A refreshed look of food service at NGU
Emma Ogren, Assistant Editor
Photo by Emma Ogren
A food committee meeting was held on February 9 to go over the changes that North Greenville University has made to their food services since the semester started.
During the meeting, there were discussions about what was new and what could continue to improve for the betterment of the student body at NGU. Brent Wustman, general manager of Aramark at NGU, and Matthew Bradshaw, assistant manager, spoke at the meeting.
There has been the greatest impact with the 1892 Place. Recently, Tigerville Sips was added, which offers iced and blended fruity drinks. These can also include popping boba as a quick treat to get in between classes.
Another new offering is Ramen Hall. This allows students to make their own ramen bowls and add customizations like extra protein.
Additionally, Alani Nu energy drinks can now be found in The 1892 Place.
Melody Bard, sophomore music education major, said, “Alani Nu has always been my go to energy drink. Being able to get them from 1892 instead of having to drive to the store is so much more convenient.”
There were also talks of things happening in the near future in terms of food service. Currently, there is a roll out of a teaching kitchen. The plan is to have them occur at least once a month. Students can sign up and spend an hour learning about and making food.
Wustman explained some things that this teaching kitchen will offer.
“It’ll be all different things. The first one is going to be fun. It’ll be a science one where we make everything that’s sour, tasty. We eat a M Berry, and it makes everything taste sweet. You’ll be able to grab a lemon wedge and it will literally taste like sweet lemon.”
M Berries are derived from miracle fruit. It’s a tropical plant that has miraculin, which is the protein that makes sour foods taste sweet. The M Berries that will be used in this teaching kitchen are little tablets made from the fruit.
There are plans for the second teaching kitchen to be a pasta making class. Students will have the opportunity to make different types of pasta from scratch.
“Some of the ideas I have are even basic things that you can cook only in the dorm room,” Wustman said. “We want to elevate how you cook in the dorm room. Here’s the equipment that you can have in the dorm room, here’s what you can make.”
There was one more big idea for the future: a campus food truck.
The hope is that this food truck will offer coffee and a rotating menu of different cuisines.
There are still some questions that staff is working through with the idea. This includes location, times both coffee and food will be offered, what the menus could look like and if the food can be put on meal swipes.
“We’ll have a rotating menu. Right we’re looking at like five or six different types of menus that we can be running,” Wustman said.
