Dining at Mills
Natural foods sustain your body while supporting your values.
Emphasizing organic and fresh local ingredients, Mills offers a range of delicious food choices to accommodate a variety of palettes. In addition to regular, vegetarian, and vegan dishes, we serve Fair Trade coffee, use earth-friendly practices in our dining halls, and host special dinners for celebrations such as Native American Heritage Month, Black History Month, and Earth Week.
We offer a choice of convenient meal plans (and one of the top 15 best college meal plans in the country)—and three dining locations—that cater to both residential and commuter students.
Founders Commons—with its panoramic views of the Mills campus and the Oakland hills—is our primary dining hall, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week.
The Tea Shop and Café Suzie are our casual eating options where you can dine in or take your food outside to enjoy some sun on Adams Plaza or Toyon Meadow.
At the Tea Shop you can choose from hot foods, soup and salad, freshly prepared and packaged cold foods, and an extensive beverage selection—perfect for a quick lunch between classes.
Café Suzie is an intimate space with extended hours (for late-night studying and java) and serves fresh espresso, snacks, and specialty food items, such as tossed summer salads and breakfast and desert crepes.
Socially Responsible Dining
Mills has implemented a number of programs throughout its dining halls to ensure that we are socially responsible. Mills received a first place award for its use of foodservice organics from RecycleMania, a nationwide recycling competition for colleges and universities. Other sustainable dining efforts include:
- Founders Commons Dining Hall diverts 97% of its waste to composting. Only 3% goes into the garbage.
- Almost every item from the Tea Shop and Café Suzie is compostable, from paper cups and napkins to utensils and to-go containers.
- Mills eliminated non-recyclable, single-serving plastic condiment packages in favor of permanent, reusable dispensers.
- In an effort to conserve water, Mills now goes "trayless" in its main dining hall.
- Reuse containers are available for getting food to go.