Virginia Tech's award-winning dining program has been recognized once again for excellence in foodservice. Restaurants & Institutions magazine recently named Student Programs' Housing and Dining Services a nominee for the 2007 Ivy Award, honoring the best foodservice professionals in the industry.

Each year past Ivy Award winners nominate commercial and non-commercial foodservice organizations for this award—one of the most highly esteemed and coveted awards in the industry. Nominees are then elected by the R&I subscription pool of 154,000 trade professionals, making the Ivy Award a prestigious symbol of acknowledgment from foodservice industry peers. All readers who receive a subscription to the magazine are invited to cast their votes by Feb. 2 using the ballot included in the January issue of R&I.

Virginia Tech’s dining program is no stranger to recognition for excellence in foodservice. Last year, the Princeton Review’s annual publication, Best 361 Colleges, 2007, ranked Virginia Tech No. 2 in its “Best Campus Food” category, up from No. 9 in previous years’ rankings. The university received an Outstanding Design Award from American School & University magazine for D2, the all-you-care-to-eat dining center renovated in 2004, and the National Association of College and University Food Services has presented Virginia Tech’s Housing and Dining Services with 26 Loyal E. Horton Dining Contest awards since 1992. The dining program has received additional national awards for D2, West End Market, and Deet’s Place dining centers, and for numerous special programs and events.

“We are honored to be nominated for the prestigious Ivy Award,” said Rick Johnson, director of Housing and Dining Services. “This nomination is especially meaningful because each nominee must be selected by a past winner. This means that Virginia Tech dining services has been recognized for doing an outstanding job by someone who has been judged by their peers to be one of the best in the business.”

The winners of this year’s Ivy Award will be featured in the May issue of R&I. They will also be invited to attend an award ceremony during the National Restaurant Association Show in May, when they will be formally inducted into the Ivy Society. The society was founded in 1971 to recognize and reward the top foodservice organizations in the business. Its membership includes representatives from the nearly 300 winners since the award’s inception.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech is the most comprehensive university in the Commonwealth of Virginia and is among the top research universities in the nation. Today, Virginia Tech’s eight colleges are dedicated to quality, innovation, and results through teaching, research, and outreach activities. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.

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