Eagle Dining Services is working to provide Georgia Southern University students with readily available nutritional information on the food served in The NEST.

In the meantime, students may make a request for the information from Brittany Parham, nutritional director of Eagle Dining Services, or Jason Pickard, executive chef of Eagle Dining Services.

Currently the information is not readily available for a student’s viewing at the facility. Eagle Dining is currently in the process of choosing a software to present the information, Parham said.

Eagle Dining is working on compiling a database that will be available online and a brochure form of the nutritional information, Pickard said.

Eagle Dining is looking at different software to house the nutritional information such as NetNutrition, FoodPro and EatTech, Michael Murphy, marketing coordinator of Eagle Dining Services, said.

It is unclear when the program will be ready because of the processes of approving the project, finding a project manager and approving the software, Murphy said.

“I think the biggest thing is even though that it’s not available right now, it can be told to the students, students can find out that information if they ask for it,” Valerie Thompson, senior administrative coordinator of Eagle Dining Services, said.

“They can find out by asking me because I have the information. It’s really on a request basis,” Pickard said.

Students can email Pickard or Parham to request the information and schedule a tour if they have medical issues.

The biggest nutritional concerns are not so much calorie count and fat count, but it is more gluten-free and vegetarian concerns. Some students choose to eat like that, for others it is medically necessary.

Students with medical needs have to go through a process with Parham to find the best food for them at all of the campus facilities.

Parham takes such students to all of the facilities and introduces them to the managers and chefs, and they are aware of who is there to help them.

“The percentage of students who have these concerns is very small. We don’t want them to be neglected at all,” Pickard said.

Parham has her contact information available to students on business cards at The NEST and on a newsletter that she sends out which are available at the RAC, Pickle Barrel, The Market at Centennial and the Wellness Center.