Residency coordinators and program advisors oversee much of the day-to-day operations of medical school training programs, from helping to craft career goals for trainees to planning educational activities and future training experiences for residents. And then there’s the task of organizing the meal programs.
Though providing food perks isn’t necessarily part of the job description, planning menus and coordinating meals for medical school training programs often falls on residency program professionals’ shoulders. But with so much already on your plate, you simply don’t have the bandwidth to figure out the food on students’ plates too.
Fortunately, companies like ezCater are designed to not only streamline the ordering process but also simplify the challenges of keeping hard-working residents well-fed. Let’s take a look at how you can organize medical school meal programs — without the extra fuss — with trusted ezCater solutions.
Simplifying meal programs for student engagement
Food perks are a mainstay in residency programs, both as a program differentiator and as a student engagement tool. Being that most medical residents aren’t highly paid, meal benefits help offset some cost of living expenses, and create convenient meal options for residents with demanding schedules.
However, there’s a considerable amount of legwork for the residency coordinators and program administrators who are responsible for organizing these benefits — especially when meal programs are far from their only job.
Between complex points-to-food programs, limited on-campus dining options, and varying stipends for off-campus meals, residency meal programs can be complicated and time consuming to coordinate. If you feel like you’re spending more energy sourcing meal solutions than on your primary job responsibilities, rest assured there are better ways to feed students.
Top challenges of student food programs (and how to solve them)
Catering to diverse dietary needs
Chances are, you have residents with specific dietary restrictions and preferences in your program, and the stakes feel high because they aren’t always obvious. For instance, some students have food allergies to peanuts or shellfish, whereas others have Celiac disease and require a gluten-free diet.
There are also ethical and religious dietary needs, like residents who adhere to vegetarian, vegan, halal, and kosher diets. Ensuring that food options are inclusive and accessible is crucial when trying to craft healthy student meals, but it can also complicate the planning process.
Enter ezCater. Rather than calling individual restaurants or skimming dozens of menus to find the right vendor, ezCater allows you to filter nearby restaurants by specific dietary restrictions and preferences, so all student needs can be met. It’s a big time-saver. With just a few clicks, you’ll have all the options right in front of you.
Balancing healthy student meals with variety
Speaking of versatile vendors, a key goal is to provide healthy, balanced meals that still deliver on taste.
Residents have demanding schedules. After several hours on their feet, something deep-fried or ultra-sweet might hit the spot — but neither option will keep them fueled for the training sessions or long hours ahead.
When you’re feeling conflicted about how to promote healthy eating habits while satisfying student cravings, ezCater can help. With a nationwide network of reputable restaurants, all you need to do is use our filtering tool to find vendors that can provide healthy student meals that are still pleasing to the palate. With a network of 100,000 national and local restaurants, you can easily find food that satisfies everyone on your team (even picky eaters).
Just a few clicks can connect you with local vendors that offer tasty but wholesome dishes, like:
- Burrito bowls loaded with fresh toppings
- Wrap sandwiches piled with condiments
- Pasta dishes packed with protein
Meeting tight timelines
It’s not just medical school residents that have demanding schedules — program administrators have taxing workloads too. Even on a slow day, the limited timespan to place catering orders that will arrive on time for scheduled lunch breaks or set training sessions can feel, well, limiting.
With ezCater, you can connect with restaurant partners that will support both the day and time you need food, whether it’s for a super early training session or an overnight shift. The best part? You can order in advance, at a time that works best for you.
Simply set a specific day, time, and location for your food to arrive.
You’ll receive real-time notifications with around-the-clock support to ensure that student meals arrive exactly when needed (and as expected). Plus, most restaurants will even let you edit your order before the cut-off period, which is typically 24 hours before your delivery date.
Managing order logistics
Forget manual spreadsheets for organizing food orders. When catering services are scattered and residents’ dietary needs are varied, managing multiple food orders is easier with a partner like ezCater.
With ezCater’s Corporate Solutions you can place all your orders in one convenient dashboard, simplifying order logistics and saving you previous time and effort. After all, why manually organize what a system can digitize?
You can also offer group ordering, so students can make their own menu selections for group meals.
By letting residents select their own meals, you can relieve the administrative burden while boosting student engagement — it’s a win-win. Residents who feel in control of their meal benefits are more likely to take advantage of them.
Tackling tax forms
Let’s address the elephant in the room: tax-exempt certification. No one wants to sit on the phone explaining your program’s tax-exempt status to vendors or wait hours for each restaurant to confirm your tax-exempt certificate, especially with such a tight schedule.
With ezCater, tax-exempt ordering is as simple as 1, 2, 3. Upload your tax-exempt status to your ezCater corporate account once, we’ll apply the correct state tax certificate based on your program’s location, and then you can order from over 100,000 restaurants nationwide. It’s that easy.
Your one-time upload will be applied to all other team member profiles on the account, so anyone in your department can manage upcoming orders with your tax-exempt status. Whether you need individual meals for resident lunches or catering for training sessions, we’ve got you covered.
Meal programs that benefit the entire residency program
No doubt, meal benefits are an attractive student engagement tool for program residents. But for program coordinators with an already packed schedule, they can add extra stress. Why not keep it simple? Learn more about how ezCater’s Corporate Solutions can simplify meal benefits for residency programs (and program coordinators) today.
