HUDS Seeks Truth in Waffle-Making

While Harvard is known to leave its mark on students’ lives, the College is now poised to make an imprint on its scholars’ food as well.

Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) plans to install “Veritas” waffle irons in all 12 undergraduate houses this week. The waffle irons—already popular in Dunster and Mather Houses, where they debuted in September—stamp the Harvard shield on top of each waffle, creating an imprint approximately half the diameter of the waffle.

The changeover will preserve the existing waffle makers in each of the dining halls, according to HUDS Spokeswoman Jami M. Snyder. But workers will spend the week upgrading the iron plates in which the waffles are formed.

Carbon’s, a Michigan-based pancake and waffle company, offered Harvard the additional irons free of cost in appreciation of HUDS’s patronage, fueled by students’ cravings for the ridged, circular breakfast treat.

HUDS moved to acquire the additional “Veritas” irons in reaction to enthusiastic feedback from students in Dunster and Mather. In addition, HUDS has heard pleas from students in Houses without the new waffle irons.

“I told Dunster House that if they ever found their [waffle iron] missing it would be in Lowell House,” said Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06, a member of the HUDS Student Advisory Committee and a resident of Lowell.

Chadbourne said the new irons are a small but significant way to improve student life.

“People look forward to brunch as a time to have waffles,” he said, “and this gives the waffles an extra something special.”

Others expressed similar enthusiasm at the prospect of a Ivy-decorated Belgian breakfast.

“I am very excited,” said Matthew J. Woodward ’08, also a member of the advisory committee. “They will increase Crimson spirit in the dining halls.”

The original mold for the “Veritas” plates was relatively expensive, according to Snyder, but producing multiple copies will cost Carbon’s little.

Students said they were encouraged to know that comment cards in the dining halls were not going unnoticed.

“It’s exciting that HUDS is reaching out to students,” Chadbourne said. “They deserve to be commended for seeking to serve students and improve the quality of the dining experience.”

—Staff writer Sam Teller can be reached at steller@fas.harvard.edu.