Cal Dining to Manage Café Services; Longer Hours, ‘Green’ Procedures

Cal Dining, UC Berkeley's residential dining program, will succeed Eurest as Berkeley Lab’s food service contractor, beginning Jan. 2. Cal Dining serves 26,000 customers daily in its "all you can eat" residence dining commons and various a la carte services throughout campus. It also caters for events large and small with a full service or delivery-only option.

Lab employees will first notice the extended hours of café operation – 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily (7:30 to 10:30 for breakfast, 11 to 3 for lunch). The coffee bar, serving Peet’s coffee and tea, will also be open longer, from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily. And the coffee stand will now be open on weekends, from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Cal Dining is “green and organic,” meaning that its food offerings include a 100% organic salad bar and its sustainable business practices include composting of all pre- and post-consumer waste, washable serviceware, and biomass/compostable paper products. Cal Dining recently won the Chancellor’s Sustainability Award on campus and the city of Berkeley’s Champions of Sustainability award.

It is also the recipient of the prestigious Restaurants and Institutions’ 2007 "Ivy Award," given annually to food service operations that demonstrate the highest standards of excellence in food, service and overall hospitality. Ivy Awards are distinctive because winners are selected by industry peers.

Facilities dining manager Bill Llewellyn announced that Victoria Fassiano, formerly of Eurest, has been hired to manage the new program. Cal Dining’s Director, Shawn LaPean, said that all Eurest dining employees at the Lab will be offered employment with UC (Cal Dining) and will retain their current positions at the Laboratory.

 “It will probably take us about two to three weeks to stabilize the operation, and a month to be 100 percent, so we apologize to staff for any service interruptions that might occur during this transition time,” Llewellyn  said. During this time, Cal Dining will be conducting surveys and assessments with Lab staff to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible and that the cafe continues to provide the best food service possible for its customers.  An e-mail address for comments, questions, or suggestions has already been established for the Lab community — [email protected]

The program has been cited for its operation of socially responsible services, including having the first and only green-certified buildings on UC Berkeley’s campus and having the nation’s first certified organic kitchens and salad bars on a college campus.

Cal Dining is part of Residential & Student Service Programs, which encompass a variety of student services, such as residential undergraduate, graduate and family housing; faculty/staff and student off-campus housing assistance; campus child care; conference services; and administrative and­ technical support for these programs.

For more information about Cal Dining, visit http://caldining.berkeley.edu