“Looks to have come a long way since the days of the chicken puck sandwich.”
That comment, left under the Wall Street Journal’s viral Facebook post last week about UMass Amherst dining, says more than a thousand press releases ever could. So does the person who noted that the dining hall food during their time on campus was so bad it put them off red meat entirely. For decades.
These are reminders of how much work goes into transformation, and how quickly we forget the distance traveled once something becomes excellent.
UMass Dining did not become the number one ranked campus dining program in America by accident. It took years of deliberate, unglamorous effort by people who showed up and decided that “good enough” was not good enough. The chicken puck is the baseline that makes what exists today extraordinary.
And now the rest of the country is finding out.
When national media finds your backyard
On March 20, the Wall Street Journal published a feature titled “It’s one of the hottest tables in America, and it’s a college dining hall.”
Within days, the Facebook post alone had generated more than 2,400 reactions, 320 comments, and nearly 400 shares.
The article is circulating across platforms, being forwarded by alumni, parents, current students, food writers, and people who have never set foot in Amherst but are now apparently very curious about the sushi station at Worcester Commons.
For locals, the reaction to all of this is a familiar one.
UMass Amherst has held the number one ranking for campus food from the Princeton Review for nine consecutive years. Nine.
So there is a certain “yes, we know” quality to seeing the national media catch up to something Amherst residents have known for a long time.
But that reaction, as understandable as it is, misses the fact that an article like this does not just confirm what locals already know. It reframes it. It puts a number on it, a narrative around it, and a national audience behind it.
For the alumni who graduated before the transformation and still associate UMass dining with mystery meat and chicken fingers, this article is genuinely new information.
For families considering UMass for their kids, it is a data point that matters. For the broader Western Mass. community, it is a reminder that something genuinely world-class exists here. Yes, with its challenges and controversies, but it is ours to shape and continue to build.
That is the power of national media to make visible what was already there.
What UMass dining actually looks like
I have lived in Amherst since 2018. I have eaten at Berkshire, Hampshire, Worcester Commons, and the Blue Wall, and I have brought family and friends to all of them.
The first time I walked into Berkshire Dining Commons, I just stopped.
There was an Asian station, a pizza station, a permanent sushi bar, street food, a daily special, burgers, fries, two full drinks stations, a dessert station.
And that was before I found the waffle station, which went on to become a non-negotiable for my kids every time we go for breakfast.
That first-time experience is something I have watched repeat itself with almost every person I have brought there for the first time. You walk in, and you stop. It takes a moment to register that this is a university dining hall.
The team behind nine years at number one
What the viral moment from last week should not obscure is what it actually took to get here.
Yes, some people ask if this money could be used elsewhere for greater benefit, but that is a story for another day. Now that we know, it’s possible, we can explore if it’s possible using different strategies.
For now, we take a moment to celebrate.
Nine years at number one represents hundreds of thousands of meals, more than 60 special events per year, a $40 million annual purchasing budget, deep relationships with local farms, visiting James Beard Award-winning chefs, and a staff that keeps 30,000 students fed while somehow also making the dining commons a place worth driving across the state to visit.
That takes people. Specific people who show up every day with with creativity.
Amherst Now wants to take a moment to name the UMass dining leadership team.
- Ken Toong, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Auxiliary Enterprises
- Garett DiStefano, Director of Residential and Retail Dining Services
- Christopher Howland, Chief Procurement Officer and Senior Director of Procurement and Strategy
- Brandy Sullivan, Meal Plan Manager
- Kara Leistyna, Assistant to the Director of Residential and Retail Dining
- Bill Pete, Director of Finance and Business Services
- Alexander Ong, Director of Culinary Excellence
- Anthony Jung, Executive Chef of Retail Dining
- Robert Bankert, Executive Chef of Residential Dining
- Pamela Adams, Director of Bakery Operations and Executive Pastry Chef
- Caleb Pham, Executive Sous Chef
- Keith Toffling, Photographer
- Dianne Sutherland, Director of Nutrition
- Sabrina Hafner, Associate Director of Nutrition
- Kathy Wicks, Director of Sustainability
- Heather Scoble, Associate Director of Berkshire Dining Commons
- Marc Morrissette, Associate Director of Franklin Dining Commons
- Selina Fournier, Associate Director of Hampshire Dining Commons
- Luanne Wu, Associate Director of Worcester Commons
- Adrienne Kaio, Manager of Retail Dining
- Lynn Pelkey, General Manager of Blue Wall
- Stephanie Stacey, Cafes Manager
- David Eichstaedt, General Manager of the University of Massachusetts Club
- Valerie Maurer, General Manager of the Commonwealth Restaurant
- Emily Boudreau, Assistant Manager of Franklin Dining Commons
- Martha Monaghan, Special Events Manager
- Mike Kacprzyk, Assistant Manager of Berkshire Dining Commons
- Paul MacGregor, Assistant Manager of Franklin Dining Commons
- Pete Allard, Assistant Manager of Hampshire Dining Commons
- Carl Ketchen, Assistant Manager of Worcester Dining Commons
- Amy Cuff, Assistant Manager of Berkshire Dining Commons
- And the student ambassadors and culinary workers who make it happen every single day
The chicken puck is a long way back. There are challenges ahead. Looking forward to seeing how we navigate them creatively.
Read the full Wall Street Journal article here (Paywall): It’s one of the hottest tables in America, and it’s a college dining hall.
