Students at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. really like their cereal – and not just at breakfast. “We go through a lot of cereal,” said Doris Timmen, general manager of Resident Dining with Sodexo, the campus foodservice provider. “On a daily basis, we go through anywhere from 15 to 30 pounds of cereal a day per each of our six units.”
It is easy to see why cereal is so popular. “I think cereal is a comfort food to many of them,” she said. “It certainly is a comfort food to me and I think, depending of course on which cereal you choose, it is a good energy booster. It’s readily available. It’s fresh. It’s tasty. We have fresh fruit available. Some of the students enhance their cereal with some fresh fruit.”
Each of the resident dining halls features a station with cereals and granolas in dispensers from Rosseto. “In most locations, it’s set up like a breakfast area,” said Timmen. “We have our cereal dispensers, the milk is close as well as the yogurt for granola parfaits.” They feature cereal from both General Mills and Kellogg’s. “We have a substantial selection of cereals,” she said. “What I always find amusing is the friendly war that goes on between the healthy cereal eaters and those who can never get enough of their more sugary cereals. The way we get around that is by rotating the cereals constantly. We offer about 8-10 different kinds of cereal and granola. We have also started to put out a bowl of oat flakes and that seems very popular.”
Students also enjoy making yogurt parfaits. “We make our own granola,” said Timmen. “We do offer different kinds of granola, with fruit and nuts. We got student comments from the ones who wanted it with the fruit and those who wanted it without. We switched that out and tried to mix it up a little bit.” Cereals are always available. “They are available throughout the day,” said Timmen. “I just had people come on campus and they asked why we have cereal out all day. Cereal is something the students eat at any given time of day. It is definitely a requirement by our students.”
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