The KYou Zone: New to KU Dining!

Through the years, KU Dining Services has provided individualized services to help meet the needs of students requiring special dietary accommodations due to medical and/or religious justifications. With this in mind, we are proud to announce the addition of the KYou Zone- a new concept as part of the Ekdahl Dining Center (Mrs. E’s) food court and dining room renovation project scheduled to re-open in mid-August. Some of the changes to Mrs. E’s include an expansion to 11 food concepts offering a wider variety of cuisines, updated decor, warm contemporary finishes, enhanced menus and new service styles!

The KYou Zone has been distinctively designed to meet the storage, preparation and service needs of our residents and more easily assist them in their specific dietary requirements. This concept of the food court will be operated and equipped as an “Allergy Friendly” area to aid students with varied food allergies and intolerances as well as those with specialty food requirements, some of which include gluten free, dairy free, vegan, and Kosher, to name a few. We will of course continue to meet with and offer individualized dietary services to any resident based on his or her physician’s documented dietary recommendations. In order to get the best use of this space, we will regularly offer foods with a vegan focus - menu items that can provide an additional selection for those who choose meatless meals with alternate protein sources, while adhering to the gluten free and dairy free needs of those served from the KYou Zone. In planning this kosher dining pilot program, the KU Dining staff has worked in conjunction with Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel and a focus group of Jewish students at the University of Kansas. Their insights and suggestions have proven beneficial as we work through the necessary processes in order to make this a successful venture for all parties involved. The idea is to begin small and grow the program based on customer satisfaction. We plan to offer a kosher meal on Monday evenings at Mrs. E’s to see how well patronized this added service style becomes. If we find this to be a successful venture and one that is widely supported, we could then increase the kosher menu offerings throughout the week. It’s important to note that KU Dining offers special dietary services at all of our residential and retail dining locations across campus as does KU Catering and our Impromptu restaurant. We realize we have a growing population on university campus’ that, for various reasons, require specialty foods and/or food preparation and through on-going staff training and improved marketing of this service, we will continue to meet the needs of our customers.

One of our Allerygy Safe Zones located at North College Cafe

Feel free to visit our website at kudining.com for more detailed information outlining our procedures to assist students with special dietary needs.