Intro 0:08
You're listening to the Spartan orientation station on impact 89 the podcasts by students for students. Now this week's episode.
Abigail Arsenault 0:18
Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of Spartan Orientation Station. Today we will be featuring Eat@State. Eat@State handles all things dining on campus, including meal plans, dining halls, and combos on campus, which are all extremely important parts of the Spartan experience. My name is Abigail, I have a major in social work with a minor in justice, law and public policy and I will be a rising senior in the fall.
Andre Edmond 0:46
My name is Andre. I'm a rising sophomore. I'm a computer science major with a minor in history. I'm involved with NSO and in the fall I'll be involved with Education Abroad Office and the running club.
Pranta Barua 0:58
Hello everyone I am Pranta and I'm a rising junior majoring in computer science and data science with a minor in business. And this is my first podcast that I will be co hosting. And I'm super excited for that.
Abigail Arsenault 1:09
Thank you guys so much for joining us today. And Kelsey and Cheryl, if you guys just want to start by introducing yourselves and your roles here at MSU.
Kelsey Patterson 1:19
Sure, my name is Kelsey Patterson, and I'm a registered dietitian with culinary services. So I primarily work with students and guests that have any kind of dietary restrictions. And I help them find options in the dining halls and in our retail spaces.
Cheryl Berry 1:36
And my name is Cheryl Berry, and I am the Associate Director of Marketing and Communications for culinary. I work to get the messages out to all students, staff and faculty about our dining options. I also work with all of our units. If we're opening up a new space, create the branding, create the messaging, all the print materials, everything that goes into our dining spaces.
Abigail Arsenault 2:04
If you could just explain to us what the differences are between the silver, gold and platinum dining plans.
Cheryl Berry 2:10
Sure. So the main difference is that with the gold and the Platinum, you get Spartan cash and guest passes, right so with gold, you get four guest passes and $150 in Spartan cash. And then with platinum you get eight guest passes and $300 and Spartan cash. Silver you don't get the guest passes or the Spartan cash, but all three of them you get unlimited access to the dining halls and the 12 combo exchanges.
Andre Edmond 2:43
So what are combos and how do they work? How are they different from the dining plans?
Cheryl Berry 2:49
Combo exchanges are like extra meals that you get on top of your all you care to eat dining. So it's basically it's it's a beverage and entree and a side that you can get from our retail locations. So we have our Sparty's, our Sparty's market, we have our vendor partners across campus like Subway, Panda Express. So you can go to any of those locations, get a meal replacement. And you can utilize 12 of them on any single day. You can use them throughout the week. You don't have to use all of them in a week. But they are they do regenerate every Sunday. So you always get another 12 every week.
Pranta Barua 3:33
Wow. So I love doing combos myself personally. But yeah, going back to the dining halls, what are the hours of the dining halls when are they open? When do they close and stuff like that?
Cheryl Berry 3:44
It does fluctuate a little bit. Not all the dining halls have the exact same hours. But there is typically a dining hall open at 7am. And then they close at 9pm. There is a short window of time from 3:00, 3:00 to 4:30, generally 3:30 to 4:00, something like that for about an hour and a half where we do a close down and a cleaning period. So in between the late lunch period, and then dinner service. So that's across the board with all of our care, all you care to eat dining halls. So other than that they'll be open and ready to serve.
Abigail Arsenault 4:25
And I guess right now or maybe in the fall, are there any dining halls that aren't going to be open and that you can't use?
Cheryl Berry 4:31
Nope. They will all be open. Yep.
Andre Edmond 4:35
So what time is Sparty's open from, what is the timeframe?
Cheryl Berry 4:38
Sparty stores, and again, they do have different hours, depending on the store. But there's always a Sparty's open at 7am and then they close at 11.
Abigail Arsenault 4:51
And one quick question to going back to the dining plans. If you could just explain what Spartan cash is.
Cheryl Berry 4:58
Sure. It's kind of a declining balance. So if you consider that your ID works as a debit card, so you can reload your Spartan cash. So if you want to put $10 in Spartan cash on your card, so you don't have to carry cash, you don't have to carry an additional credit card. It's all loaded onto your ID, you can go to any of our retail locations on campus, there are over 100 retail locations off campus that you can use it at. It's a great way to just limit your cards to just your ID and be able to access different options that way.
Pranta Barua 5:36
All right. You mentioned that we get 12 combos each week. And this is a question that comes up a lot. Like if I don't use all my combos in a week, do I get extra the following week?
Cheryl Berry 5:47
You do not. Nope, it does just you know kind of fall off. But then it regenerates with a new 12 every Sunday.
Pranta Barua 5:59
All right.
Cheryl Berry 5:59
Yeah.
Abigail Arsenault 6:01
Yeah. And I think he reiterated at the beginning, um, you can use those combos back to back multiple times at a day, right?
Cheryl Berry 6:07
You can there is a short period of time. So you couldn't get like 10 of your meals all at once and go to the register. There's like a 15 minute period of time that has to pass before you can get your next one.
Abigail Arsenault 6:22
Gotcha.
Cheryl Berry 6:23
Yeah.
Andre Edmond 6:23
So since we're talking about limits, is there a cap to the amount of times I can go to the dining hall in a day?
Cheryl Berry 6:29
No, there's not. You can walk in and get a drink. You can go in and have a full meal. You can go in and out as many times as you want.
Abigail Arsenault 6:37
Awesome. And I guess what if I have a specific allergy? Or nutrition restrictions?
Kelsey Patterson 6:44
Yeah, that's a great question. So I'm your primary go to if you have any needs or any questions, I always encourage, even if you're not sure, if you have questions, reaching out to me, before arriving onto campus or as you arrive onto campus, my contact information is available on the Eat@State website, I have a whole section on that web page, you can simply just fill out a survey and it goes straight to me. And I reply with some resources. And we can have a conversation, I can give you a look at you know what the dining halls look like based off of your individual needs. So I always recommend that as a first step. But if you get here and you realize that you do need some assistance, and you're in the dining hall or retail space, the best way to reach out to someone is just go to a host stand or ask one of our team members, if you can speak with a chef or manager. They're all trained on food allergies, and dietary restrictions. And they should be able to get you some assistance and refer you to me as well, to help so there's always someone in a unit, if you just stop and ask we'll find someone that can help you.
Pranta Barua 7:49
That sounds reassuring. Alright, so me, I'm living off campus personally next month, next semester, and there's a lot of people who's going to live off campus. So can they use the dining hall for food?
Cheryl Berry 8:01
Absolutely. So there's a few different ways they can pay at the door, just at our door rate. And we are open to the public. So it would be the same as the community member coming and paying, they can get blocks of plans a block plan, which is going to be $9 per meal. So they would just pay ahead for those block plans. And so that's going to save them $4 per meal if they do that. They can also purchase the silver, gold, or platinum plan. So if they think that they're going to be on campus and eating with us quite a bit, that would be their best bet.
Abigail Arsenault 8:41
Gotcha. And with all the different dining halls, how do you get into them?
Cheryl Berry 8:46
You need your MSU ID? Yes, yes. So always carry your MSU ID with you, you need that pretty much for access to most of the buildings. So just find a way to keep it close by however you need to do that. I carry mine on a lanyard. I know a lot of students have a certain cell phone cover that allows them to keep it in there. So whatever way you find that's easiest for you, but you're gonna need that to get in the dining halls.
Andre Edmond 9:19
How can I tell if there are certain foods in the dining hall that have specific allergens that are any indicators about that?
Kelsey Patterson 9:26
Yeah, so we have a lot of signage and resources available to identify food allergens and ingredients in our menu options. I'm going to first start with our eat at state webpage. We post all of our menus online five days in advance, and those are going to point out if any of our menus have any of the major nine allergens. We also track alcohol, beef, coconut and pork. So you can check that out on our website. For detailed information. We have a nutrition portal called MSUtrition, and there's a link on our website to that and it'll actually give you all the ingredient information for our menu options. When you're in the dining hall, you'll notice some menu signage at the point of service in our venues that will basically mimic the website that is going to be your most up to date information. If something changes, the website might not reflect that, but the menu signage will so always double check the menu signage, and it'll track those major nine allergens and alcohol, beef and coconut and pork. If you ever have any questions, though, the asking for the chef or manager, they can always double check things for you. So there's a few different spots that you can check for that information.
Andre Edmond 10:39
Okay, so across campus, do you know how many dining halls there are?
Cheryl Berry 10:43
I do know there are seven all you care to eat. And then we have two grab and go. So the all you care to eats are. I can maybe with the help of Kelsey, I could name them all for you. But we have in Akers, we have The Edge and we have The Gallery at Snyder Phillips, we have Thrive at Owen, we have South Pointe at Case, we have Heritage Commons at Landon, we have The Vista the Shaw.
Kelsey Patterson 11:19
Yes, Vista at Shaw.
Cheryl Berry 11:21
What am I forgetting
Kelsey Patterson 11:22
Did you say Brody?
Cheryl Berry 11:23
I did not.
Kelsey Patterson 11:24
Okay, well.
Cheryl Berry 11:26
Yeah, yeah. And then our Grab and Go's are Holden and Holmes. Did I forget any? No.
Kelsey Patterson 11:33
And I will give a special shout out to Thrive at Owen when it's certified free from the major nine allergens as of this fall, meaning that they there are no major nine allergens and that all you care to eat dining hall, but it's just good food. So definitely check it out.
Abigail Arsenault 11:49
It's one of my favorites. It's amazing.
Pranta Barua 11:52
Wow. Yeah, there's a lot of dining halls here at MSU. And speaking of dining halls, um, is there a limit of food, how much I can take from the dining hall?
Cheryl Berry 12:02
Actually, you cannot take food out of the dining hall unless you do a takeout. So we do offer takeout, but that's a CX. So that's using a combo. You can do takeout. But, you know, you could take a piece of fruit with you. But you can't like just take food out unless you're doing a combo.
Pranta Barua 12:22
Since you've been talking about menus, where can I view each menu for the dining halls each day.
Kelsey Patterson 12:27
Yes. So again, just going to our website: eat at state. That's going to be posted online. And then inside the dining hall as well is the best place to check for that. So definitely visit our website. I highly encourage that.
Andre Edmond 12:42
Oh, so let's say I have a friend just visiting from out of town and they're not an MSU. Student. Am I allowed to bring them to the dining hall?
Cheryl Berry 12:50
Oh, absolutely. You can use a guest pass. If you have a guest pass. They can just pay at the door. The doorway. So there's yeah, there's different ways that you can bring guests in.
Andre Edmond 13:01
So about speaking about the dining halls themselves, like what is the specific differences between the dining halls? Are there like anything that make each dining hall unique?
Kelsey Patterson 13:11
Yeah, yeah. So I would say each dining hall is unique, you're not going to have the same experience in every single dining hall. They're all going to be fantastic experiences. But they all have different specialties. We have chefs in all of our dining halls that write these menus. And we also have different venue themes in our dining halls. So you'll find from anything from Akers that has a tandoori station to Brody that has a homestyle station, we have VegOut which is a vegan and vegetarian station across the dining halls. I always, my number one tip or advice to students coming onto campus is don't restrict yourself to one dining hall. Make it a point, especially before the snow hits to visit all of them. They're going to have different menus. And so it'll kind of break the monotony a little bit. So definitely get out there and try all of the dining halls. I challenge you to that.
Pranta Barua 14:09
All right. So I'm pretty sure there is an amazing culinary team working behind all of these amazing food. And I was wondering if you had any employment opportunities for the students who are studying here at MSU?
Kelsey Patterson 14:21
Yes, we are always hiring there are a wide range of opportunities available. What people sometimes don't realize is that culinary services is more than just the dining halls and the retail spaces. We also have a food stores warehouse on campus that also houses a bakery. So there's bakery positions available. Beyond that there are you know, students who work in the marketing department as well and I have some students that work for me. So there's a wide range of opportunity as well as promotion throughout so you there if you hire in at a job it doesn't mean you're always going to be working that the entire time you're with us, there are plenty of opportunities for promotion, and gaining a lot of skills that translate into other jobs as well.
Abigail Arsenault 15:11
Right? Yeah, that's so awesome. Like you said, there are so many different opportunities. And sometimes you're not doing the same thing all the time. And building up those skills to use past here when you graduate is very, very important. And so I guess one of my favorite questions is, what is your favorite part about being a Spartan and working with students?
Kelsey Patterson 15:31
My favorite part about being a Spartan is the opportunities that are available here. And the wide range of students that I work with everyone comes to me with a unique situation and a unique need. And I don't do the same thing every single day. The most rewarding piece for me is connecting students to the resources that they need and seeing them succeed throughout their entire time here, I've seen so many students flourish, from when they first met me to now, you know, I've been here four years, and now they're graduating. And so I think that's extremely rewarding.
Cheryl Berry 16:13
As Kelsey said, you know, it's it's a lot of fun getting to work with students, I think it keeps, you know, people like me, who are getting a little bit older, keeps us young. But being in a college/university setting, I think we're always on the forefront of trends and what's happening, I think we have the best jobs in the world because we get to work with food, a lot with students. You know, there's nothing like, you know, being in the middle of everything that's happening, not only in higher ed, but also with food, and putting those two together. It's just it's a fun job. And Michigan State being you know, a BIG10 University. I think we both have a history here and being from Michigan. So it's just, it's a great place to work.
Abigail Arsenault 17:06
Yeah, that's awesome. And I guess, side question, do you have a favorite, like meal, or dining hall? That's the one you go to like, this is what I want today. Yeah. So I definitely, you guys can answer to because I have one.
Cheryl Berry 17:18
It's like choosing one of my favorite children or something. Probably. It's hard. I'm, I'm torn between Akers and South Pointe. Yeah, it's really hard. I love both of those. South Pointe I love because they have an awesome salad bar. And they always have great desserts. So yeah.
Abigail Arsenault 17:45
Snyder Phillips Hall, their soup bar on a cold rainy day when you need to study with a bowl of soup. It just it hits so different. And it's so good. And it's so nice and quiet in there. You can just sit and look out the window and enjoy your amazing food.
Cheryl Berry 18:01
Yes. Oh, yeah. What's yours?
Kelsey Patterson 18:03
All right, I'll go. For obvious reasons. My top one is thrive at Owen, I think it has the best view in the dining hall. And the food is just delicious. And I'm also going to throw another one out there it's The State Room at Kellogg Center, as well. I think we often forget about that one, but the chef's that work at The State Room put on a really good lunch menu. So if you're in that, that area, please, please check them out. You can use your meal plan there actually. And at night it turns into a fine dining restaurant so you can't use your meal plan then, but you can use it for lunch. Lunch. Yeah, Mondays-Friday for lunchtime combo exchange.
Abigail Arsenault 18:42
How come I never knew that? Yeah. I love that. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. And thank you everyone for listening. And please join us for our next episode about student conduct.
Cheryl Berry 18:56
Thank you.
Kelsey Patterson 18:57
Thank you.
Outro 18:57
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Spartan orientation station on impact 89 FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at MSU_NSO!