With Budgets Tightening, HUDS Shifts Menus

Gumbo from Louisiana, pork from Missouri, baked beans from Boston, Monterey Jack cheese from California, and apple pie to bring it all to a sweetly patriotic close will greet students at tonight’s festive meal, “American Bounty.”

Aside from celebrating American cuisine, the meal has another distinct advantage: it’s cheaper than some of the culinary festivals—such as the Clambake—that Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) has served in past years.

In the wake of University-wide budget cuts, HUDS has scaled back its more expensive festive meals and shifted focus to cheaper options as well as a more diverse daily menu.

Eliminating the annual Clambake, for example—now an eight-year tradition at Harvard—will save HUDS the expense of purchasing lobsters.

With improved everyday options, HUDS hopes, students won’t mind.

“We needed to find a way to shave off a little there so we could do more everyday,” said Alexandra McNitt, director of HUDS marketing and communications.

“It’s about tradeoffs,” said Director of Dining Services Ted Mayer said. “You can’t keep adding because there’s only so far you can go. We have to be willing to exchange.”

HUDS director of finance Raymond Cross cites rising employee health care costs and a reduced payout from the University endowment as reasons for the shift.

But McNitt says the changes are driven as much by student feeback as by financial constraints.

“We had a lot of students who said, ‘I think the festive meals are cool, but I wish you would do more on a day-to-day basis,’” she said.

So while HUDS cut the number of festive meals from six to four, they said students’ food will be fresher and more varied.

Among the new introductions are trans fatty acid-free French fries and fresh fish—which HUDS chef Martin Breslin said must arrive in kitchens the day or day before they are served.

Vegetables, Breslin says, are now lightly sautéed in olive oil and pepper or steamed to reduce the fat content. These changes, he said, are developed with help from professors at the School of Public Health, who analyze items for nutritional content before they are served.

In an effort to avoid repetition, Breslin worked to devise three separate seasonal menus this year to appeal to student tastes.

The fall cycle will include soups and locally grown fruit, the winter cycle heartier foods such as stews and potpies, and the spring menu will focus on lighter fare such as fish and salad. Each cycle, Breslin says, will include more vegetarian and vegan menu options, many of which are designed by Mollie Katzen, a nationally-recognized vegetarian chef.

“Hopefully the new menus will help with the monotony that students feel after the holidays,” Mayer said, adding that HUDS will start serving the heartier fare of the winter menu in the beginning of December.

The new menus should also save HUDS money, as buying from local venues in season reduces transportation costs.

“We’ve been focusing on buying food better,” said Raymond Cross, HUDS director of finance. “If we buy local products when they’re in season the supply is greater and you tend to get a better price.”

Also in response to student feedback, HUDS now offers waffles every day, George Foreman grills, and more beans, grains, and sauces.

Despite the changes, HUDS hopes to continue its festive meals—for their educational purpose, if nothing else.

In addition to ethnic cuisines on Friday nights (French and Greek are coming up) HUDS featured an apple spread in the fall and will offer an assortment of local squashes next week.

“We’re trying to do some food education with these spotlights,” McNitt said.

“The foods will be picked at the peak of freshness and there will be information on where they come from in addition to nutritive information.”

—Staff writer Wendy D. Widman can be reached at widman@fas.harvard.edu.