DINING AT HARVARD

Tasty, farm fresh, made locally, hot off the grill, and from an old family recipe . . .
All familiar phrases at home, but also in the Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) kitchens.

When you accepted Harvard's invitation to join the class of 2013, your first thought probably wasn't, "What's for dinner?" But your choice of Harvard has guaranteed you many things, including an unparalleled dining experience.

Our mission? To nourish and support the students, faculty, staff, and guests of Harvard by creating experiences that foster friendship, encourage learning, and cultivate community. More specifically, we're your home away from home. Our staff will become part of your extended family because we take your well-being and satisfaction very personally.

HUDS serves you through 13 undergraduate dining halls, a kosher kitchen, 12 retail locations, Crimson Catering, and Crimson Cash. Here's what you can expect from HUDS: cuisine that will entice and educate you, and people who will welcome you with open arms.

Our website answers many of the basic questions about dining at Harvard. But it's the people of HUDS that round out your experience, so we look forward to getting to know you - either in advance of your arrival, with further questions or concerns, or once you settle in at our table.

Again, welcome and enjoy!

Ted A. Mayer, FMP Executive Director

Harvard College established a single, unlimited meal plan as part of an overall strategy to ensure that you can participate in every House activity on an equal footing with your peers. HUDS is pleased to help forge these bonds of House life through its comprehensive dining program. There's something for everyone! And, while we have a vast number of offerings each day, we also have an "if you don't see it, ask" policy. You are welcome to whatever is in our kitchen, even it's not on that day's menu.

The daily menu is designed to have something for everyone, from light snacks to full, hot meals. At each meal period you will find the following to select from:

Breakfast

• Proteins such as hard boiled eggs, ham, cheese, cottage cheese, and peanut butter
• Make-your-own non-fat yogurt parfaits
• Oatmeal and Cream of Wheat
• English muffins, bagels, and breads
• Daily fresh baked goods such as danish, muffins, or coffee cake
• Cut fruit, melon, or grapefruit
• Make-your-own malted waffles and toppings (Houses only M-S; all locations Sunday)
• Breakfast grill of eggs, home fries, and meats (Annenberg Hall only, M-F; all locations Saturday and Sunday)

Lunch

• Two soups (one vegetarian)
• Salad bar
• Sandwich bar, including panini grill
• Three hot entrées (at least one vegetarian)
• A hot, fresh seasonal vegetable
• A starch or bean and brown rice
• Frozen yogurt
• Dessert such as brownies or cookies

Dinner

• Two soups (one vegetarian)
• Salad bar
• Two or three hot entrées (at least one vegetarian)
• Two hot, fresh seasonal vegetables
• A starch or bean and brown rice
• Fresh bread
• Frozen yogurt
• Dessert such as a Boston cream pie, fruit cobbler, and ice cream sundaes

Everyday Staples

• Breakfast cereal - at least 12 varieties
• Non-fat yogurt (plain and flavored) and cottage cheese
• Pudding and Jell-O
• Peanut butter (organic and regular), jelly, and preserves
• Fresh, seasonal hand fruit
• Grill items, including eggs, burgers and hot dogs (regular, vegetarian, and Hallal), vegan burritos, and grilled cheese sandwiches
• Whole grain and regular pasta, two sauces (at least one vegetarian) and paremesan cheese
• Milk (regular, soy, and rice), juice (at least three types), soda (at least four types), and filtered water
• Seattle’s Best Coffee – fair trade regular and decaf – and a selection of black and herbal teas

Salad Bar

• Mixed greens, spinach, or romaine
• Tomatoes, carrots, and fruit such as Mandarin oranges
• Shredded cheese
• Crudités like broccoli, peppers, and peas
• Proteins like beans, tofu, flaked tuna, and hummus
• Composed salads for a quick meal or an interesting side dish
• Toppings like croutons, sunflower seeds, and crispy noodles
• Twelve kinds of salad dressing, plus organic olive oil, canola oil, and balsamic vinegar

Brain Break

HUDS’ late night, self-service snack break, offering:

• Milk, soda, juice and coffee
• Pastries, bagels and breads with condiments
• Assorted desserts Hand fruit
• Cold cereals
• Rotating specials such as Chips & Salsa, MYO Cupcakes, Veggies & Dip, Cheese & Crackers, etc.

In addition, we’ll kick off each exam period with a super deluxe Brain Break to keep your spirits high. Brain Break hours are house-specific and defined by the Master or Dean of Freshmen. First-years may take advantage of Brain Break at Annenberg.

Menu Information

Review the daily menu offering so you never miss your favorite meals!

• HUDS' online menu with nutrition information
• At CrimsonDining.org
• Twitter at Harvarddhall and HUDSInfo
• In the Harvard Crimson daily

You will take most of your meals in Annenberg Hall, a Civil War memorial constructed between 1866 and 1878, located just outside Harvard Yard. Annenberg Hall is a dramatic introduction to Harvard and its Dining Services. Annenberg's General Manager, Mary Lou Kearns, and her team ensure that Annenberg - a massive operation serving more than 4,000 meals a day with precision and panache - runs without a hitch. Because they see you every day, the HUDS staff also becomes a surrogate family or support system and feels a responsibility – and fulfillment – in taking care of you.

Meal hours vary slightly house to house, but are approximately as follows:

Monday through Saturday

• Breakfast 7:30 - 10:00am
• Continental Breakfast 10:00 - 11:00am
• Lunch 11:30am - 2:15pm
• Dinner 5:00 - 7:15pm

Sunday

• Continental Breakfast 7:30 - 10:00am
• Brunch 11:30am - 2:15pm
• Dinner 5:00 - 7:15pm

Interhouse

First-years generally eat at Annenberg Hall and upperclasspersons at their House. You may dine at other Houses (interhouse), but please respect interhouse restrictions, established by House Masters to help maintain community and minimize over-crowding. For example, Annenberg Hall is restricted to first-year students only, except at breakfast. Details on interhouse restrictions are on our website.

First and foremost, we believe in great food, made from fresh, quality ingredients and prepared as close to the time you will enjoy it as possible. Our menu is broad, featuring a variety of foods and highlighting a range of cultures or eating preferences. You’ll enjoy the comfortable flavors of home, but you’ll also have a chance to try new things.

We also feel a philosophical responsibility to infuse your dining experience with educational information that brings you closer to your food. The Food Literacy Project cultivates an understanding of food from the ground up. Education focuses on four integrated areas of food and society: sustainability, nutrition, food preparation, and community. Ultimately, our goal is to promote enduring knowledge, enabling you to make informed food choices.

Do you really, really love food? Are you curious about how it is grown, made, selected, and served? Do you think about where it came from and how it feeds your body, mind and soul? Want to share this passion with your peers? Join HUDS’ corps of Food Literacy Project Representatives and serve as a liaison between the dining program and the College community. To learn more, contact Theresa McCulla ’04, Food Literacy Project Administrator.

To ensure you the freshest products, and to actively support regional industries, HUDS seeks local sources for produce, baked goods, fresh seafood, dairy products, and more. In fact, at any given time our produce may come from one of more than 225 Massachusetts farms affiliated with the Pioneer Valley Growers Association or the Southern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership.

Some other sustainable food highlights:

• All our milk and milk-based products are from New England dairies, and are hormone-free.
• We partner with several nearby farms to grow produce expressly for us, including squash from Ward’s Berry Farm in Sharon, MA, and tomatoes from Backyard Beauties in Madison, ME.
• Our Pete & Gerry’s Organic eggs are raised in Monroe, NH.
• Every dining hall offers a selection of organic produce, beans, grains, cereals, peanut butter, and tofu or soy products.
• Most of our seafood is purchased in accordance with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch recommendations.

HUDS purchases only the finest quality ingredients, and relies on several key standards in defining our selection of local and national brand goods:

• Trans-fat free in accordance with USDA definitions
• Meat is USDA Choice
• Eggs: Pasteurized Grade A
• Produce is always USDA Grade 1
• We do not use MSG or buy products with MSG
• Purchasing practices are environmentally and socially conscious

HUDS’ nutrition standards are based on the recommendations of the Harvard School of Public Health’s Department of Nutrition. We model our menu on the Healthy Eating Food Pyramid, and emphasize such cornerstones as lean proteins, fresh vegetables, beans and whole grains, and healthy fats. To learn more about the Healthy Eating Food Pyramid, visit the HSPH Nutrition Source.

Our online menu, viewable from the web or from our dining hall kiosks, allows you to view a nutritional analysis for every item we serve.

Approximately 8% of the undergraduate population has food allergies or sensitivities, and it is a huge responsibility for all of us to keep those folks safe. Even if you don’t have food allergies or sensitivities, you will be sharing a serving area with people who do. Two important things to remember:

• Don’t cross serving utensils between different dishes.

• Don’t change the position of identifying menu cards. HUDS is very well trained in this area.

If you do have a food allergy, intolerance, or other special dietary need you should:

1. Contact HUDS’ Director for Culinary Operations (617-496-6704 or online) before you arrive at school to discuss your particular needs.
2. Introduce yourself to the dining hall manager and staff, and tell them about your allergy, intolerance, or special dietary need so that we may work with you on identifying foods that meet your needs.

Our menu includes selections at every meal for vegetarian and vegan diners, including soups, entrees, deli selections, and pasta sauces. These offerings are supplemented by the daily basic offerings such as at the grill and salad bar. Menu items are marked with the following icons to make your dining selections easier:

V: (Vegetarian) No meat, poultry, fish, or by-products

VGN: (Vegetarian) No dairy, meat, poultry, fish, or by-products

Kosher diners have two options for their meals. Each dining hall has a kosher area and a selection of hot and cold items for personal preparation. Additionally, the meal plan entitles you to dine at Hillel Kosher Kitchen, which serves dinner Sunday through Thursday, and lunch on Saturdays, as well as Shabbat meals. Immerse yourself in the community while you enjoy traditional or trendy fare, including kugel, meat loaf, and ginger chicken. To participate, call Hillel House.

HUDS is an active member of the culinary community, and we have a great friend in Mollie Katzen. Best-known as the pioneering author/illustrator of the classic Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, Mollie was named by Health Magazine as one of "Five Women Who Changed The Way We Eat." She is passionate about food – eating well, being healthy, and enjoying every dining experience. Mollie works with us on shaping a balanced, fun menu, and you’ll see her influence on your menu in such fun food-flips as the crisp and healthy Rice Fried Vegetables Action Station (a play on the more traditional vegetable fried rice).

Need to eat on the run? When you can’t sit down for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, the dining hall will prepare a bagged meal for you. Orders placed online by 4:00am will be available by breakfast, and will be made to your order specifications. Use “My HUDS” - accessed from the dining hall kiosk or your computer - to place your order.

Upperclasspersons may also use Fly-By, a basics-only bagged lunch grab-n-go at Annenberg. This is restricted to upperclasspersons because Annenberg is so conveniently located to the yard.

HUDS likes to demonstrate the staff’s culinary talents and sense of fun with events throughout the year.

Savory Spotlights highlight specific ingredients and their variety or use in several cooking forms. We’ll call an item to your attention and show you several ways it can be enjoyed.

Festive Meals offer opportunities to celebrate a holiday or event with a more formal menu, and decorations to complement or highlight the occasion. This year, for starters, we’ll enjoy a sustainable Fall Harvest, as well as a winter festival.

We’ll also regularly break up the routine with fun special occasion or holiday menus, such as Superbowl, Chinese New Year, or Cinco de Mayo.

And weekly we will take a culinary journey, over the course of a month, visiting the popular cuisines of Thailand, India, Vietnam, and Mexico. These menus will change seasonally, so get ready to explore!

Do you have a favorite family recipe that you wish you could bring with you? Well, all you have to do is ask! In early winter your family is invited to submit your favorites from the family recipe box. Then in February HUDS features as many Recipes from Home as possible in the dining halls. Some favorites are so popular they even make the permanent menu.

HUDS is all about customer service. We take every opportunity to share information and to hear from you about your dining experience.

Facebook, Twitter, and the Blog

Join the HUDS Facebook group, tweet with us at twitter.com/HUDSInfo, or check out the Executive Director’s blog These online forums are opportunities to learn about upcoming events, and for open dialogue with HUDS or with other Harvard students.

Online Satisfaction Surveys

Each semester we ask a series of questions about individual and overall dining experiences; results are compared to previous years for areas of improvement and points for attention.

Manager Conversations

Don’t be a stranger! Every dining hall has a management team who is eager to talk with you personally, and can address many of your questions one-on-one.

Feedback Cards

Write comments and expect a rapid, personal response either on paper or online at our kiosks or webpage. All feedback cards are posted in the dining area and we respond to them within 24 hours.

In Print

HUDS keeps you informed about issues related to food literacy, wellness, events around campus, and dining highlights with our weekly table tents and dining hall kiosks. Table tents and kiosks also offer free advertising for student group meetings and activities (plays, dances, film screenings, etc.). Guidelines for reserving space will be on the first few table tents of the semester.

HUDS operates several quick-serve restaurants on both the Cambridge and Longwood campuses. These community-based retail locations feature fresh foods to eat in or enjoy on the go, and comfortable places to gather or study.

The most popular are the Greenhouse in the Science Center, renowned for their award-winning pizzas, and the Lamont Library Café, open until 2am. Visit Retail Dining and see the flavor and style of several corners of the campus.

HUDS’ retail operations accept Crimson Cash, BoardPlus, Mastercard, and Visa in addition to cash.

Beyond our commitment to sustainable food offerings, HUDS also works to reduce our operational impact on the environment. To that end, we celebrate a number of achievement, including:

• Reducing post-consumer food waste, through food waste audits and awareness campaigns, by 33% in five years – or 220,000 fewer pounds of food waste per year.
• Composting food waste – an average of 26,500 pounds a week – in our kitchens.
• Recycling 1,981,387 pounds of cardboard, metal, glass and plastic packaging annually.
• Reducing energy and other resource consumption through the replacement of equipment and implementation of behavioral change projects such as the Green Skillet competition.
• Using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification guidelines on renovation projects.
• Participating in Harvard coursework as a real-world example and case study of a sustainable business.
• Introducing two farmers’ markets to campus.

Read our online Sustainability Report, an annual publication, to learn more about HUDS efforts.

HUDS is very active in donating time and resources for the betterment of the industry and community. We:

• Distribute leftover food to area shelters and soup kitchens, and are recognized as one of the Greater Boston Food Bank’s leading supporters.
• Host interns from vocational training programs and culinary institutes.
• And host, present, and participate in professional associations and conferences such as the Society for Foodservice Management and the National Association of College and University Food Services.

Your ID is your lifeline at Harvard, and is required to get into the dining halls and to “swipe” for meal access. It is not transferable and may not be used by anyone else. Treat it like you would your driver’s license or charge card. You’ll receive a new ID on each move-in day or at registration. For questions regarding your student ID, contact ID Services at www.huid.harvard.edu or at Holyoke Center (9th Floor).

BoardPlus

To give you flexibility in your meal plan, you get $65 BoardPlus per semester (applied on the first day of each semester). You can spend this at any HUDS-operated retail venue (see web), or for guest meals in the dining halls. To use BoardPlus, let the cashier or checker know you want to use it and present your Harvard ID. Your balance is displayed after each transaction. You may not add additional BoardPlus dollars when you have run out, and any unused funds expire at the end of the school year.

Crimson Cash

Crimson Cash is a campus declining balance system accessed through your Harvard ID. Crimson Cash is discretionary – you may use it as you wish. You determine how much money you add to Crimson Cash. There are no service charges, and Crimson Cash does not expire as long as you have a valid Harvard ID. Use it to buy books at the COOP, do laundry, make copies, treat a guest to a meal in your dining hall, or get something to eat from vending machines or at a retail operation. You may also use Crimson Cash at a select group of off-campus dining locations. To learn more or add value, visit Crimson Cash (www.cash.harvard.edu).

Dining Services hires students to work in the dining halls and retail operations during meal periods, and in our administrative offices during the business week. We offer flexible hours and have one of the highest pay rates on campus or in the area – students start at $10.00/hr for the first semester and move up to $10.25/hr if they stay on for the second semester.

A sampling of available student positions includes:

• Food Literacy Project (FLP) Representative
• Barrista
• Cashier
• Student Manager
• Office Assistant

International Foodservice Manufacturers Association
Silver Plate
2006, Colleges & Universities
Ted Mayer

American Culinary Federation (ACF)
Team Competition
2008, Second Place and ACF Gold Medal
Mystery Basket Competition, Chef Culinary Conference

National Association of College and University Food Service (NACUFS)
Horton Awards
2008, Gold, Grand Prize & People’s Choice Award
Crimson Catering, Catering, Standard Menu

NACUFS
Horton Awards
2005, Gold and Grand Prize – Residential Dining Single Stand-Alone Concept
2005, Second Place, 2003, First Place and Grand Prize – Crimson Catering, Catering, Standard Menu
2003 and 2004, Second Place – Residential Dining Standard Menu

American Culinary Federation (ACF)
2005 & 2004, First Place and ACF Gold Medal – Mystery Basket Competition, Chef Culinary Conference

NACUFS Culinary Competition
2004, Region 1 First Place and ACF Gold Medal, National ACF Bronze Medal – Martin Breslin, Director for Culinary Operations
2004, Region 1 Third Place and ACF Gold Medal – Ludger Wessels, Executive Chef for Catering

Food Management Magazine
Best Concepts Award
2005, Renovations
1999, Customer Service

Food Management Magazine Leadership Award
2002, Ted A. Mayer, Executive Director

National Association of Campus Card Users
Effective Practices Award
2000, Crimson Cash Web Value Transfer Station

Restaurants & Institutions Magazine
Ivy Award
1996, Dining Excellence