Meet Dal Food Services Registered Dietitian Rai Lee Gardiner. This is an opportunity to get to know who your dietitian is and the types of services she offers on campus.
What made you go into dietetics? And when did you decide you wanted to be a dietitian?
I always had a passion for science and for teaching, but wasn’t sure if a traditional teacher role was for me. I was also an avid foodie. I had never heard of a dietitian until after I was diagnosed with celiac disease when I was 20. I wasn’t referred to one when I was diagnosed, just told “avoid gluten and you’ll be fine”. This was years before the “gluten free trend” started, and I was floored by the lack of support, products, or resources available in rural Maine where I lived. I had to dig around online to figure out how to adjust my life- and in the process discovered that dietetics was a profession which combined some of my favorite things- food, science, and education and offered some unique and varied career paths. I also had the extra personal experience and passion push to want to make living with a dietary restriction like celiac disease less of a burden for individuals.
Where did you go to school?
I did a degree in Psychology and Biology at Mount Allison University, and then went to MSVU for my dietetic degree (applied human nutrition).
What is your favourite part of being a dietitian? And what is the most challenging?
I love so many aspects of dietetics, mostly that you have so many possibilities open to you. People don’t realize what a big field it is, and that people can (and usually should) specialize within the field. There is so much ongoing research in so many areas of health and nutrition that it is impossible to stay up to date and competent in all areas of nutrition. Dietitians specialize in diabetes, renal care, athletic performance, palliative care, modified textures, special diets for wounds and burns… so many specialties. There are also roles not only within the hospital system, but within the community, the food service industry, and even within government policy creation. I am energized by the idea of collaborating across different groups and stakeholders to help make changes that improve peoples health.
The most challenging part is that often the general public still don’t know we exist- and then don’t always appreciate our expertise. So many celebrities and random people off the street are claiming to be “experts in nutrition” with literally no science or education to back that up. “I did this and it worked for me so I’m an expert and everyone should do it and listen to me and pay me money for my diet plan!” is tough to compete against when we can’t make equally intriguing and flashy claims about weight loss magic bullets because the science doesn’t support it. No one wants to hear “so far science hasn’t shown that there is a magic quick fix for this, and managing this condition will require years of consistent effort”.
What is your role within Dal Food Services? Do you help with creating the menu?
I do quite a range of different things here with Foodservices.
I help with training and support of our staff around food safety and general occupational health and safety. I brainstorm and help our teams with solutions to health and safety challenges. I’m a leader in helping operations change as needed during the pandemic.
I do one-on-one consultations with students around healthy eating while on campus, and how to manage any special dietary requirements that might be tricky to manage when they don’t have access to their own full kitchen. I also do some group education sessions and tours, and help with content for social media, and a monthly newsletter to the residence students.
I help liaise with the sustainability department at Dal and help push and innovate with how to improve sustainability within the foodservices department. I help develop relationships with small local businesses so we can incorporate their goods into our purchases to minimize how much is shipped in from other parts of the world.
I work with the executive chef to review student feedback, special dietary concerns and trends. We use that information along with discussions with our food suppliers to make changes to the menu offerings.
What services do you offer to students? And who are your services available to?
I offer one-on-one meetings for students who want to discuss healthy eating options, or how to support any special dietary restrictions. If requested I could also do a group session on a topic. I usually would have a series of educational pop-ups throughout the school year in each of the dining halls- but our operations are a bit different currently and that was put on the back burner until we got everything up and running this fall under the new pandemic protocols. Now I’ll be working to have more virtual engagement since we can’t do as much in person right now.
Generally my services are geared towards students that are on a meal plan here on campus. I do sometimes meet with students that are off campus and not on a meal plan, but it is usually a single session to get a feel for what support they need- and then to refer them as needed to other resources.
It seems we are always getting new information on what’s considered healthy and what’s not – it must be a lot to keep up with! How do you keep up with changing food trends?
It is a constant battle to keep up with the latest “diets and trends”. Dietitians tend to be well connected through professional groups to be able to share resources and specialized information to support each other. If something comes onto our radar that we are unfamiliar with- we can just ask and another dietitian will usually chime in with the best up to date knowledge on it very quickly. We have a great support system.
We also have subscription access to a wonderful online database called PEN which consolidates research recommendations and scales with evidence quality on a wide variety of nutrition topics. It’s updated constantly and is hugely helpful.
When creating the menu, what do you do to ensure there’s something for everyone including vegan, vegetarian, halal, no gluten as well as allergies. It’s a lot of boxes to check – do you have a system?
That is tough! It is a constant battle that Joe and I are always trying to improve our selection. It is very challenging to have a reasonable selection and variety that won’t be wasteful or break the bank, and also is available through our suppliers (there is a lot that is difficult to get “stocked” out east because there isn’t enough demand for it) and also hits all the boxes we want to tick.
We have students that want local comfort foods and those that want authentic dishes from around the world. Some want spicy, some want salty, some want plain basic foods with no sauces or trimmings.
That is before you add in common dietary restrictions (or less common ones!). We have to balance having a variety of dishes that are appealing and work for vegans and vegetarians, but also have a significant demand for meat-heavy dishes. Within the animal-based dishes- there is a ton of variety. People love or hate seafood. Some people won’t eat pork, or beef. Others demand it. We have a limited selection of halal-certified meats are able to get in and are constantly pushing our suppliers to stock more options so we can expand our selection of meals that would be suitable for our halal population.
When we can we try to make categorical changes that give us the most impact. We only order in soy sauce and stocks and broths that are gluten free- that makes a huge impact on what dishes a segment of our population can eat without impacting quality for everyone. We have dedicated fryers for our house made French fries and other potato products so we can make sure those products are suitable for people with celiac disease, allergies, and those who are concerned about cross contamination with meat products.
Joe does the first layout of the menu- then we walk through it together with an eye for each of the major dietary restriction categories we have to see what someone could eat at each meal period of the whole three week cycle. We make notes where there are weak points, and rearrange or replace when we are able to help even things out.
At the end of the day, people with dietary restrictions are going to have fewer options than the general population by definition, but we put a ton of work into making sure there are always options for those dietary restrictions we know about. The vast majority of students with dietary restrictions and allergies never self identify to us, or we only hear from them at the end of the year. We love to connect early on so we can help make their experience better up front and use feedback early.
This year there are a LOT of changes to operations for safety, and a lot of other businesses shut down, which impacts our supply chain and what we can get in, and therefor our menu. We are also operating at limited capacity- and that makes it hard to get the purchasing power and efficiency of scale to make some changes feasible.
It’s a complicated web- so hearing from students on what’s working and what isn’t is huge to helping us decide which changes to prioritize.
If students have feedback or want to suggest a dish, how can they do so?
Oh! I love this. They can email me at dietitian@dal.ca or food@dal.ca They can connect with us on social media- Instagram at @dalfood they can use the napkin talk board, give feedback in surveys we put out. They can ask to talk to the manager or supervisor on duty in the moment too. If Joe or I are there- stop and talk to us! We look at it all and honestly discuss all the feedback to help make changes. Some feedback we can make a change immediately, sometimes it can be planned in for the next menu cycle, or source product to make a change for the next term. Sometimes we can’t make a change because it just isn’t feasible – but we are always keeping it in the back of our head for when we can.
And how can students get in touch with you?
See above. Dietitian@dal.ca is the best way to get me as my office hours are kind of wonky for now.
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