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Beyond the 50 Power Players: University of California Berkeley

Mike Buzalka, Executive Features Editor

January 8, 2015

1 Min Read
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University of California Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

Dining Head: Shawn LaPean, executive director of Cal Dining
Total Enrollment: 36,204
No. of Students Living on Campus: 6,750
No. of Meal Plans Sold: 10,104
Annual Dining Program Revenues: $59.5 million
Cost Range of Residential Meal Plans: n/a (room and board combined in one fee)
No. of Residential Dining Halls/Commons: 5*
No. of Retail Outlets: 11
Management: self-operated
Website: caldining.berkeley.edu
Phone: (510) 643-8323
* Includes athletic training tables.

Cal Dining won three Higher Education 2013 Best Practice awards at the recent California Higher Education Sustainability Conference. One, for sustainable foodservice, was based on the department's food waste reduction efforts using the LeanPath program, which since August 2011 has reduced pre-consumer food waste by more than a third.

Notable are the 100 percent certified organic salad bars at all four dining halls. Also, Crossroads Dining Hall is the first green-certified building at UC Berkeley and has the nation’s first organic certified kitchen on a college campus.

UC-Berkeley also recently signed a contract with the College and University Resource Alliance group purchasing organization geared specifically to the higher education foodservice market.

About the Author

Mike Buzalka

Executive Features Editor, Food Management

Mike Buzalka is executive features editor for Food Management and contributing editor to Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News. On Food Management, Mike has lead responsibility for compiling the annual Top 50 Contract Management Companies as well as the K-12, College, Hospital and Senior Dining Power Players listings. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature from John Carroll University. Before joining Food Management in 1998, he served as for eight years as assistant editor and then editor of Foodservice Distributor magazine. Mike’s personal interests range from local sports such as the Cleveland Indians and Browns to classic and modern literature, history and politics.

Mike Buzalka’s areas of expertise include operations, innovation and technology topics in onsite foodservice industry markets like K-12 Schools, Higher Education, Healthcare and Business & Industry.

Mike Buzalka’s experience:

Executive Features Editor, Food Management magazine (2010-present)

Contributing Editor, Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News (2016-present)

Associate Editor, Food Management magazine (1998-2010)

Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1997-1998)

Assistant Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1989-1997)

 

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