Dining at Marist

Anyone who has been in the dining hall is sure to have run into Jon Bohn at some point. Whether you have spoken to him personally or just know of him as the tall man who wears the chef hat, there is a lot more to Jon Bohn than initially meets the eye.

Jon has been working in the food industry for an astounding 27 years, 16 of which he has been a chef. Jon has been the Campus Executive Chef at Marist College for nearly three years. In his time at Marist, Jon said he loves the community feel and being able to make food for the students they enjoy. “It’s my responsibility to ensure the food is prepared with care,” Jon says, because he eats the food prepared here too! When asked what his favorite food item at Marist is he said that it had to be cheese pizza from the Murray Student Center - a scratch-made recipe he has been perfecting.

When not at Marist Jon is a man of varied interests and activities. First and foremost he expressed that he has a wife and two kids whom he loves making pancakes for. When he's not making pancakes, Jon loves to exercise or play instruments like the banjo or drums.

For students wishing to reach Jon his office is located in the Murray Student Center Dining hall or you can direct your emails to him at [email protected].

-Wyatt

Happy spring, Red Foxes! Or at least what feels like it.

After what seems like an eternity, I am so happy to be back on campus for the spring semester. And I’m even happier to tell you guys about some of the cool, new offerings Marist Dining has in store!

Remember Pick 3? Well, forget it. We’re now offering U Pick, an alternative to the limited options in the Pick 3 program. With U Pick, you can now use a meal swipe to purchase items up to $10, and any value over that can be covered using Thrifty Cash, Marist Money, credit/debit or cash. This meal equivalency program allows you to get the most bang for your buck, and to build your meals from any retail location on campus with anything you want.

Marist Dining is also offering two new programs through Grubhub – DiningHall2Go and Grocery2Go. Students can order à la carte items, sides, fruits, baked goods, and beverages for purchase using Thrifty Cash, Marist Money, debit, and credit on the Grubhub app under DiningHall2Go. Students can also order Grocery2Go from Cabaret, Marketplace, and North End Dining. However, this program is strictly for à la carte items, and U Pick meal swipes are not accepted.

Some of the retail locations are also getting some delicious new additions. The Cabaret, Steel Plant Garden Café and Donnelly Café are all offering sushi, Steel Plant and Donnelly now have oatmeal bowls, and Donnelly can now fulfill your avocado toast craving. North End has gotten a swath of new dishes, too, including new Wok recipes, classic and gourmet grilled cheeses, pizza rolls, breakfast burritos, and hashbrowns. (P.S. Try adding the hashbrowns to the breakfast burrito. Trust me. Life-changing.)

Finally, get excited about the return of food trucks, like Farmers & Chefs, on weekends, and a new weekly Chakra Bowls pop-up at North End. You loved them last semester, and now you can grab the café’s famous bowls and toasts from 11:30am-3:30pm on Saturdays and Sundays starting March 20.

So much to be excited about. Enjoy the beautiful weather this week – I know I’m going to use it as an excuse to get an obscene number of acai bowls with my U Pick meal equivalencies. See you there!

Superman has his kryptonite. Achilles has his heel. And I have the Dining Hall’s new garlic knots. They are my weakness – a toasted, crunchy golden brown exterior, with the soft, melt-in-your-mouth dough inside, smothered in the smoothest garlic herb butter imaginable. Dunk it in the marinara sauce on the side, and it’s borderline perfection. And they’re available every day, lunch and dinner.

The Dining Hall has undergone a number of changes to accommodate COVID-mandated regulations. However, the staff has constantly gone the extra mile to address student concerns, and they continue to modify the menus and practices to best suit the needs of the Marist community. The garlic knots are the perfect example. With student calls to bring back breadsticks to the pizza station, the Marist Dining team decided to take it one step further with their delicious garlic knot recipe.

There have been several other exciting menu additions, too. The Chef’s Table is now featuring a new delicious pasta dish every day. Weekends bring you chicken bacon ranch mac & cheese, penne alla vodka, and buffalo chicken mac & cheese. Mondays through Fridays offer more twists on mac & cheese, including four cheese and broccoli cheddar, as well as classics like butter garlic pasta and pasta with marinara sauce.

The sandwich station is offering a specialty sandwich each day, on top of the current staples, the turkey and provolone sub and the ham and cheese. Likewise, the pizza station is spicing up the daily choices, giving you your standard cheese and pepperoni and a bonus speciality slice, like chipotle chicken ranch. My mouth’s watering just writing about it.

And it’s not just the food stations with exciting new options. A few fun, fall beverage options will also be available every week. Refreshing breakfast smoothies are available in the Dining Hall every Thursday morning, with a special new flavor every week. Iced coffee and hot apple cider will be offered at the Beverage station through the end of October, at which point hot cocoa takes over to get us fully in the holiday spirit.

So, as hard as it’s going to be, make sure to save some swipes for all the delectable things coming up. Or, as always, you can upgrade your meal plan through your MyMarist account. I may have to do the same. Because it is, after all, time to satisfy my garlic knot craving.

Wear your masks and eat your garlic knots, kids!

Welcome back, Red Foxes!

It’s a beautiful day for the first day of classes here in the historic Hudson River Valley. Packing up my backpack this morning, it almost felt like a typical day at Marist College. And then I put on my mask. And stayed 6 feet apart from the person in front of me. And circled Lowell Thomas looking for a proper entrance.

Okay, things have changed.

But not all for the worse! Marist Dining Services, just like everything else, has undergone some major modifications while we were away. And while things do feel different, there’s a couple really cool changes that I know I’m going to love.

First, Marist Dining has introduced a partnership with Grubhub, which totally revolutionizes the dining experience. Since the Murray Student Center Dining Hall now has restricted capacity, you can use the Grubhub app to either reserve your table in the dining hall to eat in-person or to order your food ahead of time and take it to-go. That means you can enjoy your meal at your dorm, in the new outdoor dining tent next to the Marist Community Garden, or at any other spot on the beautiful Marist property for a picnic with your friends.

There’s a bunch of upsides to these new options. Grubhub allows you to view the entire, updated menu for the dining hall, so you can decide what you’re feeling before arriving, or decide to visit another location on campus for a different selection. It also allows you to take food out of the dining hall, making it easy to grab a meal on the go to your next class. I personally love the dining reservation system as well. No more worrying about finding a table at dinnertime to fit all your friends, and you’re sure to be 6ft apart from any other parties. Is anyone else loving the newfound respect for personal space?

And even though some things have changed, you can still count on the dining hall for a delicious and satisfying meal. One meal swipe can get you a main entrée from the homestyle or Simple Servings station, or a burger, hot dog, or grilled chicken sandwich from the grill, or a premade wrap with quality Boar’s Head meat at the deli station, or a slice of pizza from the pizza station...you get the gist. You can also snag a baked good from Pastry Chef Adena’s scrumptious dessert station (that vegan oatmeal raisin cookie was the highlight of my semester so far), as well as two grab-and-go items, two seasonal whole fruits, a fresh salad or soup from scratch, and both a cold bottled beverage, like water or soda, and a hot beverage, like coffee or tea. There’s also all-day breakfast, which can be paired with our Hudson Valley fresh milk (I can finally satisfy my chocolate milk craving). The options are endless.

So even though COVID has altered on-campus life this year, some things never change. And some of those changes could even broaden our horizons and offer exciting new opportunities - thanks, Grubhub!

Stay safe and stay healthy, Red Foxes, but don’t stay hungry!

Our world is on the brink of an unprecedented food challenge: the global population is slated to reach 10 billion people by 2050. Our food supply and agricultural practices will need to transform significantly in order to feed people on this scale. 

Did you know that 75% of the global food supply comes from just 12 plants and 5 animal species? Further, 60% of calories consumed worldwide come from just THREE foods: rice, maize, and wheat! Such narrow diets do not adequately support good health. Not to mention that putting all of our eggs into one proverbial basket puts us at risk of food shortages due to the effects of a disease, climate change, and geopolitical events. Monoculture farming also depletes soil, making it more vulnerable to pests and pathogens. 

Adding to the conundrum, developed nations depend heavily on animal products in their diets. These products, including meat, milk, and eggs, exact a heavy toll on the environment via land and water use, greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. 

Clearly, it’s time for a change. And that’s where Future 50 Foods come into play. Food and nutrition experts from the WWF, Knorr, and Sodexo came together to identify 50 foods to drive this imperative change to a more sustainable food supply. The foods on the list are biodiverse, nutrient-dense, environmentally friendly, culturally diverse and, of course, full of good flavors. On March 5, we will be featuring several of these foods in the Murray Student Center Dining Hall during lunch. We hope you’ll join us and taste the future of food for yourself!

Can anyone believe that it is 2020?! With the New Year, we all want to start it off on the right foot. Making better choices, working out more and especially eating healthier. Luckily, Marist Dining has got your back! The main dining hall is starting 2020 with some new healthy, specialty options designed to help you meet your nutrition needs. Legumes are now being served daily at the Simple Servings station. This is part of our new goal to include more plant-based options for students. Also, check out the salad bar for our new Protein Topper, a plant-based crunchy topping to add to salads, grains or anything of your liking. This new Protein Topper has 12 grams of plant-based protein per ¼ cup serving! Perfect for people interested in boosting protein their intake. 

Finally, students with peanut and/or tree nut allergies can head over to the new nut-free toast station, where they will find nut-free bread, as well as a dedicated toaster and condiments. We ask all students to kindly respect this area by using it only for the preparation of nut-free toast. 

Students can always book a nutrition counseling appointment with our registered dietitian, Marie Murphy to discuss their specific nutrition goals and dietary needs. To book an appointment, go to https://marie-murphy.youcanbook.me/  or contact Marie at (845) 891-5132 or [email protected]).

The holiday season is in full swing!

Busy schedules leave many of us feeling rushed and exhausted. Unfortunately, constant exposure to decadent treats can lead to feelings of shame and guilt around food choices. These feelings can interfere with our ability to enjoy the holiday season and time with friends and family. Rather than engaging these feelings, choose to eat mindfully: free from judgment, in the present moment, slowly, with intention, and without distractions. These Cranberry Cookies from our bakery is a fun way to celebrate the season. What is your favorite holiday treat?

Here are some helpful tips for mindful eating:

· Put your phone down, turn off other devices

· Chew thoroughly

· Notice your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations

· Acknowledge any response to your food

· Pay attention to hunger and fullness

Nobody likes to be sick, never mind being sick in college. As much as it helps to get your flu shot and hand washing, what you put in your body is just as important! Hydration! Hydration! Hydration! Instead of choosing the go-to soda, utilize the H2O station that has a variety of “toppings” to your normal water. Spice up your H2O with vitamin-c packed lemons or mineral-rich cucumbers or even add a cherry. Pro Tip: make sure to carry around a refillable water bottle to stay hydrated and never forgot to fill it up before you leave the dining hall! Already feeling under the weather? The dining hall offers a variety of soothing and restorative teas. For a delicious way to ease a sore throat and break up mucus, add a spoonful of honey! Consider electrolyte rich juices, such as orange and cranberry to prevent a cold or prevent it from progressing. 

As much as you “don’t feel like eating”, it is vital to recovery. Skipping meals will weaken your immune system even more. Calories and nutrients keep immune cells doing their job: fighting infection. If you aren’t giving your body the fuel, the healing process can take much longer. Even if you are not up to a full meal, nutritious options still abound, such as smoothies (offered every Thursday, from 7-10am), soups, applesauce, yogurt, and toast. 

However, if you are able to regain appetite, it is important to give your body adequate proteins and complex carbohydrates (such as beans, vegetables, and whole grains). Eating these foods, replenish your body with fiber, minerals, and vitamins. It is important to understand that what you put into your body, directly correlates to the speed of your recovery! We hope you will use these tips to stay hydrated and nourished throughout the cold and flu season. Here’s to your health!

Today, more and more students are coming into college as vegans or vegetarians. It can be difficult starting out a new chapter of your life to begin with and worrying what you can eat at the dining hall shouldn’t be an added stressor. Never fear, vegan and vegetarian options abound in the dining hall! You’ll find several delectable dishes at the Vegetarian Station for lunch, including Cauliflower Buffalo Wings, Stuffed Poblano Pepper and Parmesan Asparagus; and for dinner: Singapore Rice Noodles! And did you know that Simple Servings sides are ALWAYS vegan? You can check it all out on the online menu or Bite app (a free app available to download to your phone). Look for the user-friendly vegan and vegetarian icons next to each dish. 

You can always find a plant-based soup at the soup station. If this doesn’t suit your taste buds, move over to the deli where a vegetarian option is always offered as a special. Even better, you can create your own protein/grain bowl at the salad bar. 

Worried about not getting enough protein? There are various vegan options offered at the salad bar and the grill. The grill offers veggie burgers daily and proteins at the salad bar includes tofu, hummus, edamame and more.  For our vegetarians, the salad bar also has eggs and various cheeses to choose from. Worried about breakfast? Marist offers a diabetes-friendly vegan/vegetarian breakfast protein bar loaded with granolas, Greek yogurt, hummus, pumpkin seeds, black beans and more! Just feeling a bowl of cereal? There are now various options of plant milks including soy, almond and coconut to choose from. 

If you still need more assistance meeting your needs, book an appointment with Registered Dietitian Marie Murphy, who can help create a plan that will work for YOU!

Happy Friday, Red Foxes!

With vegan and vegetarian diets sweeping the nation, you might be wondering what the fuss is all about. Well, there’s a number of benefits to having a meatless diet, including health reasons to reduce your risk for many cancers, environmental reasons to cut back the meat industry’s carbon footprint, and just ethical reasons to avoid eating animals. No matter what the reason is, the push toward vegetarian and vegan diets has been growing stronger, and it’s always Marist Dining’s goal to keep up with the times.

Marist Dining has implemented a number of exciting new vegetarian and vegan initiatives at the beginning of this semester. We’ve begun Meatless Mondays, vegan smoothies on “Thirsty Thursdays,” and avocado toast on Friday mornings, a choice that obviously supports vegetarian and vegan diets. We have also continued our Simply Servings stations, which features sides that are always vegan. At special events, Marist Dining also provides special options for vegetarian and vegan students. The idea is to accommodate these diets, and your ideas, with fresh new ideas every semester.

People are often looking for alternatives to dishes with meat in them, such as “zoodles” to replace noodles, cauliflower wings to replace chicken wings, and Beyond Burgers to replace beef burgers. All of these have been incredibly popular on campus because they’re high quality alternatives to the originals. The zucchini noodles, referred to as “zoodles,” were recently featured at Chef’s Table and have been a crowd favorite.

If you’re wondering where the idea for this initiative came from, the answer is YOU! Marist Dining chose to begin these initiatives based off the feedback from the Fall 2018 Dining Satisfaction Survey. There were many requests for a greater vegetarian and vegan presence on our menus, and when students talk, they listen. It was a direct result of these remarks that we made it a priority to expand our vegetarian and vegan menus.

There are also always people to contact with questions. You can ask staff, make a one-on-one appointment with Marie, our dietitian, or text MARISTEATS to 82257, our myDtxt system, at any time with suggestions. Through this system, your opinions immediately get sent directly to the Marist Dining team, and it is through this feedback they can introduce changes to the students.

While there have been some great new additions to the main dining hall, it’s also important to note that the retail locations across campus are constantly getting new products, many of which are gluten free or organic or simply healthier than a regular bag of chips! Make sure to check them out and let us know what you think!

So what are you waiting for, Red Foxes? Try a Meatless Monday, or a Thirsty Thursday, or a Simply Serving station dinner, and help your body and the Earth!

Eat up!

Welcome to spring semester, Red Foxes!

I’m back from the break bearing exciting news for all you foodies out there! The transition into early morning classes was rough on all of us, but there’s now a brand new spot for a morning pick-me-up - the Steel Plant Garden Cafe! This new cafe is located in the brand new Steel Plant facility and had its grand opening the first day of classes for the spring semester, January 22nd, at 7:30 in the morning.

Despite its cafe title, this new retail facility is not your run-of-the-mill Starbucks. Featuring locally roasted fair trade coffee, an assortment of new wraps and sandwiches, and the same soups, freshly baked goods and snacks that you know and love, the Steel Plant Garden Cafe is a breath of fresh air for us  The coffee, provided by North River Roasters, is fair trade and organic, and provide detailed descriptions of the exact origins of their coffee beans. Each barrel of coffee beans, hidden right beneath the counter, is labeled with the country of origin of the beans used for each roast. The grand opening of the Steel Plant Garden Cafe featured roasts with beans from three different countries - Uganda, Colombia, and Timor.

North River Roasters’ fresh, organic coffee is not the only new part of the menu at the Steel Plant Garden Cafe. It also features Spacey Tracy’s Gourmet Pickles, another company located locally in Rhinebeck, New York, along with quiches, breakfast sandwiches, and brand new nitro cold brew coffee, which is, by the way, the coolest process I’ve ever seen.

The Steel Plant Garden Cafe also matches the modern aesthetic prominent throughout the whole Steel Plant building. Complete with wooden tables, steel accents, and massive windows, the cafe allows in plenty of natural light and tons of outlets to accommodate plugging in and working hard. Students are already loving the light, bright, and convenient environment. I don’t even have any classes in the new facility, but I still plan on spending lots of my time there.

The Steel Plant Garden Cafe is open 7:30am-9:30pm Monday through Thursday, and 7:30am-5:00pm on Fridays. Many of the new menu options are part of the Pick Three offering, and everything else can be purchased a la carte. So what are you waiting for, Red Foxes? Stop in and take advantage of all the delicious additions to Marist’s cuisine!

Do you want to talk? We want to listen! We’re looking forward to hearing your feedback on your Marist Dining experience.

Click here to give us your thoughts on the Marist Dining Services Customer Satisfaction Survey.

As finals approach, remember to take a break from studying to eat at your favorite dining location.

Two weeks left, Red Foxes!

Happy Thanksgiving, Red Foxes!

The first snowfall of the year has really gotten me in the holiday spirit. Thanksgiving is so close and I know I’m especially excited for the FOOD. Pies have always been the signature Thanksgiving dessert in my household, and I personally cannot wait to taste some.

Whether you’re going home or staying on campus, having dinner with family or a Friendsgiving feast, stop by the Cabaret to get holiday pies baked especially for you by the Marist Dining bakery team!

They have apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies for sale - all the classics - but there’s only a limited number, so get there fast!

I know I’m on my way to buy a couple myself.

So enjoy the break, stay warm, and most importantly, indulge yourself on a delicious meal!

Happy almost Friday, Red Foxes!

As Sustainability Week comes to an end, I wanted to highlight the tremendous job you’ve done at the Dining Hall this past week.

We’ve had a number of students participating in our Clean Plate Club challenge all week, and raised lots of awareness about the necessity of reducing waste at Marist, but we wanted to know if we were actually decreasing the amount of waste we produced. We’ve been tracking the weight of the waste every day to make this determination.

We weighed an average of 200 pounds of waste each day. Now, this may sound like a lot, but let’s break it down. With 16 ounces in every pound, 200 pounds of waste translates to 3,200 ounces of waste. With about 3,000 students eating in the dining hall, this calculates to just over 1 ounce of waste per person - 1.067 ounces of waste per person to be precise. This is a very impressive number.

While there’s always room for improvement, an ounce of waste on average per person is an incredible feat for Marist College’s sustainability efforts, and for our student body as a whole.

So great job, Red Foxes! Keep wasting a little less and keep pursuing your green lifestyles even outside of the Dining Hall.

Have a good wasteless weekend!

Do you want to save the planet? Yeah, me too. Marist Dining has been working hard on improving its sustainability practices. You may have noticed the waste signage around the dining hall - Marist has actually been tracking the amount of waste being produced so that we can work to decrease it.  That’s why we’re introducing WasteLESS Week starting this Monday!

Phoebe Smith is a Sustainability Intern at Sodexo, the company that operates Marist Dining. “WasteLESS Week is reflective of Marist’s sustainability initiative and allows students to become more educated on environmental issues and how their actions can make a meaningful impact,” she said.

WasteLESS Week is a five-day campaign implemented by Sodexo teams around the nation in October. It empowers consumers to waste less by highlighting the results of their reduction waste efforts on site and inspires continued actions. This is really a mutually beneficial goal - Sodexo seeks to encourage students to pursue a more sustainable lifestyle on their own time, but also helps to meet Sodexo’s own goal of improved sustainability practices, as part of their Better Tomorrow Initiative.

It all comes down to environmental responsibility. Sodexo’s Better Tomorrow Initiative focuses on firstly acknowledging their impact on the environment, and then taking steps to measure, and consequently reduce, the amount of waste produced here. This necessitates involvement on your part to try to reduce the amount of food you toss in the garbage.

We’ve all done it, too - piled a new dish onto our plate only to determine we don’t like it, or taken a whole serving when we’re really only hungry enough for half. It’s understandable that we may not finish all our food. But, think about it critically - 40% of food in America is wasted. Forty percent. That’s an obscene number if you take into account that there are 821 million people worldwide who are chronically undernourished.

WasteLESS Week is a cry for you to be more aware about your food consumption (or lack thereof). Start off with smaller portions - that was the intention of the implementation of our smaller plates. You can always go back for more - that’s the beauty of our buffet-style dining hall. There’s also a Clean Plate Club you can earn your way into if you eat all the food on your plate every day next week. To top it off, you can even ask the dining hall employee for a sample of a dish before taking a whole serving. Taste before you waste.

You can even implement some sustainability, waste reduction practices into your own dorm room. Statistics shows that 90% of us throw away food too soon, before it’s actually gone bad. Use the HandPick App to find recipes that will use up the items in your fridge before you throw them out. You can go to SaveTheFood.com to find more tips as to how to save your food and reduce your waste. Take into account the little things you can do, like not wasting food, to benefit the environment, society, and your own personal sustainability practices.

So make sure to participate in WasteLESS Week starting Monday, and, in general, let’s make it a goal to waste a little less every day.

Hey Red Foxes! We’ve got a new chef in town!

Chef Robert Trick is going to be the newest member of the Sodexo family here at Marist Dining starting on the 15th of October. Chef Robert will be joining as the Campus Executive Chef, bringing with him over 30 years of experience in the restaurants and catering businesses.

Coming from a German and Irish family, Chef Robert gained an appreciation for cooking from daily dinner preparation. “We were all kind of revolved around the kitchen and what was for dinner. I used to help my mother prepare her classic German dishes. I loved food, and I mean, everyone loves food, but that and giving my mother a hand really inspired me to become a chef.” Chef Robert’s parents were the ones who encouraged him to pursue the culinary arts and helped him get his first job at a local Irish pub.

Chef Robert also expressed he’s most excited about getting to know all the students, faculty, and employees at Marist Dining, and says he can’t wait to begin so that he can become a part of the team and assimilate into the environment. It’s a new experience, but he looks forward to getting started.

In his free time, Chef Robert enjoys spending time with his family, fishing, and taking part in mushroom walks and other activities with the Mid-Hudson Mycological Organization. He has much to offer our dining program here, so make sure you say hello to him if you see him!

I promised the introduction of more vegan choices as the year goes by, and I’m here to deliver on that promise! The Beyond Burger is making its return to Marist after a wildly successful run last year.

These plant-based burgers are critically acclaimed for looking, tasting, and satisfying like beef, as their slogan says. The burger boasts 20 gram of plant protein, no soy or gluten, and no GMOS, making it the perfect burger, just without any beef.

These are truly premium patties, and they’ve been sweeping the nation as part of the vegan trend. The Today Show named the Beyond Burger the best veggie burger on the market, saying, “Whether you’re a proud carnivore, devoted vegetarian, or newbie vegan on the verge of caving, you’ve gotta throw this bad boy on the grill. The Beyond Burger is beyond juicy, meaty and an almost-exact replica of a poultry patty.” They also mentioned that the Beyond Burger, despite sharing the taste of a regular burger, actually is far healthier, with over double the iron and half the saturated fat.

And lucky for us, these popular burgers are making their way back to Marist!

Kate Cole, the Marketing Director for Sodexo at Marist Dining, noted that students loved the Beyond Burger, and expressed her excitement for its return.

“We are so excited to re-introduce the Beyond Burger to the Main Dining Hall. When we first launched this plant-based burger last year it was a huge hit. The flavor is so similar to a real burger that students who sampled it didn’t even realize it wasn’t meat! It is packed with protein so naturally Marist athletes gravitated toward it. If there is a student that hasn’t tried it, vegan or non-vegan, they really should! They will be surprised!”

You’ll find the Beyond Burgers in the Dining Hall every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. You’re only a swipe away from the vegan burger of your dreams!