Q: Will you give us a refund since we have less meal options?
A: Your board rate has been reduced by 7.5% for next year, while still providing three substantial meals a day plus a late-night snack. The breakfast transient meal rates will also be adjusted.
Q: Can’t you offer breakfast in a single “neighborhood” house each morning?
A: The College considered several scenarios for cost-savings in dining, including “neighborhood” breakfasts. This one was selected because it provides the best opportunity for a diverse menu with a balance of options but also because it provides the best opportunity for a long-range financial “right-sizing” without progressively chipping away at the dining program.
Q: Why didn’t you ask for student input?
A: The College invited recommendations beginning in September, through an online portal. The College and FAS had many difficult choices to make and student feedback was an important part of that process. In also speaking with House Masters, we weighed all of the feedback as to the opportunities for the least impact on House life and maintaining the most broadly acceptable breakfast choices. The new breakfast menu and enhanced Brain Break provided the best overall solution.
In addition, the College is establishing two working groups for next year that will consider further recommendations for change at Harvard. One of these working groups focuses on Student Life. You can volunteer to participate through either the College or the UC.
Q: Can’t you just keep scrambled eggs and bacon/breakfast meats? Or already made oatmeal? They don’t cost much.
A: All of these kinds of options were looked at. The breakfast menu presented provides for a diverse menu with a balance of options that does not require any cooking.
Q: Can you cut more expensive foods, like local produce and organics?
A: HUDS’ local and organic foods do not cost more than their “traditional” counterparts.
Q: Can you reduce the number of options, like entrees or vegan foods, at a meal?
A; Again, we looked at various options that balance both the cost of foods in addition to the cost of labor to prepare them. We believe we’ve arrived at choices that continue to provide nutritious options and variety.
Q: Where’s the protein?
A: The new weekday House breakfast menu provides protein in the forms of hard-boiled eggs, cottage cheese, lean ham, cheese, and peanut butter, as well as other dairy sources.
Q: What’s different about the enhanced Brain Break? I get these foods already in my House.
A: Enhanced Brain Break now features juice, cold cereals, and hand fruit as daily staples, as well as scheduled and cycled rotating specials. Your House may have featured these items periodically, but they are now a part of the standard daily menu.
Q: Brain Break is heavy on the sweets.
A: The enhanced menu includes fruits, unsweetened cereals (as well as sugar ones), and a number of healthy specials, such as veggies and dip or hummus and pita. It also has sweets – something for the range of community tastes.
