Food Advisory Committee Emory (FACE) held a meeting to review this year's accomplishments last night in the Cox Ballroom.
FACE is a student organization that holds monthly open meetings to receive student feedback and relay information from Emory Dining. After attendees served themselves salad, chicken and macaroni and cheese from Emory Dining, FACE board members listed the achievements from their respective dining locations.
College freshman Bryce Robertson, a Dobbs Market at the Dobbs University Center (DUC) representative, informed the nearly full ballroom about changes the committee implemented at the DUC during the past year.
Some of these changes included making sure chicken is always available to students, offering cheese pizza and improving the cleanliness of dishes.
The DUC also has a new head chef who formerly worked at the Ritz Carlton and the Four Seasons.
Kenny Hemmer, the director of financial operations of the food administration, said the change in hours at the DUC – including the elimination of Late Night so the DUC could remain open later – was probably the biggest accomplishment this year. Most schools do not make changes like that one, he said.
Cox Hall underwent more than $1 million in kitchen renovations this year including new kitchen flooring, equipment, a bakery, offices, a storage room and employee rooms, according to Sheena Desai, a College freshman and Cox Hall representative.
She also said Cox Hall added a second sandwich line and a baked chips and half-sandwich, half-soup option.
Some of the other changes included more to-go options, registers, snack options and fresh vegetables as well as new beverage machines and cups, according to Desai. She also said that gluten-free options would be added next year.
As for the Rollins Café at the Rollins School of Public Health, College junior and representative Kaleb Swanson said the team revamped the menu, created separate lines and added to-go options and weekly specials featuring various countries.
"We just want to stress that all these changes have been because of what you guys are telling us," FACE co-chair and College sophomore Karoline Porcello told the audience.
After the committee chairs opened the floor to questions, a student asked about Chick-fil-A's removal.
Senior Director of the Food Administration Dave Furhman said that they were still "dealing with existing contracts" and "figuring out cancellation policies." He also said they will be announcing the final decisions about Cox Hall near Commencement.
"Cox Hall will be different in the fall," Furhman said to the audience. "That is all we can say definitely."
Hemmer ended the meeting with praises for the work the FACE has done.
"Every time you make a constructive comment on their website, it is funneled to us," Hemmer said to the audience. "They have done a phenomenal job."
Furhman later told the Wheel that FACE came together as a committee and did "extraordinarily" well at bringing feedback to life to make campus life better.
"I think the committee ... embodies what campus life here is all about," Furhman said. "It's about involvement. It's about feedback. It's about being part of the community."
Furhman said the greatest changes this year were those regarding the recently announced Student Activity and Academic Center breakfast option as well as the meal exchange at the Common Grounds at Cannon Chapel.
This year's food changes had much more student involvement than previous years, Hemmer said.
"I refer to food in Campus Dining as the common denominator," Furhman said. "What better way to bring people together than food?"
Porcello and Michael Sacks, College sophomore and FACE co-chair, will continue to serve as committee chairs for the next school year. Sacks said this year was a learning experience.
"It was the first time I really started something from the bottom up," Sacks said. "When [Porcello] and I came up, there really wasn't much."
He said the largest obstacle this year was learning the committee's limitations. FACE spent much of this year learning what the committee could and could not do.
Next year, Sacks said the committee will start working on sustainability initiatives across campus.
– By Karishma Mehrotra
