University Housing & Dining Services

In alignment with the Healthy Campus Initiative / BeWell@OSU, UHDS is committed to creating environments that promote healthy behaviors for students and staff. The UHDS Wellness Committee has been established with the role of fostering a culture of wellness by:

• Assessing student and employee needs, interests and engagement regarding wellness
• Assessing the physical environment and any barriers to wellness
• Recommending the adoption of policies and practices that create and support wellness practices
• Communicating, implementing and providing on-going support for wellness programming

Below are examples of UHDS efforts to promote wellness in the workplace and to the residents and customers we serve:

Student and UHDS Staff-Focused Efforts

• Beaver Strides Competition: Teams of employees and students compete for the most strides
• UHDS Wellness Newsletter: UHDS distributes a monthly wellness newsletter to promote campus and community wellness events/resources.

Student-Focused Efforts

• Fresh From the Faucet: UHDS is an active partner in Healthy Campus/BeWell@OSU Fresh From the Faucet campaign to promote tap water as the #1 beverage choice on campus; installed new water fountains with water bottle refill spouts in residence halls and all UHDS restaurants have ice water available.
• Nutrition Blog/Campus Living Article: UHDS produces a blog to all residents offering nutrition and wellness tips.
• Lunch and Learn: UHDS is a partner in the Healthy Campus / BeWell@OSU lunch and learn series, providing nutrition education events at UHDS dining centers.
• Nutrition information posting: UHDS posts nutrition information on line for all UHDS restaurants. Nutrition information is also posted on Calabaloo's menu boards per menu labeling guidelines.
• Nutrition consultations services to residents: UHDS offers free nutrition consultations to residents with special diet needs.  In 2010, UHDS, SHS and DAS developed guidelines to help students navigate/find resources needed to manage their special diet needs.
• Stealth Health: UHDS engineers dining environments in a way that makes the healthy choice the easy choice. Some stealth examples include: Sandwiches come with a free side veggies, side salads are only 1.25 and vegetables, beans and grains are only .95 and fresh fruit is conveniently placed near cash registers and only .75 each.
• Harvest of the month local foods tabling: UHDS partners with the OSU Sustainability Initiative and the Corvallis Environmental Center's Edible Corvallis Initiative to provide local produce sampling/tabling events in UHDS dining centers.
• Vegetarian options: with the increasing popularity of vegan and vegetarian diets, UHDS  offers vegan and vegetarian options at all restaurants.
• OSU Oak Creek Farm:  UHDS partners with Oak Creek's Campus Farm and other local vendors to provide locally grown produce. 

UHDS Staff-Focused Efforts

• Student Affairs Try-Athalon: In Spring of 2011, UHDS employees partnered with the Student Affairs team to participate in a campus wide Faculty Staff and Fitness Try-Athalon.
• Treadmill Workstation: The UHDS central office break room has a treadmill work station equipped with a laptop and phone available to all staff to encourage getting physical activity during the workday.
• Work schedule flexibility/alternative schedules: When operationally possible, UHDS offers alternative schedules for staff during the summer months.
• UHDS Wellness Survey: In Fall 2010, distributed a survey to all UHDS employees to assess the overall organizational culture regarding wellness and needs and interests for wellness programming.