5 things: NYC school cafeterias going all vegan on Fridays

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:

New York City public school cafeterias are going vegan-only on Fridays under a new policy from newly installed mayor Eric Adams, who had previously launched a vegetarian school food pilot program while he was Brooklyn borough president, a pilot that resulted in city school cafeterias already being completely “meatless” on Mondays and Fridays. The new vegan regime builds on that by eliminating dairy-based items like mac and cheese, pizza and mozzarella sticks from the menu, though milk will still be offered as it is required to be served under federal USDA guidelines.

Read more: NYC public school cafeterias going vegan on Fridays

Compass Group reported fiscal 2022 first quarter organic revenue grew by 51.1% in its North American unit, leading the London-based global firm's overall 38.6% organic revenue increase in the three months ended Dec. 31. Growth was particularly strong in North America in Sports & Leisure and Education, where Q1 revenues actually reached 102% of pre-COVID Q1 2019 revenues. Overall, group global revenues were at 97% of 2019 first quarter revenues.

Related:5 tech things: Farmer’s Fridge fresh vending growing in hospitals, airports

"The quarterly improvement was largely driven by new business, continued strong client retention along with some ongoing recovery in the base business," the company reported, adding that "the emergence of the Omicron variant had a limited impact on the Group during the period."

Read more: Compass Group 1Q Organic Revenue Up 38.6%

According to insiders, the closure of Dropbox's San Francisco offices—including its famously posh Tuck Shop cafeteria—has made it harder for the company to retain employees, as one of its biggest draws had been the cafeteria where chefs from Michelin-starred restaurants served up gourmet dishes that were all free for employees. "It's emotional support for a lot of employees, in addition to access to good food," a former Dropbox employee who left in late 2020 said of the Tuck Shop's closure. "The removal, I think, had a psychological effect on people." Dropbox had announced back in October 2020 that it would turn all of its offices into flexible coworking spaces, to which employees are allowed to come and go as they please.

Read more: Dropbox insiders say the end of office perks like free food from Michelin-starred chefs and the shift to remote work has upended its culture and made it harder to keep employees around

Related:5 things: Major universities resume in-person dining

Chartwells Higher Education has announced Delight-Ful, a nationwide event designed to celebrate, carry out, and encourage random acts of kindness that will take place on National Random Acts of Kindness Day on February 17, 2022. The third signature event from the company's Joy-Ful campaign, the Delight-Ful challenge will take place simultaneously across all 300 Chartwells campuses, encouraging Chartwells associates, students and staff to collectively perform 500,000 random acts of kindness nationwide. Examples include pay it forward cards for use in dining halls, surprise pop up coffee bars and student compliment blitzes. "We strive to give students the opportunity to help, surprise, and delight one another, both inside and outside of our dining halls, so we wanted to create an event centered around random acts of kindness," says Chartwells Higher Education CEO Lisa McEuen.

Read more: Chartwells Higher Education Challenges Campuses to Perform 500,000 Random Acts of Kindness as Part of Delight-Ful Event

The WKU Restaurant Group at Western Kentucky University has announced that select campus restaurants will be switching to online ordering only for at least the duration of the spring semester. It says the decision was made to “improve the guest experience” as well as to increase the speed of service and reduce line wait times.

Read more: Select campus restaurants switching to mobile order only

Bonus: Halal food’s evolving flavors and fusions

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]