Residential Dining: An Overview of Your Dining Experience at CSU

Welcome everyone and seeing the participant numbers slowly rising into the hundreds. I'm just going to let a couple more people joined before I start.

Uhm, but thank you for joining the residential dining services fall 2020 overview. My name's Nicole Guiled. I'm the customer service representative for residential dining and I'll just be going over, but things are going to look like in the fall. That includes meal plans, menus, nutrition options on campus, some of the fun composting sustainability initiatives that we have going over some of the food safety protocols. Also be answering some frequently asked questions and then at the end we'll have some time for a brief Q and.

So please hold your questions till the end of the presentation. I'll try and answer some of the most frequently asked ones at the end and then if I don't get to your questions by this session, please know you can reach us by email over the phone. I'm actually participating right now in some orientation alive QA sessions as well, so you're welcome to pop into one of those. I actually have one from 3:00 to 4:00 today.

Uh, and we're offering them until next Thursday the 16th, so there's still time to get your questions answered. Live with me and my housing counterpart, and it's 201 now, so I'll just give it a couple more minutes and then we can get started.

Feel free to introduce yourself in the chat area if you would like, and then put your questions in the question area at the end I'm going to have my lovely supervisor an cohost help me, moderate some of the questions at the end.

Let's give it one more moment.

OK.

Alright, let's talk about the on campus meal plans and what everything is going to look like for you. Come fall so.

We have a couple different meal plan options to choose from. As a student living on campus, the any tend the any 14 or the any 21 meal plan and then we also offer in any 21 upgrade. So these are weekly meal plans that reset week to week and the number just signifies the number of meals per week your student would receive. So 10 meals per week 14 miles per week or 21 meals per week. All of these meal plans come with 20 bonus meal swipes at the student can use on themselves or friends and family that come to visit.

As well as $150 in Ram, Cache the Ram caches just like campus cash. The student can use those at the dining center if they would like. They can use them at the Lory Student Center at the library coffee shops and those are per semester and they do roll over to the next semester. The bonus meal swipes in the weekly meal, swipes do not.

We also have, um, different dining options for the fall, so operations are going to look a little bit differently than they have in the past, so will have take out themed meals at our five dining locations will also have express Ala carte options mini market, where your student can purchase retail options or non perishable food items online and then a grab and go. So the important thing to note about these different options that they all require.

A reservation, with the exception of the grab and go so different from what things looked like in the past where it was kind of an all you care to eat facility because we're implementing a new physical distancing style in her dining centers this year. To keep your students safe and our staff safe were asking that students reserve a slot to go and pick up their meal items in advance and then to go get them from the dining center. So we're still adhering to those social distancing guidelines. Keeping your students safe and.

That way they're able to get their food in a timely manner and more efficient manner so that we're avoiding overcrowding in the dining centers. Hours of operation have changed ever so slightly to adhere to these new physical distance at distancing styles in the dining centers as well, so dining centers are open. 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM Seven days a week. More detailed information about specific units, dining hours of operation will be available online closer to the start of the semester.

And then if you're a student that is living off campus and the CSU apartment, or in an off campus house, you're also welcome to purchase a meal plan. This would be a voluntary purchase, so it's not required for students living off campus on campus meal plans, or only required for students living in residence halls. And we've got three different options for off campus students to choose from. 32 mill package, 48 Mail package or 88 Mail package, and these are just a block of meal swipes that you can purchase.

Wine, uhm they don't expire as long as you're enrolled at CSU.

And so that's really great for off campus students. You can still utilize all the same dining facilities as the on campus students. It's just a slightly different type of meal plan so you can purchase at anytime throughout the year. There more flexible 'cause they roll over, but they don't come with those bonus meal swipes or the $150 from Ram Cache.

OK, and it seems having difficulty going to my next slide.

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OK, so I'm next slide is going to be about menus in nutrition and I'm sorry it's not allowing me to change to the next slide so I'm just kind of kind of wing it. Right now it's rubbing some technical issues.

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But we have some really great menu nutritional options available for your students.

On campus and they come to campus in the fall. You can view this menu nutrition information at menuscolostate.edu.

You can also order from your meals on line by going to the my ram cardcolostate.edu website, so this is how your student is going to access their food online. It's also the same state that you're certainly used to manage their meal plan on line as well, so they can change their meal plan. Look at their balance history, transaction history.

And add additional ram cache as well and for the menus your students are going to have five venues where they can access these themes to go meals. So each dining center will have five different menu options at each dining facility and there different at each dining facility. So that's 25 different menu options for your students to choose from, so it's a really great variety and we're offering a well balanced array of nutritional options.

Um, so they can expect some type of grain, bowl, salad, American cuisine, Asian cuisine at some of these dining Centers for example, a Sushi Bowl is one that's really popular. One amongst are students and staff. It's one of my favourites. So just for example, something that we're going to be offering. We also have vegan and vegetarian options included as well for students and dishes can be modified for students with specific.

Dietary needs and allergies as well, so we're really trying to make sure that work accommodating every student with all different types of dietary needs when they come to campus in the fall.

Um, more than 25% of our food that's served as local an certified organic. We also have a registered dietitian nutritionist on staff Britney slide. She's amazing and she can meet one on one with your student virtually to help them guide help guide them through the dining centers. I believe she sent out welcome packets recently. Sista students that expressed unspecific dietary concerns and so students should have gotten those or will be getting them sometime soon.

The really nice thing about our dining facilities as well is that they're kind of spread across campus, so no matter where your student is living, it's no more than a 10 minute walk to a dining center. Alot of times I get the question, can your student only dying in the dining center that is closest to the residence Hall? No, your student can dine in any dining center on campus. The only place that does not accept meal swipes and is not a residential dining facility is the Lory Student Center food court.

So that is a separate facility from residential dining. Ram cache does work there as well as cash and credit card, but meal swipes do not work. The Lory student sent Lori Student Center because it is a separate Department.

And, uh.

I I would like to add that, uhm?

It is going to.

He really fairly good amount of food that your students are getting to go, so I actually met with our chef to go over. Kind of what these menus are going to look like. And they said that each take out meal from our dining center is over a pound of food. So in general a meal swipe will consist of an entree with sides as well as a desert in a 22 ounce beverage.

Like I said before, if that's not something the student wants of those themes to go meals, they can go to Allison suits and spoons. We partner with spoons, a local restaurants here in town, and so they serve soups and salads. That's at one of our dining centers were opening a brand new grab and go facility that's going to have mostly cold prep item like deli meat sandwiches in new some Hall for students, and that's the only location that doesn't require a reservation.

Uhm, and then we're also using batch cooking so that all of the food that your students order in advance is nice and fresh when they go to pick it up, so we're not going to be preparing food and letting it set out. It's not going to be packaged until right before that students time slot when they go to pick up their meal. This way, all of our items are fresh and delicious.

And our food safety protocols also prohibit food for staying out longer than 30 minutes. If that does, is going to be composted, so hopefully this new mobile ordering system will help us save time and and food preparation and make everything a little bit more effective.

Uhm, let me see I'm still having trouble with my slides, so I'm just going to take a moment right now to see what I can do so that you're able to seize.

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I'm sorry about these technical difficulties. This is the.

The the wonderful thing about doing everything virtually is that you kinda gotta work with stuff on the fly. Uhm, so I'm going to go to the next slide.

Which is a meeting are wonderful dining team. We have a really incredible team of chefs, managers, student managers, full time staff and students staff at every single dining location. So your student is going to be taken care of when there with us in our dining facilities. Our staff is working around the Clock to make sure that these menus are up to our standards and are ready to go for your student when they come in the fall.

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OK.

Back on topic, a food safety that is always a top priority for us here always has been so right when the pandemic hit, we immediately implemented foods, sanitizing all of our services every half hour. All of our staff are wearing masks and gloves and this is the reason why we don't want your students coming into the accurate to eat facilities. We want to make sure that there is safe as possible so.

No more buffet or shared a tongs or anything like that. When the students go into the dining center, our staff is handling it with gloves and sanitizing everything in boxing it for your students so it's nice and safe. We will require all students to wear a mask when they enter the dining center and this just follows the same campus community guidelines that have been given out by the president. All students in public spaces spaces are required to wear a mask. Obviously if there in there.

Rooms are not required to do so. We will have some very limited in person seating available in the dining centers of us. First come, first serve, but it is primarily going to be to go and will have outside seating options as well. I'm going to kind of go over that later on in my slides with the frequently asked questions and I'm gonna answer.

So.

Um?

We just we just want to make sure that we're aligning with all campus community guidelines in terms of students safety and last thing to note is that where the largest student employer on campus, so we highly encourage your student if they're interested in working with us to apply to a job. Again, things are available. Positions are going to be slightly limited this fall in terms to up it as opposed to other years, but we still encourage your students to apply.

We'd love to have them. It's a really great opportunity for your student to gain some of those basic life skills, and it's really nice to just meet all the new students and have that kind of community in our dining centers.

OK, so next I'd like to discuss sustainability and composting. We have some really cool sustainability in composting initiatives on campus. Dining services is always striving to increase local and or third party verify goods such as certified organic inner dining centers and express Centers for example used cooking oil from all of the dining centers is collected and recycled to make biodiesel.

Our dining centers divert 93% of our food waste from the landfill through composting and waste to energy programs and then leftover food from the dining centers is also donated to the Larimer County Food Bank.

Also, partner with this CSU horticulture center as well, so greens grown on campus from the horticulture center are served in the dining centers and are easy to identify by their on campus grown label. Because things are going to be looking a little bit differently, we really encourage your students to utilize those on line menus to look up nutrition information. So we're still going to have our online menus that show allergy information. Nutrition information.

And then it's the my ram card website that they're gonna go onto to actually find that link to order their meal on line.

Each resident will also receive a reusable cutlery set, so a fork and knife and a spoon to reduce the number of disposable items taken away from the dining centers and the majority of our takeout containers will be compostable wherever possible to help reduce waste. And this brings me to an important point. We will be adding additional waste receptacles around campus and in the residence halls to accommodate the increase in these to go boxes. We highly encourage your students.

Recycle or compost as much as possible. Be mindful of getting rid of your waist. There is going to be an increase in these to go boxes, obviously more than usual, so we want to encourage your students to properly dispose of their waste. I know I had a parent say, well, what about bugs collecting in the students rooms? Students were leaving food in their rooms before the pandemic started, so.

Uh, we just encourage your student. Make sure that they are.

Just being thoughtful and mindful. Uhm, when they are disposing of their waste.

And.

Sorry, one moment here, OK?

And now I just to go to the FAQ. This is going to give us a good 30 minutes after I answer some of these to answer some of your questions that you have. So one of the questions I've been getting a lot. Can I still eat with my friends in the dining center outside? Yes, as I said before, we are moving to a more physical distancing style in the dining center. So in person seating is going to be very limited as well as first come in first serve. But we will have.

Facilities outdoor for your student to utilize as well. Uhm, so the dining centers Allison, Brayden, Durell, Foundry, Rams, Horn, they all have some type of outdoor seating. We're hoping that this mobile ordering technology to have orders prepared for quick pick up time limits the people that are crowding into the dining centers, and we're adding that new grab and go facility at new some to help meet this demand.

As I said, students are welcome to dine another designated spaces and outside while maintaining social distancing guidelines for the University.

Another question, I've been getting a lot. How can I use my bonus meals? Can I bring it against for lunch? So like I said in the beginning, the student has 20 bonus meals to use as they see fit so they can use it if they've run out of meal swipes for the week. If they have a guest staying with them on campus, they can order their guests meal through the online mobile ordering system and then when they go to pick up the meal, they tell the cashier. I'm using a guest meal swipe for this meal and my normal meal swipe.

Or my personal meal so they just have to let the cashier know the difference between the two.

Uh, we also been getting the question how do parent meals work, so parents and guardians may get a meal from the dining center with their students during the move in week, however, complementary parent and Guardian meals are suspended thereafter to limit the number of people in the dining centers. So students are welcome to use those 20 bonus meal swipes on parents if they do decide to come visit after this movement period or friends that choose to come and visit with them.

Another question you been getting, is there going to be an option for additional meal portion sides for one meal swipe? Or does the student have to purchase two meal swipes, 2 boxes for additional food? Yes, your student does have to purchase additional swipe if they want an additional portion size. Like I said before, it's going to be over a pound of foods or really trying to give your student is as much food as possible.

But we can only accommodate so much with this kind of on line to go system that we have.

Um, like I said that to go meal is the entree, with the sides dessert. A 22 ounce beverage. Um side salads will be available with items like pasta and pizza. And as I said, with the express location, students can also order an Ala carte item or grocery item from our express location as well. With those meal swipes.

Another student has sorry. Another question is then if what if the student misses their pickup window? We are encouraging students to select their pick up times in windows that work best for them, and it's important to remember that it is the student's responsibility to manage their time efficiently to ensure that they are not running into these issues and to work through these types of problems independently without the aid of a parent Guardian 'cause it's it's going to happen, and that's OK. We're going to.

Be flexible and beginning of the semester, but as a semester goes on, if you're continually missing your pick up window.

And I have to learn the lesson the hard way that, uhm, you know we're going to have to dispose of that of that food if it sitting out long enough. And that doesn't mean you're losing out in a meal swipe your not swiping your card until you go to pick up the food. So you just have to select and you pick up time.

If a student misses a window or host can check the reservation system, allow the student to enter. If they've made a reservation during that meal period, but missed their time and then Ala carte items that are not picked up within 30 minutes after they pick up time will be composted to adhere to a food safety policies.

Another question I've been getting or dining center hours of operation going to change their changing very slightly to adhere to renew physical distance style in the dining center. So some of our hours will be adjusted from previous years, but in general students will be able to access food 70s a week, 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM.

And then another popular question, have specific dietary needs. I have specific dietary needs. Will someone be available to help guide me with food options? Yes, are lovely. Registered dietitian nutritionist. Brittanys lie on staff is here to help guide you. You take your dietary needs very seriously. Students with dietary needs will receive a welcome packet to highlight options. Brittany's contact info is going to be her first name brittany.fly@colostate.edu.

This information is online on our website at Diningcolostate.edu and all the information I listed here. The meal plans, hours of operation menus, my ram card, website, everything is on our website online, so if you missed what I said or you have additional questions, just feel free to pop on to that website.

Sorry about that folks.

Looks like I'm just having some technical issues, OK?

And so now it's time for the Q&A I've listed.

The email here. The website, the my ram card website as well as the covid page that we've been updating for the housing dining website as well. So that is the most up-to-date information just about.

How you can?

Uh, look up some of the changes and fall operations. So now I'm going to leap into some of the Q&A's I have. My supervisor helping me kind of scroll through some of these so don't panic if I don't answer it. I'm going to try and answer them as best I can. Select C here.

OK.

Talk more about the rollover, meals and bonus meals. Dining options. When does the week begin and end? Sure so.

For students living on campus in a residence Hall, you receive a block of weekly meal swipes in your meal plan you're paying for per semester. So saying You're on the any 14 meal plan. Your meal plan runs from early Saturday morning until Friday, midnight, so you've got that time to utilize those 14 meal swipes. And if you don't use all those meal swipes by that time, then they reset at.

12:00 AM so Friday, midnight Saturday at 12:00 AM if that makes sense. So those don't roll over the bonus meals. However, do you get 20 bonus meal swipes per semester so those aren't weekly? That's per semester, so if you've already used ten of your bonus meals, why it's halfway through the semester? You only have 10 left to use for the remainder of the semester, and those students are welcome to use it on themselves or on friends and family or parents that come to visit. Like I said, there will be complimentary meals for parents.

During that moving period, but after that, um.

He will have to utilize the bonus meal swipes at their. Students are getting through their meal plan, so dine in options. We will have limited in person seating so the themes, takeout meals, the Express Ala carte options, the mini market, those all require a reservation. The new some grab and go which is going to be those cold prep items is the only place that doesn't require a reservation so limited in person seating in our dining Centers for the most part it.

Is gonna be Curie out where your student will have to reserve in advance.

Then, outside of that, we've got this grab and go options. I'm not exactly sure what the Lory Student Center is planning on. I know a lot of people have asked about that. Each Department is updating their operations for the fall on their own individual websites, so a good rule of thumb. Go to collegestate.edu Angela, come to the Colorado State home page and in the upper right hand corner is a little search bar and you can type in any Department, find their website and that's where you're going to find the most up-to-date information for other departments.

Let's see here changing the meal plan. Yes, some people are having issues. I'm aware of that or tech team is aware of that. So right now it seems the issue is if your student doesn't have a room assignment, not a building assignment but a room assignment there unable to change their meal plan right now. We do have a team working on that bug to fix that, but fear not. Your student has plenty of time to change their meal plan. They have from now up until the first 2 weeks of the academic semester to decrease or increase.

And then after that two week mark, they can only increase their meal plan, so there's plenty of time I know a common question is Ben. I can't see my meal plan when I go to my ram card. That's because your meal plan isn't active yet, so meal plans won't activate until the beginning of the semester. And then when you go to the my ram card website, you'll see the 21 or the 10 or whatever you signed up for. If you're wanting to change that meal plan now, I'm happy to help you out with that. As you can see on the slide, I have the RDS.

Akalistate.edu email, that's the guest book email and answer that every day I can take meal plan, change requests. If you're unable to do it online. If you haven't received your room assignment that way, you can also call. My number is on line, but I can just give it to you now. It's 970.

4914754

OK, let's see.

Well, the prices for meal plans change because will be ending.

After fall break rather than the whole semester, yes, housing actually just updated their websites, their haul rates so they have everything listed. If you're the rate if you were staying up until fall break in the leaving and then the additional rate if you're planning on staying past fall break for those last couple weeks of the semester. So all of that information is up and running on line. The specific rates for the specific meal plans they don't know off the top of my head.

But if you got a housing.colostate.edu and then under there drop down menu, select halls and rates, you'll see all of that information up there. So it's broken down in a really great way, so it's totally transparent. You know what you're paying for, which is great. So yes, it is going to be different if you're leaving at fall break versus if you're staying past fall break.

Uh, let's see another question. How did the students use the market decks? And Rex, yeah, so the mini market similar to ordering those hot meals on line. It's all going to be done on line through that mobile ordering system, and the student would select if they want something from the mini market or they want something from Rameswaram dining center or.

Allison dining center. UM, all of that is going to be on line. We're still working through implementing the on line ordering system right now, so if I if I could, I would send you a screenshot of exactly what it looks like, but we will be sending out instructions about exactly how your student will order their Meals on line before they come to campus, so don't worry, it's not going to be something where we have to leave you hanging and you have to guess how to work the system. We're going to be giving instructions to students about.

How to conduct themselves on campus wearing masks in public? How to order on line? How to access our menus on line? So all of that information will be given to your students.

Let's see how far ahead of time do you need to reserve your meal 30 minutes an hour? If that's a really great question.

I don't believe that there is a specific time constraints of how far ahead your student has to order their meal. From what I'm being told, what they'll do is go online, selected dining center Anna time slot. They want to pick up their meal. So maybe if your student wants an earlier time slot, they should just order ahead of time or in advance to make sure that they get that time slot that they want. Then I'm assuming that if a certain number of students have ordered for a specific time slot.

But that's what is no longer available, and the next available time slot is successful for students, so I'm assuming they'll be either 10 or 15 minute time slots that students can sign up for. But that's a really great question. I'm going to bring that to my team and ask them about that.

And that's one of the really great things about these Q&A's is that students and families sometimes are thinking of things that we don't even think of, so this is wonderful. I'm going to write that one down.

Seri serve time might see how does the reusable cutlery work. Students keep them in their dorm cheese with each meal? Yeah, exactly. So it's just something that we're trying to provide your students. They don't have to feel like they're picking up these reusable Forks and knives every time they eat their. Welcome to do that if they'd like, but these reusable cutlery sets they can clean in the kitchen. It's or.

Their bathroom areas in in their halls. It's just something that we're trying to provide to make things a little bit more sustainable, because everything is to go because were not able to just wash dishes and have your students dine in.

We're trying to provide this other option for your students to that.

These meals are easily accessible to them and also environmentally friendly as well.

When will employment positions be posted on handshake? Yeah, so I'm thinking that in the next week or so they're going to start posting position availability. I'll actually check in with my colleague who runs the program. I think they're just now starting to look at what the fall schedule is going to look like.

So we are going to be hiring back some former employees. We are also going to be welcoming new employees. So yes, let me check and see when that availability is going to be posted on handshake in terms of specific dining centers.

Let's see with the premade boxed meals have selection variety or they just a set meal.

Are all the same box meals are individualized. Yeah, so after speaking with uhm.

Our head chef. I had asked what if somebody has some specific dietary prep?

Princes or needs and she was saying.

What you'll do is your order the meal as it is on line, and then when you go to pick it up, you'll let someone know. Hey, I have this allergy or I have this. I need you to come. I need you to make some modifications to this meal so that I can consume it and they will do that for you. So that's why we're still going to have a full staff come fall is because we want to make sure that we are accommodating each student specific dietary needs.

And providing them with a wide range of options as well. Uhm so after speaking with our head chef Jeremy Morgan, I was really impressed. To be honest it sounds like not a lot of colleges and universities are offering as much diversity in terms of food options as we are. I mean 25 different options. That's amazing. He was saying that the menu cycle is a month so all five dining centers are going to have five different options. That's 25 options. And then after the end of the month it's going to rotate and it's going to be a whole new set of different options so.

Plenty of things for your students to choose from.

Let's see.

Seeing confusion about the difference between express locations and grab and go. Yeah, so in previous years the express locations were kind of like a grab and go, but now we're going to be treating them as a mix of retail items, an Ala carte options that need to be ordered in advance so the grab and go is going to be located in new some Hall, so not one of our official dining center is but one of our kind of knew locations that were offering to accommodate that.

Increase need for these to go meals so these express locations are going to operate in a similar way as the themed. Take out to go meals. Your student will have to order.

Their Mini Mart retail items on line in advance and like I said You'll be able to select I want Durell Express. I want to get some index cards, maybe some non perishable food items for my meal swipe or I want to order a burger and Nuggets and also some retail items from the mini market. That's how those express locations are going to operate. The grab and go is for students that didn't have the option to make a reservation so.

Not saying that no ones allowed to use a grab and go, it should be a last resort. Uhm no, but if everyone decides to not make a reservation, need to grab and go, then the other problems were really encouraging. Students use the reservation system that we have. That's how all of our dining centers are going to be operating with the exception of the grab and Go. 'cause we know sometimes stuff happens. Students may not be able to make that reservation or the running to and from class, and they need to get that cold prep item that sandwich.

The bag of chips to go and that's why we have that available to kind of accommodate every student on campus.

Can you talk about the ram card a little when they get their card? How to use ram, cache, etc? Yes, great question. I can only answer bits and pieces of it because the ram card office actually manage is your students actual ram card that they use on campus so the ram card office there responsible for getting your students ram card and ID.

Other ones that manage the ram cash for your student that myran card website you can deposit more ram cache via that website for your student.

But the ram card itself, I don't know the specifics of how they're planning on doing operations in the fall. Like I said before, if you want to go to.

Colostate.edu www.colostate.edu and then type in ram card office and that search bar in the upper right hand corner. It will bring you to their website and you'll find some more. Update to date information as to what their fall operations are going to look like. I know they're working on how to make it contact list. They don't have people lining up or piling up outside the office to get their picture taken in. It may be that students will be able to send in a picture an.

Get their rampart given to them. I don't know the specifics, I don't want to speak into anything I don't know, so I would definitely check out their website on that one. Sorry I can't give more detailed information for that question.

Um, when does the meal plan start? What if you move in early? Yeah, so when you select your move in time.

The day that you're moving in, that's when your meal plan will activate. So depending on.

If you're moving in early 'cause you're part of marching bands or you're moving in during moving week, rest assured your meal plan will be active as long as you've signed up for that move in time with housing, and I know that right now housing is going to have.

Students and families and I don't know if it's live yet. Unselect a specific moving time slot so similar to ordering in the dining centers, it's going to be our way of ensuring that we're not having a bunch of people on campus at once. There's going to be a limited number of people that are allowed to help you then I believe it's two people to per student that are allowed to help with the student. Then you do have to pick a specific time slot to move in. If for some reason you're coming from out of state.

And, uh, you miss your time slot. That's completely fine. We're not going to say you can't invent. You'll be able to will figure it out. Um, if you're somebody that's coming from out of state, none of the slots work for you. Contact your housing Department. Housing at colostate.edu is how they're getting in touch and communicating with students and families right now.

See.

Yes, I'm seeing.

See a couple more questions.

You talk a little bit more about meal plans and pricing. Quality food, local sourcing, etc. Sure. So we are the way that the pricing is going this year or the way that we're charging board, which is your meal plan. This year is based on whether or not your student is staying up until the fall semester and then going home or.

Continuing to stay up after the fall semester ends and that information can be found on line on the housing website and I can pull that out free real quick, so if you go to housing.colostate.edu.

And you select under their drop down.

Uh rate San Hall in.

Sorry, right rates and haul information.

Um, you'll see a breakdown of based on your room type and your meal plan and whether or not you're leaving out fall break or staying past it. This is going to be your room and board rate for this semester.

So I'm just going to copy and paste that in here for you.

OK, let's see I said some other questions.

Right, the quality of the food, yes, so that's incredibly important to us during this time. We want to ensure that we're still offering a wide variety of nutritious, fresh, delicious options for your students while they're on campus. I have to say, the variety that we're going to be offering in the fall.

Is pretty incredible. Uhm, it seems to me like even more of a variety than we had before this pandemic hit, but we will be offering vegan vegetarian options. Will be modifying food for students. Have specific dietary needs or preferences. The head chef kind of told me to think about. We're always going to have a Grain Bowl. We're always going to have a salad. We're always going to have some type of American cuisine, especially in Arolla card areas. Those are going to be mostly like.

Burgers. Chicken Nuggets um will also be offering.

Some types of Asian cuisine as well. I'd mentioned the Sushi Bowl.

I know that at the foundry at our passport station, that's kind of very international food stations. We offer a lot of different food options that are specific to different countries, which is really fun and exciting, but something for every type of eater, something for everyone that has every different type of dietary preference or need. And then yes, we try and a source as much of our food.

From our local vendors, 25% of our food is certified local organic which is really great and as I mentioned before, we partner with the CSU Horticulture Center as well so we get greens from them and we provide those in the dining center so it's kind of a cool partnership we have on campus and something that's really important to us, making sure that the food we serve is Freshes local summer. Supporting our local community but also providing nice fresh organic food for students.

Um and staff as well.

OK, did you say that first year student should have their residence Hall assignments already, but not necessarily their room assignments yet? Yes, that's correct, so I believe room assignments are still in the works right now and I think what I'm being told is that is the issue behind some people being able to change their meal plan online.

So I had been getting calls saying I did get my building assignment. I'm still not able to do it. I'm able to do it on the back end, so if you have a you know bring desired or change that meal plan. Now you don't want to forget, that's absolutely OK. Give me a call, send me an email you can see here. RDS at colostate.edu that is going to be the email that you're going to want to use to get in touch with me. You're also welcome to call me on my office line that's located on line as well. It's just main office line. I have it forwarded to my home.

So that's completely fine.

See in one of the menus come out can you order for a week at a time I don't believe you can order for a week at a time just because.

We're going to be producing so many meals for students just on a daily basis. So on a daily basis, more surveying got around.

10,000 students every day, so being able to keep up with meals a week in advance so it's not going to be something that we can do, but what your student can do is meal plan for the week so that they know where they want to eat. Summer menus do stay up.

We sorry we post our menus a week in advance for your student can see everything for the week. Posted on line. So if they'd like they can choose.

I know that I'm going to want to go to Rams horn for lunch on Wednesday and maybe get my dinner that night from greed and an my breakfast the next morning from Jarrell. Based on the options that they have available online and that way your student is kind of ready to go when they order their meal through the my room current website. But I'll definitely bring that question to my team and let them know. Is this something that's an option? I'm not exactly sure. I'm thinking probably not, but you never know. No question is a silly question, so.

Please keep them coming.

OK, let's see.

Talk more about the gluten free options. Allergen options? Yeah, so never really great system on campus called Ewell at CSU. If you actually go online to menus.colostate.edu, you can select a specific dining centers menu. They're not live now. You can in theory do this. Go to specific dining center lunch period if you have an allergy. Say I'm you can select the allergy preferences.

In the right hand corner. So you would say I'm gluten free and I have a dairy allergy and then it will let you know all of the options that are available for you. If there's something that you would like that you're seeing is not gluten-free, you're not dairy free. You're always welcome to.

Inquire with our nutritionist on campus. You're always welcome to ask the staff to modify it for you.

So that's something that we are going to try and do for your student to ensure that they're getting the adequate nutrition no matter what type of dietary preference or need they have.

OK, I'm seeing what will the spring semester look like. I wish I knew and I think we all wish we knew what the future is going to hold. I think right now, um, CSU and a lot of colleges and universities are just kind of taking it one step at a time, so we're hoping in the spring.

Best case scenario is that things are better and were able to have a.

More or similar to dining style. Before all this started, but to be honest, everything is kind of up in the air. We just don't know what it's going to look like. Come spring and obviously your student safety is first so it could be that spring semester or dining looks just like it's going to be for the fall. It could be that it's a little bit different. I don't want to speak to anything, so I just don't know. I think what's important, what I've been having to tell myself to staff member and what I've been reminding.

Students and families is that you're going to have to manage your expectations of what a fall college semester is going to look like during the COVID-19 era. It's not going to be.

What it has been in the past for other students, but we're still going to be offering that sense of community for students. Students are still be able to interact with each other, connect with each other. Maybe not in these giant groups or events like they have before. It's going to look a little bit different, but those options are still going to be there for your student, so I really encourage them. Build those friendships and community.

Well, being safe and thoughtful when you're interacting with others and as the year progresses, we're going to continue to update you. So we're not going to leave you in the dark and say, alright, Here's fall and you're gonna have to guess what spring is going to look like. We will continue to update you. the University will continue to follow guidelines put forth by the governor as well as campus community health guidelines as well. So I wish I knew I don't but check back in sometime it semester and hopefully things are on a good track.

What items will be offered in the mini markets? Yeah, so it's non perishable food items as well as kind of some other grocery store retail items. So index cards, toothbrushes, shampoo, soap.

And then we'll also have, uh, just?

Drinks like Coke or Powerade chips? Non perishable food items and trying to think of the crustal seems to be a popular item that students like candy up. I'm wondering there may even be some deli items that are to go as well. They might be modifying some of those mini market items but kind of what you would see in a grocery store. Typically mostly non perishable food items for the food.

See all the meals be ordered through an app or a web page? Yeah, so I'm being told it's not an app, it's a link on line through the my ram card website with the student is going to use to order their food on line but it is going to be mobile friendly so student can use their phone to access this link to then go and order their food so they don't have to download an app, but they'll probably want to bookmark the my ram card.

Website web page. Uhm so they can easily access that link to order their food.

See healthy options and on campus Edward items.

Uhm yeah so.

As I said before, it's not just going to be burgers and French fries. I know I've been saying that because of the Ala carte items, but we are offering healthy options as well at every single dining center. So if your student doesn't like that stuff, that's absolutely OK. We have salads. We have Green Bowls. We have other vegetarian offerings or healthier offerings for your students, not just fried food. And that's something that.

Just in general, going to college, I think it's a very exciting for students to think I can eat on my own and I can eat as many French fries or junk food as I want. Trust me, it gets old after awhile, you're going to want to mix some greens into your diet, and that's where are registered dietitian and nutritionist comes in handy. That's where online menu system comes in handy. Because you can see those different nutritional items that are going to be offered and you can plan ahead so that you know that your.

Um, adding a little bit of green into your diet. Uhm, I don't know if you could see, I'll go back to the menu page, but each of our our.

On trees is going to come with several different sides, so it's not that you're just getting spaghetti and meatballs, and that's it. We're going to have some broccoli. We're going to have some green nutrition nutritional items with every single food item, and it's really up to your student to kind of decide.

How they want to order and how they want to meal plan for the week? Um, something that I really encourage students to do when they first come to campus is.

You realize that the resources are there if you need them. If you need help, people are there to help you. I think it's it's tempting at 1st to go to a parent or a family member when you're in a panic and you're frustrated and you can't figure stuff out. But we have really wonderful, empathetic, helpful team ready to help your students so they become more independent and they can work through some of these issues on their own. So I really encourage your students if they're struggling.

She's got Brittany there as a resource. I'm here as a resource. If you're struggling to find those resources. We have information on our website and if all else fails, give us a call or make an appointment to come in person and sit down with us and we can figure out.

Should we can do to make your experience as special as possible?

And then we've got a few more minutes left, but I just like to talk about are really wonderful staff and their dedication to our students.

So majority of our dining staff are state classified, which means their state employees and CSU has made a commitment to all of its employees that.

The employees come the employees and the students come first.

One of the really wonderful things after this pandemic hit was the dedication to making sure that every full time employee was able to retain their job and their hours. That's something that I'm incredible. Incredibly grateful for. I'm a state employee. I really appreciated that initiative at the University put forward, and in turn that makes the employees really dedicated to their job, which is serving your students in making a welcoming home environment for your students.

We have staff that.

Have families themselves and they still come in every day, even throughout this pandemic until work to take care of your students. We've had at least one dining center open since the pandemic started. We have one open through the summer. We really have a dedicated team of managers full time staff student staff that are here to support your student when they're on campus. So we really want to make sure that your student is taken care of and.

Best way we can take care of your students as by taking care of our staff 1st and making sure that they have everything they need so something that's very important to us. It means a lot to us.

Yup and Amber.

Email blaster information about changes that are happening on campus, so I encourage your student check there. Have them check their Colorado State email is frequently as possible. That is where all of that information is going to be going to the Colorados state email address, so that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to the parent the parent wants that information. It's up to the student to make sure they communicate that info, or for that information along.

See, I'm seeing if you're an off campus student done of ram cache, how do you order supplies at the mini Mart? Yeah, um, that's a great question. I'm not exactly sure there may be a way. I think that you can order online and still pay with a credit card. That's right. So even if you don't ever have cash or a meal plan, you can still go to myramcard.colostate.edu and you'll have any idea. Need password because you're a CSU student and then you select the mini mark what you want to order and then you actually make your payment transaction.

At the door. So if I didn't make that clear before your student isn't using your meal, swipe on line there, making that payment transaction in person when they go to pick up their meal. So for example, if your student misses their pickup time, that's OK. They're not missing out on a meal. Swipe will figure out what to do for them, and they'll make that transaction in person.

And I'm seeing that. Is it possible to do the multiple day pickups? Yeah, so I'm not sure about that. As far as I know, right now you have to order.

Your meal for that meal, period? I don't think that you can order your breakfast, lunch and dinner at the beginning of the day, but maybe you can. This is a brand new system that we're implementing, and these are great questions, so I'm definitely going to bring that to my team.

Let's see.

There's a housing assignment webinar tomorrow at 3:00 PM. Yes, and there is actually a housing and dining services orientation live orientation kewene starting in two minutes, so feel free to hop on that if you want. We're also offering more of those throughout this week as well as next week, so we've been offering those live QA sessions throughout the summer and next Thursday, July 16th is going to be the last live housing and dining Q&A.

But don't worry, you can always get in touch with us via email or over the phone.

And it's about time I just want to tell everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I apologize for some of the technical issues flat we were having today, but I can say that wholeheartedly. I'm so so excited to see all the students on campus. There is no CSU without your students. We miss them. We love them. We missed their energy. We sure they're going to bring their brilliant brains.

To campus and help us think of even better initiatives to make things operate even smoother in the fall and hopefully as well during the spring semester. So thank you all so much. If I didn't answer your question, I'm sorry, but there's still more opportunities to ask questions and then please check out the different housing webinars that are happening this week so housing is actually going to presenting going to be presenting throughout this week.

We're going to be presenting on moving procedures for the fall, some sustainability initiatives in practice is what it's going to look like to live on campus. All that housing information. So check that out. Thank you everyone. Looking forward to seeing you in the fall and have a great rest of your day. Take care.