Reports

Steve Kjellgren

• The student-created video about Gustieware is now available on youtube.
• Several individual students and/or groups are working with/through DS this semester:
  • Some students of Bruce Johnson will be doing research for DS; they’ll be finding a “baseline” for students’ nutrition knowledge. What is it that students know? (From there, we can begin to explore what they need to know.)
  • Sam Grace is creating a “navigating the DS” recipe booklet.
  • Kim Braun is working as the Choices at the Table intern, doing research on the question of why students make the meal choices they do: pleasure, speed, nutrition, money?
• Jim and Stacey observed that these projects fall into the category of research known as “appreciative inquiry, and/or “positive psychology.” What are we doing that’s good and right? How can we build on it? This is non-shame-based work, that can build on itself. We can raise the profile of the program by being positive about the ways we’re responding to circumstances.
• Deborah noted some nutrition works that use a positive approach, focusing on “non-diet” diets; Mollie Katzen, Walter Willett.

Joe Lencioni

• Our blog is functional. Joe walked us through a tutorial, explaining the basics of blogging and the info we need to participate.
• Information now blogged includes meeting minutes.
• Deborah did a survey of dining service web pages of other schools and found that many are very good at linking themselves to the health services units on their campuses. She observed that the more we make the web a web, the more we can take advantage of it.
• Ideas for the blog (feel free to jump on any of these)
  • George Elliott may have things on file that she could put up on the blog.
  • Members should send Joe a list of links that we want between the DS (or KCab) and…?
  • Stacey “volunteered” (ahem) to do a blog on the book The Chemistry of Joy.
  • Pictures of our suppliers-e.g. growers and butchers in the area
• Joe has an idea for a calendar that shows the menu items for the day and then breaks down their nutritional profile. While it would be a chunk of work up front, then the info could just be reused.

Jim

• Recycle-mania is coming up
• So is the Energy Challenge

Watch this space for those events!

The net

• We might think of our work this semester on nutrition and health as creating a body of evidence to show that we need more staff time dedicated to this issue. Presently, we only have funding for George Elliott’s position for a tiny slice of the week. If we had fulltime nutrition expertise on campus, we could do a wide range of education on nutrition, with important health consequences for our community.

To do list

Big and small things that we’ve identified, along with people who promised to do them

• Check in with Lisa and/or Steve about your continued involvement with KC: everyone
• Check in with Barb Larson Taylor re: sustainability document: [unassigned]
• Develop a “purchasing priorities” document that defines, among other things, “local”: Lisa will start. Joiners welcome.

Reports

• Dining Service Director
  • Steve opened the meeting by showing the Gustieware video produced by a student in Communication Studies last term. It’s a very effective piece of advertising for the return system. Ideas for its use:
    • Put it on the DS homepage.
    • Use it during first year orientation
    • Show it on GAC T.V. (before movies, e.g.)
  • He also reported that the new budgeting structure worked well, with only a few students even asking questions at the end of the term. It helped a lot that he’d gone to Senate to ask them for suggestions about how to explain the system, and that DS is very “up front” about the way dollars are spent.
• Sustainability meeting with president
  • The president sought to assure representatives at the meeting that sustainability “is in there” in the strategic planning documents.
  • The document this group produced was to be distributed to the chairs of all G150 groups, who can disseminate it to their groups as they see fit.
  • Next step: consult with Barb Larson Taylor to see what next steps are.

New Business

• Joe floated the idea of a KCab blog, which would be syndicated (Lisa’s new computer word for the meeting) on the GAC network. It would be a place for commentary, and also for things like the video. After some discussion, the group decided that a freestanding blog (not one within the DS website) would be a way to go.
  • All KC members are eligible to post to the blog; this can be a place to try out a theory, post a news item, or invite comments from the community. Items may migrate out of this blog to other places on the GAC website. It can be a useful way to get the word out about items of importance.
• Next semester: no intern has materialized. [Lisa’s note: this picture has changed since the meeting and we may actually end up with someone.] With or without an intern, what should be the priority of the group for the spring?
  • Communication. Educating students about the impact of their choices, e.g. on the environment, their health, their wallets.
  • Nutrition.
    • Bruce Johnson’s advanced students will be working with DS on a research project related to nutrition in the DS. DS will be a kind of “client” for this class. Talk with Bruce and/or Steve for further details, and watch for reports as the project unfolds.
    • Given this priority, make it a priority to invite Health Service, and ensure that a member of that staff is able to attend our meetings and get involved.
• The recipe project: PA Sam Grace came to tell the group about his project for the spring semester, to gather recipes for dishes that students concoct in the DS. He presented samples of recipes he’s already collected, and discussed his ideas for an index-card “cookbook” students could take with them when they go to dinner. Steve noted that the practice of creating your own dishes is entirely acceptable; billing is sometimes tricky, but this can be negotiated/developed. Sam is exploring the idea of a recipe contest.