Food company cashes in on student praise for chicken dish

Men's basketball is not the only group on a hot streak at the University. Barber Foods is winning too. Dining service users in last spring's hospitality services survey rated the company's chicken with broccoli and cheese stuffing as their favorite entree. And now, a printed advertisement for Barber Foods proclaims: Barber Foods Wins at Penn. Barber Foods Advertising Director Lauren Spalding said the ad will continue to run in trade magazines such as Food Management and Food Service Director for the next six months. She said the Maine-based company's advertisement has encouraged "positive response [and] inquiries" from other universities which the company serves. The chicken company's current ad is the first one to use a university name to sell any of its products, Spalding said last week. And Hospitality Services Director Don Jacobs said this is probably the "first and last" time a food company will use the University in its advertising. He said University attorneys advised him not to give any other companies authorization in the future to use the University's name. Jacobs, who has been with Hospitality Services for 17 years, said his department always shares the results of its bi-annual surveys with the companies which service the University. He said Dining Services uses the the surveys as an indication of what foods students like and dislike. For example, he said that as a result of its high rating last year, chicken with broccoli and cheese is now served in dining halls at least once every two weeks. Jacobs said that he reviewed the advertisement's wording with Barber Foods representatives to insure that the ad did not say that the University as a whole was supporting the product. He said students picked chicken with broccoli and cheese as their favorite dish, and the administration is "not endorsing" the product. Through the ad's text -- "Like most college students, those at Penn know a good thing when they taste it" -- Spalding said Barber Foods respresentatives "want people to be aware that we're proud of our service."