HUDS Confirms Specific Menu Changes

Confirming what students have suspected for weeks, Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) said yesterday that it has started replacing certain products with cheaper alternatives.

Most of the cost-saving—not seasonal­—changes in dining hall menus have involved “swapping,” said HUDS spokeswoman Crista Martin in an e-mailed statement.

In chicken dishes, for example, HUDS now uses thigh meat rather than breast meat.

Alongside the usual cherry tomatoes, dining halls now serve the less expensive wedge tomatoes.

HUDS also plans to substitute their current brand of French fries with a cheaper trans fat-free fry, Martin said.

In addition, HUDS has been replacing whole-grain waffle batter and pasta with white-batter products.

Besides “swapping,” HUDS has added an additional pasta option at many lunches and dinners.

Martin said that although it may seem contradictory to add food to save money, the chefs use leftover ingredients—“not leftover foods, but their components”—to create pasta dishes that are cheaper than some of the other entree options.

The soaring cost of food and energy has been “more precipitous than anyone could have imagined,” Martin said.

The board rate is negotiated in the winter prior to each school year, according to Martin, so at the moment, the HUDS must accommodate unforeseen changes in other ways.

“Every year we prepare to the best of our ability to predict what might be happening 16 months away,” Martin said, “and to that end, lay out our plans and hopes for the program so we can budget accordingly.”

HUDS cannot request more money in the middle of the year, Martin added. “That would be akin to asking you to put in more money for your board plan mid-year,” she said.

The rising cost of food is not just a problem within Harvard Yard.

“I think it’s a global issue,” Martin said. “One I feel as an individual shopper in the grocery store trying to feed my family, and one I feel as a professional.”

— ESTHER I. YI