A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff
UMW employees, including President Paino, celebrate a gift to the Gwen Hale Resource Center.
A host of UMW employees, including President Paino, gathered on the steps of the Cedric Rucker University Center on Thursday, Sept. 8, to pose with a giant check that celebrates a huge gift to the Gwen Hale Resource Center. The check represents another $1,000 grant from the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation to support the resource center!
All UMW faculty and staff are invited to grab lunch at the Top of the Cedric Rucker University Center on Tuesday, Sept. 20, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., for just $1!
University Dining will be hosting several special holiday dining events this fall, starting with the annual Thanksgiving Dinner on November 17th, and followed by the Winter Holiday Dinner on December 2nd and the Cram Jam Late Night Breakfast on December 6th, the first night of final exams. Since these special events draw many more guests than usual, it has become tradition here at UMW for students and members of the faculty and staff to volunteer to help serve the food at these events. This year, due to the tremendous labor shortage caused by the current pandemic, University Dining needs volunteer help more than ever.
Volunteers work in teams to prepare plates of food for the students as they come through the serving lines. It’s a great opportunity to have some light-hearted fun with the students, and to also enjoy some great food! All volunteers get their holiday meal free, and they will also receive a coupon for a free retail meal!
Anyone wishing to volunteer can sign up through a Google Volunteer Form. For additional information contact Rose Benedict, rbenedic@umw.com, or call the University Dining Marketing office at 540-654-5982.
Junior Caitlin O’Leary helps at last year’s food drive.
Stop Hunger University Dining/Sodexo, the University Staff Council, UMW Athletes, and local businesses and churches are partnering together to host our annual Stop Hunger Food Drive, from October 13 through November 1, and they are looking for your support. All of the food and monetary donations will go to benefit the UMW Eagle Resource Closet and the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank.
Anyone wishing to support the drive with food, monetary, or meal plan/Flex donations will find details on the University Dining web site.
Swipe Out Hunger Meal Plan University Dining/Sodexo has donated 3,600 meals to create a new Swipe Out Hunger meal plan for the benefit of UMW students experiencing food insecurity. This new plan will be administered by the University Host, Chris Porter, with assistance from Leslie Martin, who coordinates the Eagle Resource Closet, Patty Land in the EagleOne Card office, and with Rose Benedict, the University Dining/Sodexo Swipe Out Hunger champion. Chris has established a Google nomination form that students can use to apply for meals through the Swipe Out Hunger meal plan. When approved, these students will have meals loaded onto their EagleOne cards, and they will be able to swipe in at the Top of the UC in the same way all other students who are on meal plans swipe in. There will be nothing in the process that identifies these students as being recipients of meal assistance. All information is kept confidential.
Everyone who has been working to bring this new assistance option to UMW is eager to have any and all students who need nutritional support apply for these meals. Please help spread the word about the availability of this new dining plan to your friends, colleagues and students.
For more information about applying for meals, contact Chris at cjporter@umw.edu. For more information about the Swipe Out Hunger program and Sodexo’s partnership with that organization, contact Rose Benedict at rbenedic@umw.edu.
If you, or a student you know, would like to apply for meals, please use this LINK. It will take you directly to the application form.
A recent Islamic Cultural Celebration Dinner was planned and executed by Jordanian pastry cook Hind Abulali and included Saudi Arabian Kabsa and Lebanese kafta made with Halal meats.
Food Management Magazine, a national publication, recently published a feature story about the cultural awareness dining events that have been co-sponsored by University Dining and the James Farmer Multicultural Center and student cultural groups, for over 10 years. Dr. Marion Sanford and the dining team have worked closely together to create special dining events that celebrate the many diverse cultures of our UMW students. We’re very proud to have been recognized by Food Management Magazine for wonderful partnership in promoting diversity and inclusion through our dining events. We hope you enjoy this article.
Get ready to enjoy some great “chickee” dishes from University Dining’s new ghost kitchen – 1301 Hen House! While the campus eateries are closed for the summer, the chefs have tapped into the new “delivery only” dining craze that doesn’t require any physical restaurant space. All the food is ordered online, prepared in the University Center kitchen, and then delivered to guests by Grubhub. Service is offered daily between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m.
The fun and quirky menu includes super loaded “Chicken Feed” curly fries, “Hen House” chicken tenders, “Chicken Coop Greens” salads, and “Barnyard Bites” – sweet or savory donut holes. The culinary team created a special gluten-free breading for the tenders, and the “Hippie Chick” vegetarian mixed greens salad is right on trend with honey-glazed tofu, dried cranberries, a quinoa blend, walnuts, and a Madras curry apricot vinaigrette.
The full menu can be viewed on Facebook @1301 Hen House. Orders may be placed using the regular marketplace Grubhub app. Just search for 1301 Hen House. The campus Grubhub app only serves campus restaurants and is currently closed for the summer. It will become active again when University Dining restaurants reopen on August 21st.
For additional information contact Rose Benedict at 540-654-2169 or rbenedic@UMW.edu.
Customer Dining Survey
December 2020
In the fall of 2020, UMW hired campus dining consulting firm Porter Khouw Consulting, Inc. (PKC) to assist the university with its efforts towards continuous quality improvement in Dining Services. As part of this process, PKC has developed a survey designed to understand your current dining habits. The survey content is based on market research that PKC conducted while recently on campus.
Please use this URL to access the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UMWFacultyStaffDining. Complete and submit your responses by December 18, 2020. Survey responses are anonymous.
Thank you for your time and consideration in helping to enhance Campus Dining services at UMW!
The University of Mary Washington’s commitment to sustainability has earned it a spot on the The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges for 2021.
The University of Mary Washington has earned a spot on a list of the nation’s most environmentally conscious schools. The ranking appears in the 2021 edition of The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges, which profiled 416 U.S. schools demonstrating a commitment to sustainability, based on student academic offerings and career preparation, as well as campus policies, initiatives and activities.
“We strongly recommend the University of Mary Washington to students who want to study and live at a green college,” said Rob Franek, The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief.
In the last decade, the publication has seen a tremendous increase in interest in green practices, programs and offerings from prospective students and their parents, Franek noted. Two-thirds of teens and their families said they’d weigh a college’s commitment to the environment in their decision to apply to or attend a school, according to a survey by The Princeton Review of nearly 13,000 participants.
In 2009, UMW created the President’s Council on Sustainability to inform and advise the University’s leadership on how to manage resources to meet the present needs of the campus community while also reducing its environmental impact for future generations of Eagles.
Mary Washington has since undertaken many green initiatives, including participating in the international RecycleMania competition, hosting an annual Earth Day celebration and holding a “Summer Shred” event to dispose of old documents in a sustainable manner. UMW also works with local non-profit groups like Tree Fredericksburg to help replant trees in the city, and was recognized by the Arbor Day Foundation as a 2017 Tree Campus USA for its commitment to effective urban forest management. And the efforts don’t stop there. Read more.
The Top of the UC and all campus retail dining locations are now open to all members of the UMW faculty and staff. Some things have changed in order to ensure safe social distancing. To make more room at the Eagle’s Nest, Hissho Sushi has moved to the Underground at Lee Hall. All food service is now “take-out” only, and pathways with floor decals indicating where to stand for safe social distancing are in place at each restaurant.
The new campus Grubhub app can be used to order food ahead so it’s ready for pick-up when you arrive. Top of the UC menu items are available on Grubhub, too. However, those food orders need to be placed by 7 p.m. the day prior to pick-up. (Please disregard the prompt that says your order will be ready in 3 minutes! Grubhub is unable to remove that embedded prompt.) Top of the UC orders may be picked up on the first floor of the University Center near the Chandler Ballroom.
Even though there is currently no “dine in” option, there will still be several festive meals offered at the Top of the UC in the coming weeks.
October 19 – Rainbow Cake & Sherbet at dinner to honor GSMA week
October 20 – Oktoberfest Dinner with Sauerbraten, Brats, Latkes and Pork Schnitzel to celebrate the season.
October 23 – Kick-Off for the Stop Hunger Food Drive
October 28 – Asian Cultural Heritage Lunch to honor UMW’s Asian Cultural Celebration week
October 29 – Pumpkin Carving contest winners announced and free hot cider and caramel apples served outside the University Center
November 5 – Jewish Heritage Dinner to honor UMW’s Jewish Cultural Celebration week.
There will also be several free “pop up” events from time to time, like the coffee bar and cake pops that were served in late September. Those who join the Campus Dining UMWFoodies group will get text messages when these events “pop up”! To join the group text UMWFoodies (followed by a space) to 82257.
For further information or questions about Campus Dining services or events, contact Dining@UMW.edu, call 540-654-2169, or visit the Campus Dining website at UMW.SodexoMyWay.com.
UMW Dining Marketing Coordinator Rose Benedict was recently interviewed by Forbes in an article entitled, “Will Coronavirus Improve Customer Service?” Benedict spoke about the ways UMW Dining is accommodating self-quarantined students, as well as those not in quarantine, living on campus during the pandemic:
For example, the University of Mary Washington’s dining service has completely rethought the way it feeds students. The dining team now delivers food directly to self-quarantined students in the dorms. “We’re still on the line at lunch time and dinner time to serve the students who are still residing on campus, and who are not self-quarantined,” says Rose Benedict, a unit marketing coordinator at the University of Mary Washington Dining Services. “But since we are following the social distancing protocols, students are not permitted to eat in our dining room and must get all of their meals to go.” Read more.