Dining Service Rolls Out Menu Changes for New School Year

Saturday brunch is officially off the menu, but Harvard University Dining Services rolled out a rotating sandwich bar and a more cohesive daily menu to campus dining halls in an effort to diversify its meal offerings.

The menu changes include a wider selection of fruit to serve as yogurt toppings at breakfast, a daily rotating sandwich bar in place of the former fixed deli, and a chili bar to replace the usual pasta bar during lunch.

In an effort to make meals more convenient and healthy, Harvard University Dining Services is offering a greater selection of coordinated dishes this semester. By Alana M Steinberg

According to spokesperson Crista Martin, HUDS introduced the rotating sandwich bar to make the lunch deli “more fun and interesting,” and it will likely change over time or seasonally.

The introduction of a permanent lunchtime chili bar that includes meat and vegetarian options, meanwhile, is an attempt to make the lunch menu healthier and lighter, Martin said. It also expands dining hall vegetarian options and accommodates students with gluten allergies.

Students, for their part, seem to welcome the new offerings.

“For me, if I were to come in and only have breaded chicken or pasta to choose from, I can’t really eat that,” Laura E. Clerx ’16 said. “I really like the new options.”

HUDS also made the switch to hot breakfast and lunch on Saturdays instead of the brunch menu it had reintroduced last year.

Speaking of the change, Martin said last fall’s switch to Saturday brunch was “sort of a trial.”

“People were asking for it, but once we enacted it [students] really didn’t like it," she said.

“Wwe probably won't feel too much of a difference,” Chloe Y. Li ’16 said. “It was nice to have brunch on both weekend days, though.”

—Staff writer Lara C. Tang can be reached at laratang@college.harvard.edu.