Food Advisory Board Wraps up for the Winter Term
By: Monika Terzic
Our final Food Advisory Board (FAB) meeting has come to a close for the Winter 2023 term and what a year it has been! The Food Advisory (FAB) is made up of a number of sub-committee groups of UWaterloo students and UW Food Service staff members including UW Food Services Director, Lee Elkas!
Since 2010, the committee has recruited new and existing members each Fall and Winter term to assess and evaluate UW Food Services based on their chosen subcommittee topics. Based on their research, they make recommendations and influence change within our Food Service Departments and locations across campus. At the same time, our student members commit to outreach program activities including cooking shows, cultural events involving or highlighting Food Services, and educational programming related to Food Services. This term we had students attending and participating at our KISS Cooking Show at Federation Hall featuring our Executive Chef, Javier Alarco who walked students through a live demonstration of how to make delicious meals under five dollars. Students also attended our Cake Boss Competition at Village One (V1) and Sushi Night at Claudette Millar Hall (CMH). This term we had Mystery Shoppers, Social Media Ambassadors and Travelling Tummies among our subcommittees.
Travelling Tummies:
A subcommittee made up of one Staff Advisor and UWaterloo students who compare specific UW Food Service locations with other local College or University eateries. You will decide as a group on a suitable travel date, travel in the Food Services van to the location. You will base your evaluation off of a predetermined list of criteria (e.g. food selection, service, price, meal plan operations, wayfinding and signage, etc.) and compare to UW Food Service locations. The group will collectively develop a final presentation and present their findings to the full committee during the final meeting. All costs of travel are covered by UW Food Services.
Mystery Shoppers:
A subcommittee made up of one Staff Advisor and UWaterloo students who go to specific UW Food Service locations at a certain time to assess a variety predetermined criteria (e.g. Food selection, service, price, wayfinding and signage, etc.). The group will develop a final presentation and present their findings and recommendations to the full committee during the final meeting among other observations. Costs accumulated will be reimbursed with receipts to a specified dollar amount.
Social Media Ambassadors:
A subcommittee of 1-2 Staff Advisors and UWaterloo students will develop and launch our social media ambassador program. Committee members will be responsible for reviewing and posting about their UW Food Services experience on their Instagram accounts, and tagging @UWaterlooFood—formally known online as an “Instagram Takeover”. The group will develop a final presentation and present on user engagement, analytics and recommendations to the full committee during the final meeting. Costs accumulated will be reimbursed with receipts to a specified dollar amount.
Our Members (Winter 2023)
We are extending our thanks to our Winter 2023 FAB student and staff members listed below:
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The Future of FAB
We are currently working on revamping the Food Advisory Board as we know it. We plan to develop our sub-committees into a format that provides flexibility for student and staff FAB members. As such, Social Media Ambassadors will no longer be apart of FAB, but will be relaunched as student program within UW Food Services through the Marketing Department.
Launching in the Fall, UWaterloo students will be able to register online to be a Social Media Ambassador where they will be given a UW Food Services owned and operated dining location to review and detail in an Instagram Student Takeover. They will create and post 7–10 Instagram stories reviewing their experience using various engagement tools like polls, question boxes and other Instagram features. Students can select a date that they are available to participate in their role and complete their assisned tasks. Students will recieve reimbersement(s) for their efforts in their designated role as per usual once they have completed the tasks for their sub-committee, as stated. We will announce more updates on the FAB project as we move forward into the Fall 2023 term. Stay tuned!
