New Year New D-hall

Frist has replaced the frozen yogurt machines with with crudité cups (raw veggies) and cut fruit in tall, plastic containers. In the Wilcox dining hall, pizza is now a rarity and instead, there’s a pasta bar (AKA an “Action Station”) where students can order personalized portions of whole grain pasta with add-ins like pesto, crushed tomatoes, zucchini, spinach and quinoa.What's with this trend of healthy, new d-hall features?Because Dining Services isn’t technically allowed to answer questions directly, Frist staff redirected me to Chris Lentz, the Associate Director of Marketing & Community Engagement for Campus Dining.He said that Dining Services is always working to offer healthy food to students, but this year they have introduced some specific changes.“Wellness is one pillar of our plan, along with culinary expertise, sustainability and diversity,” Lentz said. “Through our program, we believe that we can help individuals to be their healthy best on and off campus.”Campus Dining is using their culinary strategy, based on scientific principles of healthy and sustainable menus to create food that brings wellness to students.“Some of the principles include a focus on whole and intact grains, flavor, minimally processed foods, less red meat and more kinds of seafood, produce and plant-based options, cultural diversity, fresh and seasonal ingredients, and reduced sugar,” Lentz said.The product of this plan has resulted in numerous changes across all dining halls on campus, including an initiative to reduce sugar in recipes at the bake shop. Wilcox has even replaced a soda machine with a new water system offering sparkling, ambient and chilled water.Some dining halls offer fruit-infused water(?) instead of sugary beverages, like this frothy "Honey Dew Water" found at a Wilcox near you.Another fun debut at Rocky/Mathey is “congee,” a rice porridge made with chicken stock and served warm that is now offered everyday at breakfast. Dining Services has even stepped up the vegetarian and vegan efforts. Whitman introduced a station offering meatless lunch on alternating Mondays.Students seemed to be pleased with many of the changes, especially the pasta bar in Wilcox. But the new Frist adjustments have been met with a bit of dissatisfaction, particularly in regard to the lack of frozen yogurt."If it's the oranges, don't go for it," a sophomore Frist diner said. "They taste like bitter water. I don't like broccoli that much but it's healthy so I bear with it."Stay tuned for more dining updates. And who says nothing happens in Princeton?-FRB