Sprout

Finding allergy friendly foods is tough for many students. For our project in Dr. Maria Pontes Ferreira's Nutrition class, our group came up with a menu for Sprout, an eatery in the Marketplace located in the Rowan University student center. We have put a lot of time and effort into this project to make it healthy and to make sure it is accommodating to those who have food allergies as well as those who are vegan and or vegetarians. We have been working with the Rowan University foodservice dietitian, Melissa Hudock. She has been very informative and helpful during this process. She is making sure that our recipes are meeting Sprouts requirements. Melissa has shown us the database that her and her staff use to find recipes that are free of all 8 main food allergens and gluten. We are trying to make the allergen friendly options tasty as well as safe. This project has shown all three of us and hopefully those who are reading this blog what Rowan University has to offer. The café takes your allergies and diets into consideration and try their hardest to accommodate everyone that enters. For as many students that walk in and out of the Marketplace Cafe, in the student center, not many of them know what the Sprout station is. Sprout is a self-service section of the Marketplace Cafe serving one hot entree, two hot veggies, two cold salads, and a vegan option - all of which are allergen - friendly. Sprout avoids soy, tree nuts, shellfish, eggs, dairy, and gluten to give all of Rowan’s students options for lunch and dinner. Beyond what they serve daily, Sprout also offers gluten free pizza dough, gluten free pasta, gluten free sandwich bread, and grilled chicken upon request. Have a gluten intolerance but craving your favorite sandwich? No problem, ask someone at the Sprout station for some gluten free bread then you can prepare your sandwich! It is important to know that Sprout is allergen friendly not allergen free. What this means is that while this dining area avoids the 8 major food allergies and gluten, there is always a possibility for cross contamination because it is a self serve station amongst other self serve stations in Marketplace. For example, if a student has pizza on their plate, and they notice Sprout is serving their favorite veggie and they go over to get a serving of that on their plate as well, the serving spoon may touch the pizza as they pour the veggies on their plate. Now there are allergens on the serving spoon, and when they return the serving spoon to the veggies they have officially cross contaminated the whole veggie dish. Raising awareness of our allergen friendly sites will help to avoid cross contamination while allowing our facilities to feed more students. Simply knowing which station Sprout is in Marketplace will allow for students to direct their fellow peers with allergies to a safer dining option, and will also help to reduce cross contamination. This is because if people do not know what Sprout is then they have no reason to be more cautious about how they serve themselves in that area. To avoid cross contaminating, use a separate plate/bowl/etc. than the plate/bowl/etc. you are using that already has food from other stations on it. Go to Sprout first when you enter marketplace. Most importantly know what Sprout is and why it has its own space in the Marketplace.