Introducing Campus Catering

Creating Community Through Delicious Food

The talents and experience of UCen Catering and Special Events Catering have merged to become Campus Catering. Coinciding with the blend is an expansion in services and plenty of fresh, new offerings.  

With a new space located in Ortega; many new team members; and an almost entirely new menu developed collaboratively during the campus closure, Campus Catering launched in Fall 2021 and is hitting its stride this spring, averaging 25 to 30 events weekly.

Among the larger events Campus Catering has hosted recently was a burrito lunch offered to all Campus staff, in honor of the inaugural National Staff Appreciation Day on March 4th. Campus Catering provided 500 delicious burritos for this event, hosted by the Chancellor’s Staff Advisory Council, with funding provided by Chancellor Yang. Council member Jane Gama, who helped organize the lunch, commented on how sometimes a simple catered lunch can be so much more than a simple catered lunch: “The need to congregate and socialize over a burrito and build community was so great, and still is.”

As we begin to gather once again, to collaborate, socialize, and celebrate, Campus Catering is ready to serve. Offerings include a wide range of options, from 10-person boxed sandwich lunches with choices such as Vietnamese Grilled Tofu, Ham and Fig with Crispy Bacon, or Curry Chicken, to the Estero Buffet, featuring Carved Marinated Beef Sirloin with Wild Mushroom Sauce and Yukon Gold Potato Gratin. Fern Lightfoot, Associate Director of Catering and Concessions, worked with the catering chefs to develop the new menus. Among her favorite new items are the boxed salads, which feature fresh, produce-driven options such as Roasted Beet and Arugula, and the Super Cobb. “The boxed lunches offer a lot of flexibility in terms of how people are gathering right now. These can be offered at a casual event outside,” she notes. In the works is a Reception Menu that will feature small bites and hors d’oeuvres, meant to enhance upscale, late-afternoon get-togethers. For more elegant affairs, Campus Catering can help arrange for the rental of upscale glassware and china, as well as coordinate floral arrangements and other event décor.    

A new Campus Dining website, launched in the Summer of 2021, showcases the extensive menu options for every budget and size, along with helpful tips to get the planning process started, and descriptions of some of the most popular event locations on Campus. As we start a new chapter together, Campus Catering is excited to help our community re-connect… with good food, served with excellence.