Food User Group

Minutes

Friday, March 20, 2015
10:00am – 11:30am

AA 401

______
Attendance:

Michele Cheh, Special Projects Office of Business & Administration

Frank Peruzzi, Assistant Director, Food Partnerships

Shonagh Crawford, Incoming Staff Representative

Kim Choy, Retail & Conference Services

Indy Karu, Food Services Director of Aramark LTD

Scott MacDonald, Coordinator Campus Life and Special Events

Maroukh Khan, Department of Student Life

Shafak, Health & Wellness

Mohsin Jeelani, Project Coordinator, One Card

Aime Kayembe, Graduate Student Representative

Tom Snell, Student Housing and Residence Life

Regrets

Nadia Hardar, Sustainability Office

Ary Maharaj, Student Representative

Frank Villiva, Retail & Conference Services

Elsa Kiosses, Health & Wellness Representative

Michelle Fan, RCA Representative

Katrina Pilatos, President SCAA

Amir Bashir, Executive Director SCSU

Kaleab Muluatu, VP Operations SCSU

Jeremy Wills, Operations Coordinator SCSU

  1. Welcome & Introductions

The meeting was chaired by Frank P as Ary sent regrets

  1. Business Arising from Minutes

There was no business arising for this agenda item

  1. Sub Committee Review

a)Survey

  • The sub-committee is working on deploying a survey to gauge the UTSC community’s experience with food on campus
  • The survey will be sent to students, staff and faculty
  • The sub-committee is looking to launch the survey towards the end of March through Student Voice. Scott did a run through of the survey with the sub-committee but is open to feedback and suggestions from the larger committee
  • Tom noted that there is a lot contained within the survey but it is a good way of taking a snapshot of what's happening with food on-campus. He also noted that it would be good towards the end of the survey to ask respondents to identify if they are staff/faculty in order to include a TBucks question for faculty and staff
  • Shonagh noted that the next departmental representative meeting in April would be a good opportunity to get help spreading the word about completing the survey to its intended audience. She would confirm the date of the next meeting for the committee
  • Frank P noted the survey should go out next week for a period of two weeks to overlap with finals as little as possible
  • A suggestion was made to include a text box of what do students living in Residence would want to see in the new Dining Hall. Mohsin noted that this information was collected previously through a Focus Group last year and Scott noted that he can get the question included into thethrough Student Voice
  • Frank P noted that Michele can do a UTSC email blast to faculty/staff. Scott noted that a request can be made for Desmond to send it out to students as well
  • Frank P noted that there would also be signage at food outlets about filling out the survey
  • Shonagh asked if we will be offering prize to answer survey and the survey committee had discussed prizes and decided that it will be a$100 TBucks Guest Card and four $50 TBucks on Guest Cards to be won. The last question of the survey will be the respondent’s contact information to be entered into draw for prizes
  • Tom and Scott to touchbase on Monday with regards to the survey

b)Catering

  • There will be a catering showcase in the Old Gym on March 25, 11am-2pm
  • Kim noted vendors will be set up in the gym for attendees to come through
  • Michele noted that the event will be a combination of the the Swag Showcase and Catering Showcase which was held last year into one event

c)Residence

  • The sub-committee looked at the survey to give and the survey was also sent to staff for comments
  • The Residence Advisors are looking at hosting a food initiative event. There has not been a date nailed down but Tom will update the committee once there are more details

d)Sustainability

  • There were no updated from this committee
  1. General Business

a)SCSU

  • There was no representative from the SCSU present at this meeting

b)TCard+

  • Mohsin noted that the TCard+ program has new merchants - INS and TPASC food outlets
  • TCard+ also held a contest recently to win iPad through vending. 1500 entries were received. They are working with Aramark to obtain more prizes to do a prize giveaway once a semester
  • Mohsin noted that the Green Path students were coming in May and Summer Residence move-in day was also around the corner
  • There would be a new TCard+ website launching soon that follows the TCard+ identity and guidelines of UTSC websites. The TCard+ website is also linked through the Student Housing & Residence Life website
  • TCard+ has been used for 4 DPES field trips
  • TCard+ is now experimenting with access through a lock that wasinstalled on the Aramark kitchen door
  • They are also still talking to Tom about laundry and access in Residence. A committee was struck with Gary, Michelle and a few others to expand the use of the TCard on campus
  • Frank P noted that he was happy to report that when the TCard brand was first launched it was kept generic so that it can be extended and now the St. George campus will be taking the TCard+ pennant brand to be used downtown. He is also talking to Mississauga about incorporating it into their communications

c)Aramark

  • Indy noted that the new UTSC food truck is coming and Frank P noted it is called Foodies
  • The food truck will be able to cater a varied menu and is able to be taken to various locations
  • Aramark has a new chef starting at the end of the month from downtown who is currently on campus a couple days a week but will permanently start March 30th. He will be at the Events Showcase on March 25th showing off a menu of his creation
  • Mexican has now been added into CaterTrax as an option which has become popular with clients

d)Assistant Director Update

  • Frank P noted that he has started to add different food truck options on campus and the idea was to keep food options unique
  • Food Truck Palooza is happening next week with a new truck concept teased each day through Twitter. Frank P noted that Twitter and posters have been effective in promoting the campus food initiatives. Shafak agreed that social media is the best way to communicate with students
  • Food Partnerships has been working with IITS to create a new food hours page which Frank showed the committee. The page contains more details about what's open in each food place and the site should be ready to go live for study break next week. The next step is to get the page added into the UTSC app
  • Aime asked about having a TCard+ app and Mohsin noted that there is an app through BlackBoard but been waiting to launch it because of technical difficulties. He is also waiting for the website to be completed before continue working on the app.
  • Frank P noted that they have been pushing the convenience factor when it comes to using the TCard for the students because they are the customers
  • Maroukh added that using TCard is difficult to load funds where there's no credit card or cash and that it would be nice to have a place to load the TCard in the IC
  • Mohsin noted online debit is coming by May/June and will help solve some of these issues
  • Frank P noted that he has done some campus visits to other Universities in relation to the new residence dining hall,which is scheduled to happen in the next two years, for ideas on concepts
  • The new student residence will probably have a late night option in the dining hall with pizza, coffee and snacks
  • Tom noted that he thought that the dining hall would be open to everyone and not just students living in that residence and Frank explained that if it is just one food provider it is easy to coordinate but with multiple food providers this is tough because the students would then be limited to only eating in the residence. He is working on out a hybrid model where you can use your plan both in the dining hall as well as outside of it
  1. Other Business
  • No new business items were raised

Next Meeting – October 7, 2015, 10:00am – 11:30am, AA160