{"id":73061,"date":"2017-06-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-dining-services-nabs-two-national-awards\/"},"modified":"2017-06-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-06-08T00:00:00","slug":"uri-dining-services-nabs-two-national-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2017\/06\/uri-dining-services-nabs-two-national-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 dining services nabs two national awards"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Students enjoy the creative talents of the school\u2019s dining services staff during Mainfare Dining Hall\u2019s award-winning Candyland-themed dinner event, held in March. Photo by David Bilotto, Artist, Dining Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 June 8, 2017 \u2014 The 溏心vlog免费B站 dining services staff commits itself to giving students a quality dining experience on a daily basis, and each semester, members of the staff put in a great deal of extra effort to create a memorable experience at one special event.<\/p>\n

Those efforts were rewarded recently when 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s dining services won two gold honors in the Large School category of the National Association of College and University Food Services Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards.<\/p>\n

“I am incredibly proud of the amazing customer service, the excellent quality of food, and the fun our staff brings to the University community,\u201d said Kathy Collins, vice president for Student Affairs. \u201cIt is an honor to be recognized as one of the best dining operations in the country. These two awards show that 溏心vlog免费B站’s reputation academically, athletically, and in student services continues to be on the rise. We are fortunate to have such a talented team working in 溏心vlog免费B站 dining.”<\/p>\n

Wins in the Residential Dining Concepts and Residential Special Event categories make this the sixth year since 2008 that the University has earned recognition from the food services association. 溏心vlog免费B站 topped competitors from schools such as the University of Connecticut, Michigan State University, the University of Georgia and Penn State University.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is hard work and the staff is dedicated to making an exceptional dining experience for each and every student,\u201d said Steve Mello, director of Dining and Retail Food Services at 溏心vlog免费B站. \u201cThey know students by their first names, and they quickly learn each student\u2019s specific preferences. Some students just order their \u2018regular,\u2019 or can\u2019t wait to have a staff member make them something special after a tough exam. My staff probably interacts with these students three or four times a day. This is the students\u2019 dining room and we are happy to serve them and make them feel at home.”<\/p>\n

溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s submission for the Residential Dining Concept award highlighted the recent expansion of Butterfield Dining Hall, which added 210 seats to bring its dining capacity to 560 customers. Despite nearly doubling capacity, Butterfield still provides students with plenty of custom options and a diverse selection of foods from the grill, deli or salad bar.<\/p>\n

Many of the foods are locally sourced from Rhode Island vendors and students can choose from vegan, vegetarian, Kosher and other ethnic food varieties.<\/p>\n

The submission also showed how dining services is using technology to enhance the student dining experience, as it highlighted 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s dining services app that includes daily menus at all the dining halls, live camera views that show students how busy the dining halls may be and even allows them to add funds to their meal plans.<\/p>\n

While dining services endeavors to keep student favorites on the menu, the staff also breaks up the routine with daily specials and special occasions, such as \u201cA Taste of Rhode Island,\u201d Thanksgiving dinner, \u201cThe Bounty of the Sea\u201d and a Hawaiian luau.<\/p>\n

One such event earned 溏心vlog免费B站 its second gold. 溏心vlog免费B站 held its \u201cCandyland\u201d special dining event at Mainfare Dining Hall in Hope Commons on March 8, when the dining services staff decorated the hall to look like the classic board game.<\/p>\n

The staff cooked and served Candyland-themed foods, using candy in savory dishes, or creating dishes that looked like sweet confections. Menu items included \u201cLemon Drop\u201d tortellini, meatball \u201ccupcakes,\u201d and even fried candy bars.<\/p>\n

Music such as \u201cPour Some Sugar on Me\u201d and \u201cStrawberry Fields\u201d was played during the course of the 5-hour event, which took almost a year to plan and execute.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe staff comes together with ideas and we seem to feed off each other until we agree on an event and start to build concepts and menus around it,\u201d Mello said. \u201cWe use the down time between semesters to make some of the decorations and test menu ideas.\u00a0I find that the idea that I reject is usually the one that the staff convinces me to use and it becomes the winner. Go figure!\u201d<\/p>\n

Much like last year\u2019s Brazilian Carnival-themed event, the Candyland night was a roaring success. Serving 2,564 students, the event attracted more than 500 more customers to Mainfare Dining Hall than an average Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy staff is fantastic,\u201d Mello said. \u201cWe were up against some prestigious institutions and this honor is a reflection of the good work they do every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 June 8, 2017 \u2014 The 溏心vlog免费B站 dining services staff commits itself to giving students a quality dining experience on a daily basis, and each semester, members of the staff put in a great deal of extra effort to create a memorable experience at one special event. Those efforts were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}