Dining halls constantly try to spice up their menus with a wide variety of tasty meals. Some dining halls are known for specialty meals, such as the omelets at Case. The dining hall reserved primarily for athletes is renowned for having “better food,” but not every student agrees. “I mean, the omelets are OK,” Christopher Grenier, freshman in engineering, said. “I really wish the eggs were real. I get them if the line isn’t too long, but it’s definitely not worth the wait.” Still, Grenier, who is not an athlete and only gets to eat at Case twice a day, prefers it. He still appreciates the variety of the other two dining halls. University Dining spends a great deal of time configuring a menu students on campus will enjoy. “The menus for the dining halls are seasonal,” Jennifer Gilmore, the marketing and communications manger for Campus Enterprises, said. “Meals are heavier for the winter, like chicken and dumplings, but they’ll get lighter for the spring,” Gilmore said. Menus are planned at the beginning of every year based on four-week rotation menus. For each meal, University Dining tries to balance out one hot entree with a vegan or vegetarian entree. They also include specialty bars to add more selection. University Dining relies on student feedback to make sure the menus are up to par. Three times a year, a select group of 30 students critique one of the four-week rotational menus. They are asked to mark what they liked and disliked. “The best feedback is walking around the dining halls and asking students if they are enjoying their meals,” Randy Lake, director of University Dining, said. Taking into account feedback from the students, the cost of equipment and supplies, and how healthy a meal might be, University Dining employees begins to plan menus. However, planning is not as easy at it may seem. “Food is personal,” Gilmore said. “What one person might love, others might not.” As a way to break some of the monotony, University Dining sponsors special dining events. Past events include Italian Night, the Valentine’s Day Dinner and the Blueberry Event. To plan these events, dining hall managers get together to throw around ideas. Some events are annual, while others, like the Blueberry Event, are new this year. If it has been a slow day of dining and a significant amount of food has been left, a local charity collects the food and redistributes it to various soup kitchens. Health is a big priority for University Dining, seen with the unique opportunities offered to students. Students can attend free nutrition classes where they are taught how to make healthier choices in the dining halls, and how to make meals under 500 calories. In addition to health classes, the menus for University Dining are programmed into a website, MyFitnessPal.com, which tracks meals, exercises and gives caloric allotments. According to Lake, the dining halls always attempt to make something both familiar and new to the students. “We want to challenge the students to eat different things,” Lake said.