SUNY Erie South Brings Hot Foods Back With Taste of Diversity Mondays
Erie County Level Up, supported by the Buffalo Bills and in partnership with SUNY Erie, is bringing hot food back to SUNY Erie South Campus. Erie County Level Up has announced The Taste of Diversity, a new initiative that brings five black-owned area restau-rants to the south campus cafeteria every Monday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The groups hosted a kickoff celebration for SUNY Erie students, faculty, Buffalo Bills staff, and stadium construction workers to order meals, meet the restaurant owners and learn more about the initiative. The program runs through January 2024.
The Taste of Diversity features restaurant owners enrolled in the Erie County Level Up program. Participants are from disadvantaged backgrounds and operate in underserved zip codes across Western New York.
“When we talk about how a new economy must include ‘opportunities for all’, Taste of Diversity is an example of how to create opportunities for disadvantaged small businesses”, said Erie County Legislature Chair-woman April N.M. Baskin. “I am excited to partner with the Buffalo Bills and SUNY Erie to showcase a few of Erie County’s finest restaurants at South Campus and for the stadium construction work-ers. The Taste of Diversity will be a delicious first step towards equity in food service at SUNY Erie and the new stadium.”
The new initiative will prepare each minority owned restaurant to compete for concessionary opportunities at the new stadium. According to the Buffalo Bills community benefits agreement, the new stadium requires 30% of concessionaires to be a local minority or women owned business enterprise. The Buffalo Bills have committed to providing small business grants for this project.
Participating Taste of Diversity SUNY Erie restaurants include:
Manna @ Northland
Radah Baked Goods
Em Tea Coffee Cup Café
Crenshaw’s Chicken and Waffles
Golden Cup Coffee
The SUNY Erie South Campus cafeteria, which has been dormant for the past four years, was considered the perfect training ground for Taste of Diversity participants to learn to work in a fast-paced kitchen in a stadium-like concession setting. In addition, the new program fills the need for quick, hot, and healthy meals for students and faculty at SUNY Erie South Campus.