2014 College Power Players: UC San Diego

3. University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA

Students Living on Campus: 15,000
Dining Head: Steven Casad, director of culinary and market services
Total Enrollment: 30,310
No. of Meal Plans Sold: 10,305
Annual Dining Program Revenues: $38 million
Cost Range of Residential Meal Plans: $2,460-$3,800/year
No. of Residential Dining Halls/Commons: 6
No. of Retail Outlets: 17
Management: self-operated
Website: http://hdh.ucsd.edu/diningservices/
Phone: (858) 534-4014

This fall, UC San Diego will be unveiling its latest renovated dining facility in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of its Revelle College campus. It will include five unique a la minute display platform concepts, an exhibition/education kitchen, a market & coffee bar combo and over 200 seats, and will utilize customer interfacing technologies, build-your own menu elements and premium entrées.
 
Popular fixed platform offerings are being designed into the menu at all residential dining operations this fall with four featuring unique platforms like a sweet/savory waffle concept and one featuring spices from around the globe.  

The six market locations maintain an inventory of specialized products like kosher, halal, fair trade goods and organic produce. A recently launched staff, faculty, and residential life focused program called Markets To Go offers a preset assortment of no frills pre-order offerings for meetings/events that may picked up at any campus market.  

The Incredi-Bowls food truck, launched a year ago to fill the gap during Revelle’s year-long renovation, now supplements service at Sixth College residential community where a second food truck with a “world flavors” concept will debut in January.  

Over the course of two years, UCSD has supported the successful development of five ACF certified chefs and going forward intends the continued education of culinarians along with the implementation of HACCP program guidelines with the goal of HACCP certification by June 2015.

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