THESCOOP
BradleyUniversityDiningNewsletter
FallSemester|2014Recap
Student Engagement
Bradley Dining Services invested much of the Fall Semester
garnering engagement through various outlets available to
the campus community. These included:
Student Government
We partnered with Alex Estes, Bradley’s Student
Government Representative, in staying current with the
student body’s comments and concerns.
Dining Committee Meetings
Monthly meetings with representatives from students,
faculty, and staff, in which Dining Services reviews upcoming
dining events and feedback about program is discussed.
Comment Cards
Located in both residential dining locations and the Student
Center, we are provided with input from the campus
community. Cards are reviewed and individually answered
by the Food Service Director.
MISSION
Strengthen partnerships with open dialog
and survey reviews as we strive to provide
our guests a great Bradley experience.
“Thank you for adding cultural aspects to the meal. Really
enjoyed the Indian chicken as well as the veggie stirfry.”
“Kierra has been an incredible server! Everytime I’ve came to
the POD for coffee it is always made perfectly to my liking.
Thanks, Kierra!”
“The omelets are always great and the woman who cooks them
is friendly!”
“Robert cooked my breakfast this morning. Great guy, very
friendly, great attitude. Love the breakfast option at Center
Court! Helps me when I’m in a rush to classes.”
Voice of the Consumer (VOC)
Web and/or mobile based platform that enables consumers
to provide real-time feedback on their experience in the
dining locations. Reviews are labeled as either WOWs or
Rescue Alerts.
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Bradley Dining Services 1501 W. Bradley Ave. Peoria, IL 61625 (309) 677-3210
bradleydining.com facebook.com/bradleydining instagram.com/bradleydining
THE SCOOP
Student Engagement (cont.)
Fall DiningStyles Survey
Online questionnaire available to students, faculty, and
staff regarding their feedback on Dining Services. Each
questionnaire also served as an entry for a raffle, with
e-gift cards being the respective prizes. The prize
winners and prizes were as follows:
Trish Blattenberger $150 e-gift card
Paul Carpenter
$50 e-gift card
Kelly Wrobel
$50 e-gift card
Chee Hyeon Choi
$50 e-gift card
These results are used for future strategic planning. Our
goal with this survey is to better understand the needs of
our campus community and how we can work to improve
the overall dining experience.
Survey results from Fall 2014 saw the greatest
improvement in the categories of Freshness of Food,
Food Quality, Knowledge/Helpfulness of Staff, Hours of
Operation, and Cleanliness.
Health & Wellness
Introducing Jenny Reay
Bradley Dining is heavily invested in making sure healthy
options are easily accessible. Nutritious and wholesome
choices are available every day throughout our locations,
along with nutrition and wellness programs that help
take some of the mystery out of healthy living.
Our registered dietician
and Bradley alumna,
Jenny Reay, is available
on campus weekly to
work with students and
faculty who have dietary
restrictions. She provides
assistance in choosing
what is available under
these restrictions, and we
have actively tabled to
promote her role as a
resource on campus. On Halloween, we had
the opportunity to share a healthy seasonal muffin
recipe with the campus community and handed out
samples in the Student Center. As we head into the
Spring Semester, we plan on having more tabling events
that feature Jenny and healthy recipes!
Dietetic Interns
Five of Bradley’s dietetic interns worked side by side with
our Dining Service staff this Fall. Their internship
included time behind the scenes working in the kitchen,
as well as on the front lines greeting customers and
selling.
EVENTS AND
CELEBRATIONS
Take a look at some of our specials this semester!
Jerry’s Grand Opening
In September, we reopened Bradley’s beloved Juice Bar and hosted
a tasting event with our new ecoGrounds coffee. Free product
samples of our new bagel sandwich concepts, raffle prizes, and gift
cards were also given away.
Website Update
A fresher, cleaner, and more interactive version of our website was
lauched in October.
Halloween
Both Geisert and Williams hosted Halloween Spook-taculars, a
favorite among our student diners. Each hall was embellished in
decorations fitting for the season and our employees dressed in
festive costumes!
Thanksgiving
Our dining halls also hosted Thanksgiving feasts shortly before
Thanksgiving break. Tukey, ham, stuffing, cornbread.... oh my!
Birthday Bash
In addition to theme meals, birthdays are celebrated once a month
in Geisert and Williams.
Give with your Dining Dollars
In early December, students with an abundance of Dining Dollars in
their account had the opportunity to buy nonperishable food items
in the POD to be donated to the Peoria Midwest Food Bank. A total
of $950 worth of groceries was purchased and donated!
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FALL 2014
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Health & Wellness (cont.)
Dietetic Interns (cont.)
To tie up their experiences at the end of the semester, they each held a tabling event at the location they were assigned
to where they handed out samples and recipes, and spoke to students about healthy eating choices. All five will
graduate in the summer of 2015.
“I think this internship has been a great experience so far. I’ve met a lot of amazing people and been
involved in a lot of really cool projects. I’m excited to see what wonderful experiences the new year will
bring!”
- Danielle Sausaman; Plans after graduation: Undecided
“I feel grateful that I was able to spend six weeks working with Bradley’s Dining Services. I learned more
than I ever expected and gained confidence in my management skills. I absolutely loved getting to know
the staff and working with them each day!
- Katie Davis; Plans after graduation: Work in public health and get PhD in Nutrition
“Working at Williams Dining was a challenging, fun, and eye-opening experience. There is a lot more
that goes into running a kitchen than I expected! During my six weeks there I really grew in my
confidence and skills and made some good friends in the process. The managers and chefs at Williams
really work hard to provide the best possible dining experience they can for students, so if you see them
while you’re eating, make sure to give them a big “Thank You!”
- Mary Noakes; Plans after graduation: Move to New York and work with children
“Six weeks working in food service management was an experience I’ll never forget. I was able to learn
new skills in management from amazing supervisors. Every day was new and exciting to learn and have
fun while working alongside knowledgable and hilarious staff that soon became friends.”
- Jeanna Rich; Plans after graduation: Become a registered dietician and work with low
income and food insecure population in Peoria
“The staff at the [Michel] Student Center was extremely welcoming and fun. They were always willing
to share their knowledge with me about food service management. It was a great experience that truly
helped me to learn the world of food service and enabled me to expand my knowledge to become an
even better dietetic profession.
- Kristie Miller; Plans after graduation: Move to Chicago and work as a dietitian in a
corporate or clinical setting
Sustainability
In November, we met with Kim Green, Planning Supervisor
and Sustainability Coordinator and the student members
who comprise of Bradley’s B green committee. Here, we
were able to speak about the different ways in which Dining
Services promotes and contributes to helping sustainability.
We were also able to seek their advice and feedback on
ways we can continue to promote this effort!
Ways in which we
REDUCE OUR IMPACT
 The floor machine used to clean the Student Center uses a chemical free, ionized water
 Tray-less dining has been implemented in residence halls which reduces water use on washing trays daily
 Fair trade coffee selections available in Java City and Starbucks
 Reusable clam shell to-go containers have been implemented
 Natural, organic, and gluten-free food available at the POD and in residence halls
 Waste diversion bins for aluminum, plastic, and paper is utilized in our locations
 Vegetarian options are provided daily
 Recycled, non-bleached napkins are used in our single feed dispensers
 Sustainable food practices and ingredients are used at Moe’s and organic tomatoes are used in Topio’s sauces and
 Bulk candy/trail mix stations in the POD reduce waste from pre-packaged snacks
pizzas
 100% of our fryer oil waste is diverted
FALL 2014
 Condiments are available in bulk in the Student Center and Center Court
 Java City and Starbucks coffee sleeves are made from 70% post-consumer recycled fiber
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Student Involvement
405 Consumer Sciences
As we started the 2014-2015 academic year, we once
again welcomed the seniors in the Consumer & Family
Sciences students into our dining facilities to experience
quantity food production. The 405 Food Service Systems
class partners with Bradley Dining Services to offer a
“real
time”
lab
learning experience.
Over the course of the
semester, 26 seniors
completed 24 lab
hours each in the
dining
operations.
They donned “The
White Lab Coat” and
experienced
the
various components
of food production,
from
purchasing,
receiving, and to production. The main focus of the
student was to work hands on in the kitchens with the
teams and producing menu items from beginning to end.
The labs are set up in four hour increments Monday Friday and before entering the lab experience, all
students have completed the Illinois Food Handler
Training Program. Dr. David Olds works closely with his
students and dining services on the lab experience and
logs numerous observation hours while they are
completing their lab experience. The students in lab
have various levels of experience in restaurants and for
some they are starting from scratch and others they are
naturals as they continue to grow their current
experiences. After completion of this course, many will
move into the 408 Management in Food Service in the
spring, and that is a story for another time.
Art to Educate
Bringing our sustainability efforts together in the
residential areas have always proved to be a challenge.
To urge consumers to reduce waste and think twice
about taking bigger portions, we collaborated with
student muralists Jenny Ford and Allison Walsh shortly
after Thanksgiving to create a mural in the dish return
section of Geisert Hall to highlight sustainability.
FALL 2014 EMPLOYEE SERVICE
CELEBRATIONS
10+YEARS
Teresa Beckman
Bill Cain
Pam Gilinsky
Rosemary Schwindenhammer
Matthew Warren
20+YEARS
30+YEARS
Karen Bean
Nancy McNeil
Diana Vollmer
Debbie Blair
Judy Hagan
Sheree Hagan
WELCOME TO THE TEAM!
Sylvester Funches
Jessica Garcia
Rae Heffron
Melvin Howard
Arber Stephenson
Jaquana Stewart
Melissa Talbott
Last spring, we completed a study where consumer
waste was weighed at each meal period and data was
accumulated. As a result, we found that residential
diners were wasting 135 pound of food a day. To raise
awareness, an education campaign was rolled out and
after raising cognizance towards this matter, waste was
reduced to an average of 70 pounds per day. Moving into
a new year and new semester, we will continue to start a
new data collection and awareness program. This mural
serves as the gateway into this process.
These efforts are all in conjunction with our work with
students since Earth Day 2014 on educating our diners
about waste and its impact both locally to them as well
as the impact to the environment.
FALL 2014
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STUDENT
Partnerships
Admissions - Visit Days
In addition to taking part
in the activities fair
portion of visit days to
answer questions and
address concerns proespective students and
their parents may have
had about the campus
dining experience, we
also
hosted
these
visitors as they joined us
for lunch in dining halls.
IN DINING
LEADERS
Interns
Jake Dammer, Marketing
Major: Marketing, ‘16
Plans after college: Work in downtown Chicago
and possibly become a firefighter
Julia Reagan, Human Resources
Major: Psychology, ‘16
Minor: Business Management
Plans after college: Work in a corporate Human
Resources setting
Managers
Derek Davis, Williams/Center Court
Major: Business Management, ‘15
Plans after college: Undecided
Bryanna Johnson, Stacks
Major: Undecided
Plans after college: Undecided
THE SCOOP
Transfer Students
We actively participate in the welcome and orientation
process of students transferring to Bradley.
Graduate School - International
International students comprise a large part of our
Dining Services work force. In August, we hosted an
International Student Luncheon in Geisert Hall. We also
offered an authentic Indian dinner in early October at
Williams Hall to introduce new students to Bradley’s
dining facilities. A big thank you to Pratima Gandhi for
her time and efforts in menu planning and working side
by side with our culinary staff in preparing the dinner!
Kevin Lofgren, Student Center
Major: Management and Administration, ‘16
Plans after college: Undecided
Felicia Staiger, Geisert
Major: Biochemistry, ‘16
Plans after college: Undecided
Anthony Garrison, Student Center
Major: Management and Leadership, ‘16
Plans after college: Explore management
positions in the railroad or food service industry,
and possibly even own his own restaurant
Chance Dowds, Concessions
Major: Management Information Systems, ‘16
Minor: Computer Science
Plans after college: Obtaining a job in the IT
field somewhere in the Midwest
FALL 2014
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BU Bucks
THE SCOOP
As we look for promotional opportunities to offer our campus community in dining, we introduced BU Bucks in August
2014. This gives our diners the flexibility of making purchases with their Bradley ID, in addition to various
“membership” promotions! To drive value in our BU Bucks Program, we regularly include these dining incentives in our
monthly calendars over the course of the semester.
FALL 2014
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this semester in photos
Students @ Culture on the Quad
Dietetic Interns tabling @ Student Center
Employees @ Culture on the Quad
Jenny’s Halloween Tabling
Halloween @ Williams Hall
Students @ Late Night BU
Students Working Concessions