been incredibly popular with students so far, and it’s just one of the many ways Providence College’s foodservice team is working to make healthy eating delicious, exciting, and simple. Simple is not always easy to execute. But it’s Mootz’s top tip for other operators looking to inspire their students to eat more healthfully and mindfully. Performance Plate’s all-in-one nature is critical to its success, she says. Other operators may find they already have all the right pieces in their dining rooms— and it’s just a matter of changing the presentation. “Convenience really is key,” Mootz says. “I hate to say it, but people do not like to read [placards] across the dining hall about what’s healthy over here and over there. It’s out of sight, out of mind. So if you can put it all together for them, it’s much simpler for them to say, ‘Wow, this looks great.’ GET TO KNOW PROVIDENCE COLLEGE’S ELI ESTEVEZ See what’s in store for Estevez’s oper-
ation, which was named FSD’s April Foodservice Operation of the Month.
butternut squash risotto, roasted potato wedges, broccoli slaw salad and Asian vegetable stir fry. Vegetarians are welcome here, too, with lunches like eggplant parmesan and sides of sauteed spinach with car- amelized onions, couscous primavera, roasted cauliflower, broccoli Raab and mashed sweet potatoes. “[Students] can customize and make their personal choices, but at the same time, the station’s menu does the work for you because it’s all planned as one balanced meal,” Estevez says. About 30% of students eat from the Performance Plate station during any given lunch or dinner serve, Estevez estimates. It’s become just as popular as the comfort food station, with both ath- letes and other students—but it was the college’s sports program that inspired the initial idea. HELPING ALL STUDENTS STAY AT THE TOP OF THEIR GAME The genesis for Performance Plate came out of team brainstorming sessions held last summer for the new school year. That team included Holli Mootz, Prov- idence’s campus dietitian, who is also employed by Sodexo. “One of the first thoughts that sparked the idea was: ‘We are a Division I school, and what can we do to add to that?’” Mootz says. But immediately, the team recognized that they didn’t want to limit the new station’s potential audience only to athletes. A message of inclusivity would be key in developing—and marketing— Performance Plate for campus-wide success. “The question instead became: ‘What can we do for people who want to be top performers?’” Mootz says. “Whether you’re an athlete or one of our STEM students or active in clubs, everyone needs nutrients and vitamins to be at their best.” Mootz introduced herself to Providence’s Sports Dietitian Lynne Hebert via email and asked for a meeting, and the women talked through ideas for
Q: What is it that makes your opera- tion excel? It’s a combination of strong leadership and a committed team. We’re commit- ted to each other and to making the stu- dent experience great. We’re relentless- ly focused on what our students want and how we can do even more to make them happy. We prioritize consistency, quality of service and cleanliness, while staying responsive to the evolving needs of our campus community. We collect data and conduct surveys and use these to drive our decisions, but it’s also really important never to lose sight of the human element: that interaction of actually going up asking them, “How can I help you? How can I make your day better?” Q: What are your goals for the opera- tion in the coming year? Every semester we deeply evaluate our program as a whole, and we assess any areas that that need improvements or evolutions based on current trends. I know we’ll keep growing the Perfor- mance Plate station, and we actually want to add more of those types of op- tions all throughout the dining room. It’s because our students are gravitating more toward healthy eating. We’re seeing how we can bring those concepts into our retail setting too— kind of stepping away from the burgers and fried chicken to the more healthy and balanced plates.
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