Retail

In The News: CrossRoads is UConn’s first meatless cafe

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Susan Dunne, Hartford Courant

Each year, UConn’s Dining Services department queries students and employees about food preferences and sensitivities, to provide them with what they want and need. Ethan Haggerty, an official in the department, noticed something: “There are more and more vegetarians and vegans than ever before.”

On Aug. 30, the university opened the first dining space in its history with no meat on the menu. CrossRoads Café, in the Wilbur Cross Building where Wilbur’s Café used to be, is open to the public.

Haggerty, area manager for several campus cafes, said CrossRoads is not just for the plant-based crowd. He’s going after “flexitarians,” people who eat mostly vegetarian meals but occasionally eat meat or fish.

“They’re looking for delicious food and are willing to try plant-based options,” he said. “It’s all about giving people more choices.”

To read more…check out the full article here.

In The News: Dining to Develop Plant-Based Cafe

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The idea of a plant-based café on campus was first brought forth to Dining by Maddie Pickett, a fourth-semester biomedical engineering major. Dining created a survey to see what students at Storrs thought of the idea and many were in favor of seeing this idea come to fruition.
 
This new venture for the fall will involve students through the entire development process and also provide dining with more opportunities to support CT farms, in particular, our student-run Spring Valley Farm.
 
Stay tuned! Next steps are to create a mission statement, invite students to share their favorite plant-based recipes, and then test some of these recipes with students in our innovation lab. Check out the article in the UConn Daily Campus http://bit.ly/3jkh2Ho

Mango Opens in the Rec Center

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Stop by and check out Mango in the Rec Center. We created our own menu of fresh smoothies, grain bowls, salads, wraps, and grilled gooeys!! Choose something from the menu or you can build-your-own bowls, salads and wraps. Mango accepts meal plan points. View the menu at https://dining.uconn.edu/mango/

Mango Hours:

Monday – Thursday: 7:30am – 7:30pm
SMOOTHIES ONLY 7:30am – 10:00am
**CLOSED 1PM – 3PM (Rec Ctr cleaning)**

Friday: 7:30am – 1:00pm
SMOOTHIES ONLY 7:30am – 10:00am

Saturday: CLOSED
Sunday: 3:00 – 7:30pm
SMOOTHIES ONLY

Earth, Wok & Fire Opens in Student Union

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Earth, Wok & Fire officially opened on the lower level of the Student Union this week, offering a fine selection of Asian cuisine.

Its name was created by UConn students, who offered a fitting reference to the two styles of preparation that are offered at this venue.

Customers have a choice of either carefully prepared Asian dishes with zesty and tangy flavors, such as General Tso’s Chicken, Beef & Broccoli, and Vegetable Lo Mein, or creating their own masterpiece. Customers can build their own dish by selecting a protein, vegetables, and a wide selection of sauces and seasonings. Daily specials will also be offered.

Earth, Wok & Fire’s chefs take the time and effort to ensure quality ingredients by making food from scratch every day.

We appreciate your feedback and patience during our opening week.

Earth, Wok & Fire

Hours of Operation: 

Monday-Thursday 11:00am-7:00pm
Fridays 11:00am-5:00pm

Nutritional Information

Cash, Husky Bucks, Visa, MasterCard, AmEx, and Discover are accepted.

Dining Services to End Use of Plastic Bags

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The University of Connecticut’s Department of Dining Services will be eliminating the use of plastic bags in its retail and grab & go venues. Effective, Monday, January 21st UConn Dining will discontinue the use of plastic shopping bags in support of the university’s ongoing sustainable efforts.

This initiative, to discontinue the use of plastic shopping bags, was jump started by a subcommittee of UConnPIRG, a student run, nonprofit organization on the UConn Campus.  Their campaign, to phase out the use of plastic bags, was supported by student surveys and petitions. Beyond policy work, PIRG’s zero waste committee enhanced student awareness regarding the pitfalls of single-use plastics through educational lectures and movie screenings. These initiatives highlighted the deleterious impact of plastic bags on both environmental and public health.

Dining Services will be discontinuing the use of plastic bags in all of their retail operations as well as in their Grab & Go’s. In place of the use of the former plastic bag UConn Dining will be offering a brown paper, 100% recyclable and reusable bag at the cost of ten cents each. In addition, Dining will be offering reusable pocket size shopping bags for sale at cost at the Union Central Exchange located in the Student Union.

Dining Services will also be working with UConn PIRG this semester to establish drop off containers so that paper bags may be recycled utilized by other consumers at no cost to them.

For more information, read the story in UConn Today