The University of Northern Iowa is ranked No. 1 in Best College Food in Iowa for 2016, beating out the other two state colleges, Iowa State and University of Iowa, according to Niche.com. Nationally, UNI ranks No. 71 out of 1,713 colleges assessed. These rankings were formulated from data that was collected based on student reviews and average meal plan cost.

Niche is a company that aims to inform people by providing reviews and data on the community; the subjects of information range from K-12 schools to colleges.

Carol Fletcher, assistant director of dining services, said she isn’t surprised UNI stands out above the rest.

“I think it’s the quality of our food and the market place concept where students can get a lot of variety and have food made for them is what is really appealing to our students,” Fletcher said.

Along with that, Fletcher explained how new ideas and additions, like the street taco bar, macaroni and cheese bar, freshly-squeezed orange juice machines and self-operated soft serve ice cream stations have really had a beneficial impact on the quality of the dining centers.

Another focus has also been on creating an atmosphere that provides options for all students to be able to eat what they want.

“The special diet area was a really cool way to expand the options available to students, so that someone who is vegetarian can find what they want or someone who is gluten free can find something that they need,” said Fletcher.

These new additions have been a huge hit, but the dining center still has a main purpose in mind; a balanced meal.

“We definitely want to offer healthy options and let people know that healthy options can taste good,” said Fletcher. “But it’s really about balancing, like yeah you can have that cookie, but you maybe can have a salad to help balance that out.”

What has also helped the success of the dining center services is the all access pass that is offered to students.

Annie Karr, assistant director of Residence, Marketing and Conference Services, explained this concept in a simple manner.

“Students can come and go as much as they want and eat as much or as little as they want,” Karr said.

This idea came to life because it was shown to faculty that students normally tend to skip breakfast and focus on eating as much as they can for lunch and dinner to ultimately ‘get their money’s worth.’ Karr further said that this plan is a major factor that separates UNI from other colleges and universities.

“A lot of universities do not have the ability to do that,” Karr said. “I think this is a very high satisfier for our students.”

However, Karr and Fletcher both emphasize that the success could not have been achieved had it not been from the help of students.

The UNI dining center sends out two yearly surveys to gain feedback about what is working, what is not and what the students really want.

“In fact, both of our dining centers, the whole way it was developed was based on students’ feedback,” said Fletcher. “We went through and talked to hundreds and hundreds of students to ask, ‘what do you want this to look like?’ And Piazza and Rialto are what students said they wanted.”

Sophomore earth science major, Jasmine Mcmillen, has worked in one of UNI’s dining centers, Rialto, for four semesters now. She explained why she believes UNI deserves this top rank honor.

“I think that the cooks and students learn things,” said Mcmillin. “Like how to be professional and how to serve one another, making our dining centers so great.”

The UNI dining center has shared this honor on the UNI Department of Residence and UNI Dining Facebook pages, and the feedback received has been very positive and shockingly informative.

Comments have included: “Went to school here for the food,” “No joke…my final decision to come to UNI was because of the food,” “The meal plan here is genius!” and “I knew I made the right choice!”

Follow and like the Facebook pages for up-to-date changes in menus and other exciting features to UNI’s No. 1 in Iowa dining centers.