Getting That Bread: Cornell Dining’s Mystery Shopper Program

For many students with meal plans, the Mystery Shopper Program has been a long-time subject of curiosity. Aiming to recognize outstanding eateries and improve the dining experience, this initiative is real and offers students the dream job: to eat meals at select cafes and dining halls on an hourly wage in addition to reimbursement for the meal. All that’s required is a brief online review preceded by subtle, discrete and unannounced visits to dining units. 

In late February, the opportunity was formally opened to students with a meal plan during Spring of 2024. Now, over a month later, there are 70 total mystery shoppers traveling to 29 different dining units. Started by former Assistant Director Of Staff Training & Development Therese O’Connor, the program has expanded dramatically over the years, helping Cornell maintain its reputation and high rankings, such as having the second “Best Campus Food” per the Princeton Review.

Aunt Flow’s Kitchen Disrupts the Flow of Menstrual Stigma

Growing up with gut-twisting menstrual cramps, Armita Jamshidi ‘25 (majoring in Computer Science and College Scholar, focusing on the intersection between entrepreneurship and women’s health) knew one thing: she didn’t deserve to suffer through her pain. Uncomfortable with the possible long-term consequences of traditional pain medication, Jamshidi instead relied on her grandma’s soothing Middle-Eastern recipes. Inspired by these recipes, she launched her small business in 2022 as She Balls. Now known as Aunt Flow’s Kitchen, her company is dedicated to helping menstruators mitigate period cramps with grandma-approved “Cramp Bites.”

Coming to Cornell, Jamshidi was unable to replicate her comfort foods due to there being no Middle Eastern grocery stores in a local radius. As her cramps worsened, she ended up in the E.R. and struggled to get through daily life.

LEVIN | The Yellow Deli: A Response to The Sun’s Dining Department

I was thumbing through The Cornell Daily Sun’s print edition the other week and landed on The Yellow Deli: A Cornell Sun Review. Never have I been so startled by a food review. Many Cornellians who oppose bigotry know by now to avoid the Yellow Deli, a local eatery owned and operated by the Twelve Tribes — an alleged white supremacist religious cult — but apparently one food critic at our newspaper does not. To him, The Yellow Deli serves such remarkable fare that he had to go there twice and pen two columns about the restaurant (the second of which is the subject of this op-ed).