University of Illinois Chicago
OP-7: Low Impact Dining

Foodbuy is the purchasing arm of Compass (UIC's food service provider), they handle QA, as well as sourcing, tracking, and monitoring vendors. Compass is set up to do the majority of our purchasing through Foodbuy for tracking/inventory purposes. Additionally, in-house they record all of their monthly invoices, using separate data files to isolate invoices from local and other sustainable sources in an effort to ensure they are correctly reporting our sustainable food and beverage purchasing.

In Fall 2013, UIC Dining Services introduced the Exclusively Vegan station in our three All-You-Care-To-Eat locations. Here our guests can take comfort in knowing that among the many options found throughout our locations, this station has been dedicated as an isolated location to feature our hot vegan entrees and sides in the hopes of making it easier for our vegan-conscious diners to locate options without question as to what is and is not vegan-friendly. Every meal period includes at minimum of one protein-complete vegan option. Examples of some of these dishes offered during the past semester include: Vegan-Hoppin John (Black eye peas, rice and caramelized tomato and Cajun spices),Vegan-Green Split Pea Soup, Vegan-Hominy Squash Stew, Vegan-Chipotle Taco Salad, Vegan-Tofu Fried Rice, and Vegan-Santa Fe Chili. . In addition, the majority of our sides and starches are modified to comply with vegan restricted diets. Butter is eliminated in most cases with the exception of mashed potatoes and vegetable stocks are utilized as an alternative to chicken or beef bases in many situations. Vegan and gluten free veggie burger options are available in all locations for every meal by request and a salad bar option is available as well to address the needs of vegan restricted diets. The dining menus are posted with the vegan and vegetarian dining options for every meal on the website and the meals are posted daily in the cafes. There is a wide array of vegan and vegetarian options.

In addition to offering animal-based proteins at our action stations for both lunch and dinner every day, we also provide a vegan alternative. For example if we were to offer a chicken stir fry dish, we would also offer a tofu stir fry dish. We host regular PB&J bars in the all-you-care-to-eat locations with signage to emphasis the importance of eliminated animal based meals occasionally from one’s diet. We rotate in Meatless Monday signage in the three All-You-Care-To-Eat locations to encourage guests to opt for one of our many meatless alternatives.

We go to great lengths to provide proper signage and identification through a color coded icon system both in the dining locations as well as the online menus so that our guests are aware of the vegan options available at any given time.