Wheaton Wire

Issue date: 2/21/07 Section: Features

Head of Dining Services John Bragel

He knows what you eat and when you eat it. You've seen him before, breezing through Emerson in a crisp white shirt and a clipboard. He examines the salad bar, labels the soup du jour, and makes sure there is plenty of peanut butter by the toaster.

No, he's not a health inspector; he's Head of Dining Services John Bragel doing a daily walk-through. His food service company, Aramark, has worked in partnership with Wheaton for the past three years to provide "a satisfying dining experience [for every student] and a friendly environment."

Recently, there have been several noted changes in the dining department, including the recent substitution of trans fats with the healthier Mazola ZT [See above].

Bragel is proud of this decision, ensuring: "It's a more expensive product, but it was just the right thing to do… You hear all those college urban legends that we're serving, you know, horse meat and dented cans from the bottom of the barrel. We use all the same names you see in the supermarket," Bragel says.

More planning goes into the dining experience than one might realize. The menus are on a three-week cycle, chosen out of a bank of 20,000 entrée options. Many of the new healthier choices are not in fact new, but have been test driven for the past semester. Low carb bread and low fat yogurt have been available, for example.

Vegans and vegetarians are in luck as a plethora of vegetation is becoming available. Quality fresh produce is imported everyday from Sid Wainer food company of New Bedford, and soon students will be allowed to create a plate from the salad bar and have it stir fried.

A pasta sautee station also just arrived in Emerson, which includes whole-wheat noodles.

A special labeling system has also been instated, which provides the nutritional information about each entrée, including a symbol to specify vegan and vegetarian dishes.

Other things to look forward to in the future are screens in the dining halls where students can type in their meals into the computer and view all the nutrition facts.

Nutritionist Peggy O'Shea will visit the campus on occasion and meet with students by appointment.

A Vitamin Water brand representative will be visiting campus and offering samples on March 6th from 10:30 to 1:00 pm in the café.

Don't get your hopes up waiting for the return of the Quesadilla station, however. "Oh, that's a dead topic," Bragel laughs. "One station for stir fry, pasta, and Mexican was just asinine."

Bragel encourages students to offer suggestions, as he takes them seriously. "It's your program, not mine. I'm not going to serve Spaghettios every night just because I say so."

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