Harvard: Making Difficult Changes
Harvard University students—like all college students—love their french fries. When the campus's dining services executives decided it was time to give those fries a healthy makeover, they knew they might have a battle on their hands.
The challenge: Harvard offers its 6,700 undergraduates a single meal plan. Because students essentially dine in the same "restaurant" three times a day, keeping them happy by providing variety is key. Until recently, menus regularly included one of eight or nine different kinds of french fries, from curly fries to crinkle-cut fries to steak fries.
But with Harvard's eminent School of Public Health leading the charge against trans fats, dining-services director Ted Mayer knew he had to do something about the french fries—all of them par-cooked by the supplier in oil with trans fats. When he began researching sources for trans fat-free fries in early 2004, he found only one—a custom french fry developed for Legal Seafoods, which the chain's CEO Roger Berkowitz agreed to share with Harvard.
But this healthier fry came in one format only: A straight cut. No curly fries, no potato puffs. "The challenge we faced," says Mayer, "was how to get rid of eight to nine options and offer only one french fry without this hue and cry from our student body."
The solution: communication and education. Although college students don't like to be told what's good for them, Mayer and his marketing team relied on the words "research shows." Through the use of table tents, the Web site, and the student newspaper, the dining services staff announced the change and laid out the reasons, arguing that they weren't trying to limit options but to provide healthy options. "We took every opportunity we could to talk to them," says Crista Martin, the assistant director of marketing for Harvard's dining services.
"There were definitely students who missed the potato puffs," admits Mayer, "but it went over surprisingly well. I expected more of a backlash. I think we did a great job of prepping them. It's very important to communicate with students. If it's explained, there's never an issue. And the good part was that the taste of the new french fry is much better."