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NEWS
October 11, 2007
Titan Grill to offer up more healthy fare Overhaul begins during winter break and hopes to serve fresher food By Belinda Hurtado For the Daily Titan
news@dailytitan.com
The Titan Student Union will say goodbye to the Titan Grill and welcome a healthier choice to the food court. The Food Services Advisory Committee met last Wednesday to discuss a fresher concept of food for students. “The main reason was because there was a concern about serving healthy food on campus,” Adrian Diaz, 18, chair for the food committee, said. “It will be easier to get Titan Grill to change the menu since it’s more under our control [under TSU jurisdiction].” Plans to begin working on the project will take place during winter break and they hope to open for business by next spring. The space now held by the Titan Grill will have to be re-worked and some equipment will have to be removed, Lynch said. “We would like to have something in conjunction with the Rec Center to tie the healthy food with the Rec Center,” Lynch said. Marketing Coordinator Crystal Wooldridge worked alongside Executive Chef Mary Jane Espiritu to formulate a new name and menu for the project. They introduced their ideas for the new project in hope of positive feedback from ASI. Some suggested names for the new project were pitched to the committee, however, they are leaning towards The Fresh Kitchen. “It really stands for what we are going for,” Wooldridge said. “We are saying it’s going to be healthy and it’s going to taste good. We want to get away completely from the Titan Grill. We don’t want people to associate it with the old concept. We don’t want to be branded.” Members of the committee were also presented with a menu, which included a variety of organic foods such as fruits, vegetables, soups, salads and grilled panini’s. A side order of lightly salted soybeans was sampled by the members of
McCain aims to give more options Associated Press
By Belinda Hurtado/Daily Titan Staff Writer A more organic menu is planned for the Titan Grill. “The organic food has been a success,” said Anthony Lynch, division director for campus dining services.
the committee as a preview of what would be offered. All foods will be cooked with zero trans fat cooking oils to support the zero trans fat campaign. Espiritu said she took several things into consideration for the menu items including food that it covers the criteria of healthy, vegetarian, vegan, organic and natural foods. Wooldridge added that the items were diverse in what they were offering.
One challenge was “how seasonal items can change without the prices going up,” Wooldridge said. Division Director for Campus Dining Services Anthony Lynch said once the items on the new menu were broken down, a price list could then be established. “The organic food has been a success,” Lynch said. Nutwood Cafés Unit Manager Allan Anaya also announced that new organic products would be added to
their selection. “I think anything healthy for the general public and students is great. Healthy choices and organic food is the healthy way to go. You can’t go wrong,” Anaya said. A $45,000 budget request has been approved by the CSUF Auxiliary Board to cover all costs for the project. The funds, Lynch said, are attained through two sources: CSUF on Auxiliary Services Corporation, which are responsible for all food services on campus, and the TSU, which gets its money from the TSU food court and
the O.C. Choice Catering. At the end of each academic fiscal year, the net income is divided in half. Lynch said last fiscal year the combined amount was $83,732, with $41,866 given to TSU and $41, 866 for future ASC projects. The amount of money put back into the TSU “far exceeds the money we are taking away from business,” Lynch said. The difference to make up the $45,000, said Lynch, will be provided by the CSUF ASC.
John McCain wants to give people more control over their health care — and more options — while injecting more competition into the system in hopes of lowering costs and improving services. The Republican presidential candidate will propose a series of changes to the health care system in a speech Thursday, offering a broad overhaul plan that contrasts sharply with those his Democratic rivals have offered. Democrats, to varying degrees, would require individuals and workers to be covered, but McCain includes no such government mandate in his proposal. Rather, he focuses on expanding access for individuals and families. “We are approaching a ‘perfect storm’ of problems that if not addressed by the next president, will cause our health care system to implode,” the Arizona senator says in remarks prepared for delivery Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa, and made available to The Associated Press. “Democratic presidential candidates are not telling you these truths. They offer their usual default position: if the government would only pay for insurance everything would be fine. They promise universal coverage, whatever its cost, and the massive tax increases, mandates and government regulation that it imposes,” McCain said. “I offer a genuinely conservative vision for health care reform, which preserves the most essential value of American lives — freedom.” Aides acknowledged the plan would take time to implement because of its scope, while billing it as a vision for changes he would work toward if elected. They provided no estimated price tag. To help pay for it, they said McCain would end a provision in the tax code that let employers deduct the cost of health care from their taxable earnings. Additionally, they said, passing tort reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits and excessive damage awards would help reduce costs. Broadly, McCain calls for an updated system that he says will be more responsive to consumers’ needs than it is to the wants of government, insurance companies, lawyers, doctors and hospitals. “While we reform the system and maintain quality, we can and must provide access to health care for all our citizens,” he says. “Controlling health care costs will take fundamental change; nothing short of a complete reform of the culture of our health system and the way we pay for it will suffice.” Among the major proposals: —Allowing people to buy health insurance nationwide instead of limiting them to in-state companies. McCain says this will provide more options and force insurers to compete for business, thus decreasing costs and increasing the quality of care. —Permitting people to buy insurance through any organization or association they choose as well as through their employers or buying direct from an insurance company. He says such plans would follow people as they change jobs, and would automatically cover the time between retirement and Medicare eligibility. —Providing tax credits of $2,500 to individuals and $5,000 to families as an incentive to buy health coverage. People with multiyear policies that cost less than the amount of the tax credit to deposit the difference into an expanded health savings account. He also wants to eliminate what he says is a bias in the tax code toward employer-sponsored health insurance. —Allowing veterans to use whatever provider they want, wherever they want by giving them an electronic health care card or through another method. He says they should not have to wait for access at a faraway Veterans Affairs facility. —Supporting different methods of delivering care, including walkin clinics in retail outlets across the country. —Developing routes for cheaper generic versions of drugs to enter the U.S. market, including allowing for safe reimportation of drugs.