Healthy Eating

Providing you with healthy options is something your dining team proudly does every day. We help you select delicious, nutritious & satisfying meals, snacks, and desserts by highlighting well-balanced menu choices. We provide nutritional information and tips to help you make choices that fit your needs.

Meet The Dietitian

Lucas Flaherty, RD, CD is available for complimentary consultations on topics such as:

• Dietary restrictions and food allergies
• Healthful eating on campus
• Sports performance nutrition
• Vegan and vegetarian eating
• Weight management
• General nutrition concerns and disease management
• Dining hall navigation

Lucas graduated from Iowa State University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science and completed his didactic internship to become a registered dietitian in 2012 in Springfield, MO. Lucas' approach to healthy eating does not revolve around diets or calorie counting. His job as a campus dietitian is to simplify the way students think about food and how to use it in the most therapeutic ways. He aims to empower students to make informed dietary choices for lifelong well being. Outside of work, he enjoys all outdoor activities and spending time in the kitchen.

Contact him at lucas.flaherty@sodexo.com

Food Allergies, Intolerances and Medical Needs

We are here to help! We want to meet one-on-one with anyone who has individual dining needs to ensure that your dining experience is safe, delicious, and social. For students with medical conditions that impact their ability to dine well on campus, we strongly encourage a conversation with our Registered Dietitian, Executive Chef, and/or General Manager. In many instances, our dining team can easily assist with special needs.

Occasionally, Dining Services cannot meet a student’s medical needs within normal service. We may require additional medical documentation to enable us to develop a more specific meal plan accommodation. In this situation, please visit Accessibility Services for instructions on how to submit a meal plan accommodation request. This process is for those with medically documented diagnosis/-es that need to request special dining accommodations or have medically prescribed diet plans for the treatment of a medical condition. Together, our departments work to serve our students with medical needs related to dining on campus.

Simple Servings

The Simple Servings station at Ritchie Dining Hall provides safe and appetizing food choices for our customers with food allergies, gluten intolerance, and those who prefer simple food. All foods served at this station are prepared with ingredients that do not contain milk, eggs, wheat, soy, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, or gluten. The station uses separate equipment/utensils, preparation areas, and storage areas to minimize the potential of allergens or gluten in our Simple Servings foods.

The menu rotates daily and includes a variety of protein (i.e., chicken, beef, lentils), vegetables (i.e., broccoli, carrots, green beans), and starches (i.e., rice, potato, quinoa).

The station is incorporated into the servery to allow students, even those without allergy or gluten concerns, to enjoy the wholesome food selections. We ask that guests do not bring food from other stations and only use the plates provided by our servers at Simple Servings.

Simple Servings team members are carefully trained to prepare and serve safe food. We provide training throughout the year for all employees and our managers and supervisors also hold AllerTrainU™ certificates.

While the Simple Servings station is designed to allow customers an easy way to avoid allergens and gluten, we encourage our customers with special dietary needs to connect with our chef, registered dietitian, and general manager to ensure an enjoyable dining experience.

Dining Menus and Allergen Labeling

Our menus provide contains statements specifically highlighting the big nine allergens (milk, eggs, shellfish, fish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy, sesame) and gluten. Guests may check on the presence of allergens prior to planning their meals using the Everyday app. The information is also posted on menu boards in the dining center. The absence of an allergen listed on posted or electronic signage is not a guarantee that the product is free of that allergen as other recipes are prepared in the kitchen that do contain food allergens. The guest is responsible for communicating their allergy to a manager to ensure safety.

Mindful

Achieving wellbeing is a highly personalized journey. Mindful offers you a holistic approach, with recipes for delicious, good-for-you meals, credentialed experts who share verified knowledge, and physical activities for all levels.

Everything’s easy to understand and incorporate into your life. Mindful and the Dining Team will help you eat better. Move better. Feel better. Be the absolute best you can be.

Looking for satisfying and balanced dishes that taste great? Look for the Mindful icon. Our chefs and dietitians worked together to create Mindful choices that meet the latest nutritional standards and guidelines. For flavor-packed recipes, wellness tips, challenges, and more, check out mindful.sodexo.com.