Press

  1. Sustainability takes shape in a straw house at University of Michigan

    June 15, 2018

  2. The 2018 Blended Burger Project™

    June 11, 2018

    The Blended Burger Project™ is a movement that strives to make burgers better by blending ground meat* with chopped mushrooms, and the concept is hotter than ever. It’s time to reimagine the iconic burger to create a menu item that is incredibly delicious, healthier for your guests, and more sustainable for the planet.

  3. University of Michigan students build sustainable house on Ann Arbor campus

    June 6, 2018

    What do you get when you combine straw bales and layers of adobe? University of Michigan’s newest construction project — and it’s being built by students.

    The build is part of the Green Building class by associate professor Joe Trumpey at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design.

    The structure will serve many purposes once finished. It will host new Michigan Dining farm-to-table dinners, be the anchor for the annual fall festival held at Matthaei by the U-M Sustainable Food Program and serve as a place for student farmers to meet while working on planting and harvesting crops.

  4. House of straw: A new face of sustainability on campus

    The structure will anchor the farm, providing a meeting place for farm-to-table dinners hosted by Michigan Dining, which provides food service to U-M’s residence halls, cafés and markets across campus. It will provide a home for the annual fall festival held there by the U-M Sustainable Food Program. It will also simply be a place where student farmers can say, “Hey, meet you at the straw bale building,” before they start their volunteer work days planting, harvesting and tending crops.

    But the beauty of it all? The building is almost entirely built by students, for students.

  5. UM students build sustainable straw-bale house at Campus Farm

    May 31, 2018

    A University of Michigan green building class plans to unveil a sustainably-built, straw-bale house located at the Campus Farm next Monday, May 29. Led by Joseph Trumpey, an assistant professor of art in the School of Art & Design and natural resources in the School for Environment and Sustainability, the team of about 20 students began construction on May 2 and has since spent six days a week at the build site, many of the students living in nearby tents. The straw-bale house will be the first official student-constructed building in Ann Arbor.

    Trumpey hopes the new building will serve as a community gathering spot and a focal point for the Campus Farm, which has few other buildings on site. In the future, classes and meetings will take place in the straw-bale building, as will sustainability-focused events hosted by Michigan Dining, one of Trumpey’s partners.

  6. Students can incorporate sustainability into any career: here’s how

    May 23, 2018

    As students graduate and head off for a diversity of careers, their efforts in sustainability don’t have to be left behind. Even if you don’t have a job title that has the word green or sustainable in it, there are countless ways to bring sustainability into your job.

  7. 50 Great Ideas to Steal

    Theft-worthy knowledge can come from anywhere. And noncommercial foodservice directors across all segments are brimming with applicable, actionable ideas. From edible gardens to temporary tattoos, retention plans to creative training, the 50 great ideas that follow represent the best of the best ideas to steal.

    Our Culinary and Nutrition Support Specialist Lindsay Haas is featured in this list at #10.

  8. University of Michigan students go off the grid with straw-bale building

    May 14, 2018

    The building, located next to the UM Campus Farm at Matthaei Botanical Gardens, will provide an informal meeting space for students and faculty in what is UM’s first off-the-grid building in Ann Arbor.

    Constructing the building near the UM Campus Farm allows for pairing the building with events hosted by MDining to highlight its farm-to-table efforts with the food coming from the adjacent fields, Campus Farm Manager Jeremy Moghtader said.

  9. The 2018 College Power Players

    May 4, 2018

    The extent of a college dining program can be measured in a number of ways. Four years ago, when we published our initial College Power Players listing, we ranked the programs by the number of students living on campus, as resident populations have a significant effect on the scope of a campus dining program because those students are technically around as potential customers 24/7.

    This time, we decided on a different metric—the number of meal plans sold—as meal plan participation is the traditional bedrock of college dining programs. Comparison with the previous listing shows that many of the same schools are on both, which is as good a way to identify the major players in college dining as any.

  10. MDining on ice

    April 24, 2018

    MDining’s John Merucci, chef de cuisine at South Quad, and Martin Folk, general Manager for Residential Dining, recently braved northern Canadian temperatures to compete in an ice carving competition at the Long John Jamboree 2018 in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. MDining received a bronze medal for the design showing the progression of the dining industry using the style of Diego Riviera’s Detroit Institute of Arts mural. The final design was developed and sketched out by William Kliber, assistant manager of MDining Retail.