Kitchen Cabinet Meeting Minutes
March 10, 2014
Laura Shilling, Mark Hanson, Lisa Heldke, Jessica Braun, Jeff Stocco, Jim Dontje, Steve Kjellgren, Rebecca Hare, George Elliott, Jessica Burggraf, Paul Matzke, Meghan Krause
MVAC Meeting – MVAC will be starting a food hub (connection between farmers and churches, business, etc.). This is a way to purchase local. They are hoping to up and running this fall with some products (mostly produce) and then have plans to expand in the future.
Holiday Decorating Feedback – We celebrate Christian holidays and as we move forward it would be nice to be more inclusive. Are we sending an ok message, or are we sending and exclusion message. Our staff likes to decorate and wants to include everybody. If we are not sending the right message, then we need to talk about it and rectify the situation; we have not heard any talk of students feeling excluded. We could ask students what they would like to see celebrated. The members of KC is to not have what we are currently doing go away, but to add to it to include everybody.
Programming in the Market Place – The Peer Assistants used to do a lot of programming in the dining room because it was a captive audience. There are some things popping up such as flash mobs (they do ask permission, which is nice). We also have to keep in mind that the dining room is also a place to eat and some students do meet with professors and other groups at that time. The general consensus seems to be that once in a while something at lunch is ok, but the dinner hour or after seems to be better. Do we also have to have more mindful eating taking place?
Coke Grants – They have been distributed. Steve will check to see where we are at with all the groups. The concern is time is winding down and wanting to make sure everyone is doing what they need to do. Testing out a bike share program, one of the issues may be the hill; bikes will go down the hill but not come back up. The KC also discussed the timing of the coke grants.
Dasani Tour – Jim and Lisa did put together a survey and it did go out on survey monkey. There have been about 130 -140 returned and it was about 45-50% that said no. They both noted it was a small survey size, but that is all they had to work with.
Pork Labeling – George will talk to Andy about getting a window cling ordered. There is not a deadline but once the cling is done it is just a matter of talking to staff to get it up and running.
Revisiting Good Food for Busy Gusties – It is a wonderful idea with so many moving parts and so little student interest. Lisa and George discussed the history of the program and although it was well received, it just did not have enough student involvement.
Fair Trade Campus Initiative – Margo has been having conversations with Brian and he is very interested. So the hope is to get something up and running in the future to explore becoming a Fair Trade Campus.
Big Hill Farm – This continues to be up and running and Jim is looking for interns at present. The prime working season is when most of our students have left campus. In theory a CSA could be set up. This is a group that functions best with low involvement from Jim. They hire their own interns, it is very student led and with student motivation. Also talking to Jake will help in what to plant. Students that need to hear it are not identified at this time in the semester.
Next Big Thing -Presenting the role of food and Dining Service to the new president – do we want to invite her or welcome to the committee. We have made mention of Kitchen Cabinet in the Dining Service report and we can put together our mission statement and at some point invite her to a meeting. We have not had a conversation of the big picture in the future.