Students trying to avoid the “freshman 15” might have an easier time after the updates to Dining Services’ Web site are completed.

The annual upgrade will allow the site to accommodate West 82’s nutritional information, said Gwyn Scott, executive director of culinary and dining operations. All five dining halls use the same recipes, and adding all of the new recipes from West 82 to the old system would have overloaded the program, she said.

Dining Services’ recipes and menu items change on a regular basis, so the upgrade will also improve the functionality of the Web site, Scott said.

Dining Services uses an information program called FoodPro, Scott said. The system is updated periodically and is funded by part of the department’s annual fee.

This upgrade cost $888, with 22 computers having the $40 program installed.

The actual upgrade is completed, but the site will not be functional until all of the recipes are loaded into the system, which could happen sometime this quarter if all goes as planned, Scott said.

The Web site will not look very different and will have all of the same features, she said.
Several other changes will be made on Dining Services’ Web site in the future, including the addition of Web sites for Latitude 39, catering and the university bakery.

Several students said they use the program for a variety of reasons.

Sophomore Jen Taylor said she has looked at the nutrition feature once or twice with a friend out of boredom but has not used it for its nutritional purposes. She has mostly used it to decide which dining hall to go to for dinner.

Some students, however, had not heard of the program or Dining Services’ site.

Sophomore Emily Nixon said she wasn’t aware of the site.

“I like nutrition and I’m interested in it, but I don’t think I’d like to know what I’m eating,” Nixon said.

Freshman Nina Cesare didn’t know about the Web site but thought more students would know about it and benefit from it if it was made more obvious.

“I think they should make the site more visible to students with special nutritional needs,” she said.
The nutritional information page can be found at on Dining Services’ Web site, www.facilities.ohiou.edu/food.