Early on in the semester it was near impossible to notice the rationing of meat that was occurring in West Campus dinning halls. I had figured it had to do with limiting the consumption of meats, in favor of less environmentally impactful vegetable crops, but before Wednesday’s Café that was no more than an assumption on my part. This was one of several topics that were brought up on November 4th by, or to, Rose House Chef  Daniel Czebiniak, and Associate Director of Cornell West Campus Dining Paul Muscente.

Muscente explained that the reduction in sizes, and amounts (regulated by student employees, not your typical all-you-can-eat style) were part of a larger push to “bring vegetables to the center of the plate” and moving proteins to the side in an attempt to encourage Cornellians to eat healthier, and to help curb the environmental impact of the operation while reducing food waste. On the topic of food waste, I found it comforting that Chef Daniel consistently watches the excess food coming off the plate belt, noting what student’s aren’t eating, and taking that into consideration when ordering produce and planning future meals.

I can only imagine how difficult it is to coordinate a dining system like West Campus’s, where everyone living there has an unlimited meal plan and therefore can easily and without consequence move from one dining hall to another. This was brought up by Muscente after a comment was made that one of the other dining halls on West was loosing money, and that dining was trying to entice students to go there in an attempt to try to level out the number of students per night across the five dining halls. The Associate Director stated that though the reasoning behind the statement was false, they do wish to see each dining hall seeing an equivalent number of visits, but that doesn’t always happen, and the houses bring that into account when determining menus, and the amount of portions cooked on particular nights. He brought up Rose’s popular Taco Tuesdays as an example, saying that in response to a large number of students flocking to Rose on that evening, other houses may decide to reduce the amount of food they produce that evening, so there is less waste at the end of the day.

I found Czebiniak and Muscente to be very receptive of student’s questions, comments, and recommendations, and felt they made a genuine effort to make sure a particular student was satisfied with the response they received before moving on to others. I believe it reiterated how central students are to Dining’s success, and they do take seriously student’s comments and suggestions.