Valentine Dining Hall
Valentine Dining Hall, well known throughout the college as “Val”, is the gathering place of our campus community. Our students enjoy meals in our spacious and sunny Valentine Hall, designed with a central serving area and numerous small seating areas for groups of students to share meals.
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Dining
Sustainability
⭐ Dining
Our mission in Val and dining services as a whole is to provide our students an exceptional dining experience with a commitment to fresh, and sustainable food. At Val, students enjoy breakfasts, lunch and dinners crafted from fresh and sustainable ingredients.
Meal Plans
Valentine offers two meal plans—an all-inclusive “3 Meals/7 Days” plan and a “Lunch & Dinner + ‘Bonus Bucks’” plan. All food is prepared by Amherst College Dining Services instead of a national or regional service. Students can enjoy a full range of menu choices—traditional fare, pizza, stir-fry, grill, deli, pasta, and salad bars. Menus offer fresh, natural, low-fat, vegetarian, and heart-healthy options, as well as kosher options at holidays. The Dining Services staff is happy to work with students with special dietary needs, and the dining hall has extended hours to accommodate a variety of student schedules.
Food Stations
The "Do It Yourself" Station
If you enjoy cooking, or want to craft your own signature dish, you can have fun in this area of Val. Waffle makers and panini grills are available every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our stir-fry station is available Monday through Sunday for dinner service only. These cooking stations provide support for dairy free, gluten free, nut free and soy free needs.
"Traditions"
Providing for your breakfast, lunch and dinner dining needs, are the dishes enjoyed from our “Traditions” Station. Comfort foods from throughout the world are showcased here. You'll find many of your favorites and enjoy new experiences in dishes skillfully prepared and offered by our Culinary and Service Teams.
Salad Bar
Our salad bar greets you daily with a vast variety of fresh, seasonal soups, salads and deli sandwich choices. Fresh, local ingredients compose our offerings, you can find vegetarian favorites such as house-made hummus, quality offerings of deli meats and cheeses for sandwich needs, hot soups from our kitchen and fresh baked desserts. Don't forget our Sunrise Smoothie Bar in the morning!
Pizza
Offering freshly prepared cheese and pepperoni pizzas and Chef’s daily specials. Cheese-less and sauce-less are available upon request. We love trying new recipes, so bring us your ideas!
The Lighter Side
The menu offerings served on [The Lighter Side] station are made to accommodate your health conscious lifestyle and dietary choices. Fresh, seasonal and local ingredients are crafted, with respect to balanced options and wellbeing. Simple and natural is our approach to the dishes you'll find here.
Pasta & Val Extras
This station provides a selection of daily specials during lunch and a Pasta Bar with a variety of pastas and sauces during the dinner meal.
Allergen Friendly Area
Customers that dine with sensitivities to certain foods may find comfort in our Allergen Friendly Area. Dairy replacements, "Gluten Free" friendly items and much more are located here for your dining pleasure.
Late Night Dining
Val is open 9:30pm-Midnight, Tuesday-Saturday, to accommodate your late night needs! They also share their menus on their Instagram page @amherstcollegedining.
Lewis-Sebring Commons
The Lewis-Sebring Commons is located in Valentine Hall. This dining area is open to all faculty, staff, administrators and guests of Amherst College. Faculty, staff and administrators are welcomed to bring student guests to lunch.
⭐ Sustainability
Amherst College Dining Services strives to ensure environmental sustainability and reduce its carbon footprint in all of its dealings.
Book & Plow Farm
Book & Plow is our own personal farm right on campus! The team believes strongly in long-term sustainability of the land and farm. What this means is that for the past eight years, B&P has been cover cropping, applying compost, and developing ways to increase soil health and the surrounding ecology. We follow integrated pest management and use organic growing practices. The farm is now part of the Campus Dining Services at Amherst College.
Recycling and Composting
Our campus recycling is single stream. Recycling bins for paper and bottles & cans are located in the Campus Center Cafe and other areas within the Campus Center. Food trim and post consumer is composed. Bins for this use are located at the exit of Val. We use compostable plates, cups and wares in catering and campus wide events.
Bottled Water
As part of the College’s ongoing commitment to waste reduction and environmental sustainability, Amherst College Dining Services has been significantly reducing its use of bottled water over the past few years and the environmental impacts thereof. As the final step in that process, Amherst is eliminating the use of bottled water in the Student Dining Hall and Catering operations.
Through these waste reduction efforts, Dining Services has eliminated the use of approximately 20,000 plastic bottles each year. Doing so will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by not burning the equivalent of 102 gallons of gasoline per year.
Local Vendors
Amherst College values the hard work and quality contributions of our local Farmers, Seafarers, Ranchers and Producers. Last year over half of our purchases were made through relationships within 150 miles of the college. We will continue to work on developing more of these quality relationships in years to come. Amherst College is also a member of CISA’s (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) Local Hero Campaign.
The addition of the Book and Plow Farm to our program has had a tremendous impact to the quality and diversity of our produce.
Amherst College Dining Services, in the spirit of continued support of our local community, works cooperatively with shelters, charities and survival centers, to provide donated food throughout the year. We have had excellent relationships for many years with these different organizations and will continue to in the many years to come.
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