Toni Brown

College Dining Hall Trends

Summary Statement
Directors of university dining halls adjust their facility design, equipment, and menu to
cater to the changing priorities of students. Nutrition is a concern for college students who are
often attracted to the fastest and cheapest options. To promote on-campus mealsfor business
and to ensure nutritious optionscollege dining halls embrace the trends to attract students.
Healthy natural ingredients and homemade meals have shown up at the top of the trend
list recently. College students increasingly prefer natural, organic, and homegrown ingredients to
highly processed foods. They are more aware of nutrition labels and use them to make food
choices. More college students are choosing to live a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, and the dining
halls must accommodate this trend. Other trends in menu choices reflect the fact that many
college students have an increased awareness of other cultures. Sodexo reported that college
students are attracted to Mediterranean dishes, and seafood from Japan, classic Hispanic food,
and new exotic foods from other cultures slowly take their places on the list. The menu is the
main control of the food system, therefore the trends that influence changes in menu also impact
the facility in all other aspects.
The need to produce foods that are made from fresh ingredients and the attraction to
culturally diverse foods influence the equipment that is used in college dining halls. When Mt.
Union College renovated their dining halls, they installed ovens and stoves that resembled
healthy home-cooking. Equipment is also important for providing culturally diverse foods.
Appliances may involve large stone ovens to make Italian pizzas, woks for chow mein, and
specialized pans to accommodate the various pancakes served around the world. The layout of
the dining hall must cater to the equipment it contains
The design of the dining halls should reflect the diversity of the students with a niche for
any preference. Most dining halls have a selection of 6-12 restaurants, pubs, and coffee shops to
appeal to those motivated by health, cost, variety, and convenience. College dining facilities are
shifting the cooking to the front-of-the house for students to be involved in the cooking
experience. With the increased awareness of what is going into ones food, consumers are
interested to see the process of making their food.

As societys awareness of natural resources increases so does our desire to re-evaluate

our use of them. Green buildings are now an important priority to universities and students.
Middlebury College is committed to running operations using green energy, and the dining
services have embraced this ideology regardless of the financial burden it is to accommodate
their needs. Natural lighting, plants, fountains, and other natural fixtures are finding their way
into the design of college dining halls.
While the experience in the physical building is important to students, quick and
convenient meals that decrease their time spent there is also valuable to them. College dining
facilities are using mobile apps to inform students of specials and nutrition information. These
apps also allow them to view lines and order their food to make the process more efficient. Food
trucks are becoming an important branch of dining facilities to allow students to get quick meals
at times that are convenient for them. They also allow the main facilities to restrict their hours or
provide limited meals during slow hours.
The trends in society for healthy, quick, and convenient foods are evident in university
dining halls. Foodservice directors in these facilities must be aware of menu trends as well as
equipment and building design that are important to their consumers. When college dining halls
cater to the preferences of students they can help ensure healthy eating at a critical time of life.

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