5 things: UW switches two retail dining venues to AYCTE due to food shortages

In this edition of 5 Things, Food Management highlights five things you may have missed recently about developments affecting onsite dining.

Here’s your list for today:

Compass Group PLC, the British parent of the largest contract management firm in the U.S., reports that it expects fourth-quarter underlying revenue on a constant currency basis to improve to 86% of 2019 revenue, and for its 2021 fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 to be around 76% ($26.1 billion) of what it was in fiscal 2019 ($34.35 billion). It also noted that it expects most of its sectors to continue performing well, though it remained cautious about the Business & Industry sector given the continuing uncertainty surrounding the pace of office re-openings in its major markets.

Read more: Compass Group Sees FY 2021 Revenue around 76% of FY 2019

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has switched two a la carte dining venues—Gordon Avenue Market and Four Lakes Market—to all-you-care-to-eat (AYCTE) dining due to food shortages on campus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The switch was put in place in hopes of shortening the wait times while maintaining a large variety in menus and keeping a valued price, according to a university newsletter.

Related:5 things: USDA waives penalties for shortage-based school meal violations

Read more: Two UW dining halls shift to buffet style due to food shortages

The University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health has found that while half of the more than 2,000 parents it surveyed reported their family has eaten home-cooked meals more often since the pandemic started, 20% said their family has had fast food more often. Reports of kids consuming fast food at least twice weekly were more common among parents who had lower incomes and those who thought their child was overweight.

Read more: 1 in 5 parents says their kids eat more fast food during the pandemic, poll finds

Some 200 concessions workers at Oracle Park, home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, briefly walked off the job on Sept. 17 to emphasize their demands for improvements in workplace safety and a pay raise. Workers in the Unite Here Local 2 union voted overwhelmingly earlier this month to authorize a strike, claiming they have not received a raise from Oracle Park concessions firm Bon Appetit Mgt. Co. since 2018 and that lax safety protocols have caused 20 of the workers to test positive for COVID-19 since the ballpark reopened for the 2021 Major League season. They are asking for $3 per hour in retroactive hazard pay, in addition to a raise.

Related:5 tech things: Aramark goes high-tech for new NFL season

Read more: Oracle Park Concessions Workers Walk Off Job; Full-Fledged Strike Over Hazard Pay and COVID Safety Could Be Coming

A new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge in England suggests that making small changes to company cafeteria menus can help reduce employees' risk of becoming overweight. In their experiments, the researchers tweaked options in 19 British workplace canteens by swapping some high calorie products for low calorie alternatives and reducing the portion sizes of high calorie products by 14%, with the changes leading to an 11.5% reduction in the average number of calories purchased per day by employees.

Read more: Time to ditch the lunchtime chips? Cutting your meal size in the office canteen by just 14% can help you to shed the pounds, study finds

Bonus: Boston University’s Aramark dining crew gets cracking at Lobster Night

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]