Image Credit SOU Dining, @raidersdining on Instagram
With a new term under way, students are met with new and exciting changes coming to the school. One such change was when some fancy new food was spotted over at the vegetarian/vegan station of the Hawk dining hall. This past week The Siskiyou interviewed the two in charge of this change: Director of Marketing Trent Krupica and Corporate Wellness Dietitian Kayleigh Jackson. Both work for Aladdin Campus Dining, the company in charge of dining in colleges across the country.
So what is with the new gourmet vegetarian food? Aladdin Campus Dining partnered with renowned chef, Terrence Jay, to focus on healthy eating. Aladdin partnered with Jay for their new concept, Vegebond, which is plant based vegan/vegetarian food to help educate others on healthy eating and that plant based food is not only good for you, but tastes good too. This is where their culinary team comes into play, creating tasty and healthy culinary innovative recipes.
As of right now, Aladdin is launching the Vegebond concept in eleven accounts across the country, and the next step is to take it further to advertise this lifestyle to other schools. They are achieving this by working with not only marketing staff, but also educating the cooks at said schools on how to prepare food that promotes a healthier lifestyle for students and faculty alike. Aladdin is doing a mini tour across the country, starting with SOU!
Their chef, Chef Chris Caracciolo, was on site working with the other chefs at the Hawk as culinary support and nutrition support whilst showing them how to prepare these special recipes so they can do it themselves in the future. Trent and Kayleigh also worked with the marketing staff at the Hawk to promote Vegebond and make it more known to the students and staff.
The visual aspect of the food is also an integral part of what Kayleigh and Trent are focused on. “We want the students to be a little inquisitive. Asking, ‘well what is that?’ and ‘that looks really good, let me taste it’” says Trent, because it is a big part of the students’ lives. They are looking to expand on over 100 different recipes both new and different for the students and staff dining in so they do not have to just eat the same meal for lunch and dinner. Everyone else gets separate options for lunch and dinner, so should people who are vegan/vegetarian. “It’s a trend and it’s not going away” says Kayleigh, referencing how students are more focused on eating healthier and using vegan/vegetarian lifestyles. They are helping school dining programs get with the times.
They are hoping to expand the Vegebond concept further from just the vegan/vegetarian stations, going and adding a recipe or two at Pao, or maybe a black bean burger at JoJo’s. Make it like the Impossible burger at Burger King, except students will know exactly what organic foods they are consuming. They want to be able to be inclusive for the vegan/vegetarian students so they have more than just one station to eat at.
The Vegebond concept is what is known as a pop-in concept, meaning that every month the Hawk will try out a new and fancy recipe to serve and get responses from the students. Keep an eye out for a new, gourmet looking dish every month coming to Vege in the Hawk!
