Sieber promotes benefits of Meatless Mondays

What are some changes you’ve made since you took over as Director of Dining Services at Baker?<strong>What are some changes you’ve made since you took over as Director of Dining Services at Baker?</strong> What are some changes you’ve made since you took over as Director of Dining Services at Baker?

We’ve made a ton of changes. We’ve changed how we were putting out the salad bar and the deli bar. So, there are lots more fresh fruits and fresh vegetables. We were buying that iceberg salad mix when I first came here. You know, it came in boxes and it was horrible and completely devoid of any nutritional value. So, now we chop all our own fresh romaine. We are doing almost everything from scratch that used to come out of a boxed kit. We’re cooking real food now and that was not happening when I first came here. I think we have a much more capable and professional staff of culinarians on our team now that we didn’t have when I first came here. The cafe menu has been completely overhauled since I came here as well. There are a lot more choices on the menu now and everything’s made fresh. All the salads and sandwiches and wraps and everything are put together fresh and we’re starting with quality whole ingredients. The other big change we’ve made is in our purchasing. We’re buying a lot of locally grown fruits and vegetables from small farmers right here in Baldwin, and that’s awesome and exciting to me, and that was certainly not happening before.

There has been a lot of correlation between the cafeteria and student groups such as Baker Farm Hands, as well as programs within the cafeteria, such as Meatless Mondays. Where do you get these ideas?<strong>There has been a lot of correlation between the cafeteria and student groups such as Baker Farm Hands, as well as programs within the cafeteria, such as Meatless Mondays. Where do you get these ideas?</strong> There has been a lot of correlation between the cafeteria and student groups such as Baker Farm Hands, as well as programs within the cafeteria, such as Meatless Mondays. Where do you get these ideas?

Most of these ideas are the students’ ideas. I’m really just their faculty adviser, so I’ve been supporting their ideas and helping them with connecting to various farmers and community groups that they can work with, but most of the ideas are coming from the students themselves. So, that’s really awesome. This most recent thing that we are doing this week, the adopt-a-seedling program for Earth Day, was an idea that I totally stole from my cousin … she was telling me that in her senior year there was a student group that had done this adopt-a-seedling program and she thought it was so fun. I thought that was brilliant, so I said, ‘well, we can do that too.’ So, none of these are my ideas. I steal them from other people. I’m just encouraging the kids to be creative and they have a lot of energy around this, so it’s exciting to be a part of.