The final candidate interviewing for the ISU Dining director position led the last open forum at 11 a.m. in the Cardinal room of the Memorial Union on Friday.

Currently the general manager and director of operations for dining services at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, John Gaughan began his presentation on “Three National Trends in Campus Dining and how they can impact Iowa State University.”

“I’m here to interview you as you interview me for the candidacy of director,” Gaughan said.

Speaking to a room of about 15 people, Gaughan opened with a quick overview of his résumé involving his experience with the food industry. Gaughan noted that his experience with traveling around and opening up several schools is a fundamental aspect to his career and knowledge of the industry.

“Trends are funny,” Gaughan said. The three trends in campus dining that Gaughan recognized were an awareness on environmental issues, sustainability and community service, a push on physical and food safety and current food trends such as abnormal eating habits of students.

Gaughan talked about how more universities have been building to enhance power savings and long-term sustainability through waste management.

Gaughan outlined several points of handling waste at Iowa State.

He hopes to implement the Food Recovery Network, which is a national organization that collects unused portions from the dining centers and donates them to local church and organizations to feed people in need.

Another push that Gaughan made was to encourage better student and food safety.

“With 1,700 student workers putting in five to 20 hours per week, is it possible to give them enough training to keep themselves and our guest safe?” Gaughan said.

Recalling a story of a young girl who got injured while working a machine at his current job, Gaughan hopes to improve the safety at Iowa State by training and regularly discussing safety to integrate it into the ISU Dining culture.

Gaughan also discussed food safety, recalling the latest food mishap with Chipotle.

The last trend that Gaughan recognized is the correlation between Generation Z and healthy or organic foods.

“The current generation of students are born ‘foodies,’” Gaughan said. “Expectations of world cuisines and massive amounts of information from a variety of sources create a knowledge base far superior to previous generations.”

Gaughan hopes to adapt to Generation Z by buying locally-sourced meats and produce, minimizing processed foods, adding authentic cuisine and condiments to meals, changing operation hours to meet schedules and adding more “in-house” items.

Overall, Gaughan hopes to create a healthier way of eating for students.

The last point Gaughan touched on was using technology to aid the students in ordering and connecting with dining centers.

“[Technology] will continue to grow in our lives, creating opportunities we haven’t even dreamed of yet,” Gaughan said.

He stated that this can be done by remote retail ordering, creating specials online and posting food items onto Instagram.

“We need to communicate via technology to get their attention,” Gaughan said.

The forum allotted a quick Q&A session after Gaughan’s presentation.