Photo courtesy of foodup.us
Once in awhile, it is bound to happen. We come to a point where, no matter what we try, the dining hall food all seems the same.
Students Wolfie Herwald, Jaeyong Kwack and Yolanda Jiang recognized this problem and decided to take matters into their own hands by creating the recipe sharing website “Food Up.” This website allows students, or anyone really, to share and search for recipes that can be easily made in the dining hall by combining ingredients from different stations. The recipes all take around 10 minutes to make and include simple step-by-step instructions. Students can then create an account and add recipes to their favorites, rate the recipe, leave a comment and share the recipes on Facebook.
The website is designed with ease of use in mind, but it was not all easy. As director and associate director of “Food up,” sophomore Jaeyong Kwack and senior Wolfie Herwald built the website over the summer after meeting and agreeing that the dining hall needed a bigger, more prominent student voice. Herwald stated that he had an idea to create a website where people could rank individual menu items at restaurants while commenting on the quality of food and the overall authenticity of the restaurant. Kwack wanted to create a similar space where students could comment on dining hall food.
“We basically mixed our ideas together and got ‘Food up’!” Kwack said.
Right now, Kwack and Herwald are still testing the website before officially launching and promoting it.
“We’re still looking for beta testers to give feedback on the website,” Herwald explained. “It’s been a long process, but ideally, we’ll be working with the dining hall soon to promote the website.”
In the meantime, the group is mainly focused on maintaining and creating recipes for the website. This is where senior health science major Yolanda Jiang comes into play.
“I wanted to do a project with food for my senior year,” said Jiang. “When I heard that Jaeyong was creating this recipe sharing website, I was really interested in helping set it up. So we met up and combined talents to come up with ways to add to both of our ideas.”
While coming up with recipes in the dining hall may seem like a simple task, Jiang explains that there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes.
“We’ve been editing two recipes per week to put on the website,” Jiang said. “I have recipe tasters come into the DH every Monday night to help me test food and provide feedback. We’re trying to get at least 20 recipes before officially launching the website.”
Jiang added that she’s also working on a section of the website that will cater to students with dietary restrictions such as gluten and lactose intolerances.
“We want all students to be able to participate in the project,” she explained.
Thus far students and dining hall staff alike have been responding positively to the website’s launch.
“Everyone I’ve talked to so far loves the idea of it,” said Jiang, “and the dining hall staff members have also been very supportive. They want more student involvement and are looking for ways to promote student creativity during meal times. They agree that this website will help improve the student dining experience.”
With its impending launch date approaching, “Food up” seems to be en route to becoming an integral part of Furman’s overall dining experience.
“People are already creating creative meals in the DH and the website will be there to support that and add on to everyone’s positive dining experience.” Jiang concluded.