Dining Advisory Committee Meeting:

March 26, 2010

 

o     Retail

o       Smoothies now available

o       Spring and Easter Candy on sale in the Cabaret

o       Concerns for stronger coffee in Donnelly

§         Currently have a French Roast blend

§         Adding Sumatra -  a new strong coffee, as of 3/25/10

o       New Limited Time Offers

§         Fresh Berry Salad w/ Baby Spinach

§         Banana Foster Muffin

o     Residential News:

o       New Aspretto Coffee!

§         Excellent reviews from students

§         Nice, strong, brewed, coffee!

o       Mai Pham – Spotlight Chef!

§         Thai and Vietnamese Cuisine

·        Intro event 3/1 – Traveling Chef 3/10 – and Creatively Cooking w/ Mai Pham – 3/31 COMING UP!

o       Valley Café – We are growing!

§         Thank you for your support and promotion of this endeavor

o       Easter Hours

§         Dining Hall will close April 1, 2010 @ 3:30pm

·        Reopens Monday, April 5, 2010 @ 4:30pm

o     C-Store Focus Group Questions - Steve

o     Open Floor       

o       Questions, Comments, Concerns – How are we doing?

o     Next Meeting: Friday, April 15, 2010 @ 12:15pm


Meeting Minutes/Notes:

Dessert/Bakery Station:

·        Like the layout/concept of the dessert station at New Paltz

o       Serving glass display to keep things warm

o       Larger variety of coffee

o       Cinnamon rolls

o       Steve Sansola commented

§         Cannot implement because of a spatial issues, personnel, has a different espresso/hot chocolate concept,

o       Students would like to see a frost your own cupcake event

·        Bagels and Rolls seem to be better at New Paltz

o       We both order from Rockland Bagels so will check

o       Wheat bagels and everything bagels needed in the AM

o       Suggested that staff add variety early in the morning to the bagels they put out.

 

Valley Café

·        Middle Eastern Cuisine for the Valley Café – ex. Tabuli

·        Middle Eastern for international night…

 

Vegetarian/Vegan Option in Retail

·        Students are suggesting vegan cream cheese in both retail and residential, but especially retail

 

Training and execution:

·        Cashiers should be properly trained.

·        Students are complaining that they are not charged accurately – ex. charging Marist Money when they asked for Thrifty.

o       Happened to Andrew twice @ Jazzman’s

·        We will make sure cashiers are properly trained

 

Positive reinforcement:

·        Specialty Salads:

o       They like

o       Students would like to see options to purchase the fresh, in-house made salads by the pound.

·        Cleaner utensils:

o       Students have found cleaner dishes, but we should still reinforce that silverware be ran through twice.

·        Enjoy the ice cream station and the Wednesday specials. When asked if they wanted the larger bakery back or if they would like the ice cream to stay, students chose the ice cream.

 

C-Store Questions – 10 minutes – Steve Sansola

What’s best about K&D Deli? What are you looking for in a deli?

·        Breakfast sandwiches, candy, milk, medicine/pharmacy section, laundry detergent, laundry sheets (laundry stuff more from rite aid)

·        Ready –to-go meals?

o       Not to into it…

o       Lean Cuisine and Hungry Man (Jeannie)

o       Eggs or bread

·        They would like to see organic and sustainable products like chips, pot pies, granola bars, cereal, yogurt, and juices.

·        Andrew suggests making it like a deli atmosphere.

·        Group suggests that fresh produce be sold at Jazzman’s 1/week – maybe even all the time.

·        Service – needs to fast service

·        Marist compared to Vassar:

o       Vassar sales local milk.

o       Local milk venders in the process of being approved by Sodexo

§         Would like to see it in retail by the fall.