Kathy Butler: Serving up meals that are tasty and nutritious

The gooey homemade macaroni and cheese that's served by the spoonfuls in UNT's residence hall cafeterias is Kathy Butler's personal recipe. So are the recipes for the icing on the decorated cakes and the cheese sauce on the enchiladas.

Students can thank the associate director of Dining Services for her tasty culinary contributions to the UNT residence hall cafeteria menus, as well as for making sure that students' favorite food choice, chicken strips, is always plentiful.

"We try to serve the students," Butler says. "Dining Services conducted a student survey about what foods students liked the most and clearly our most popular item was chicken strips."

When Butler joined the university 15 years ago, she began as a nutritionist/trainer for Dining Services. She was later promoted to assistant director and then to associate director.

"My husband found the job listing (for the nutritionist/trainer position) and thought it would be a good idea that I apply. I was working as a dietician for Flow Hospital shortly before it closed," she says. She is married to Don Butler, systems manager in the Computing Center.

Butler finds the variety of her work is appealing. She serves as a nutritionist planning menus and as a data keeper and manager. She was instrumental in implementing the Food Service Suite database system. The software provides menu planning, cost analysis, recipe control, inventory control and nutrition analysis, among other functions.

Butler is now in the process of training her co-workers to use the new database system.

"My to-do list is always packed with something new," Butler says.

Butler's co-worker, Martha Phillips, has been a food production manager since 1968 at UNT and has known Butler since she started working here.

"Kathy has a lot of knowledge and she has a lot to share," Phillips says. "She's my computer guru and just has such a pleasant demeanor and is great to be around. She's a positive person and she makes working more enjoyable."

Butler earned her bachelor's degree in food and nutrition and home economics education from Texas Tech University in 1971 and later attended Texas Woman's University, earning a master's degree in nutrition in 1983.

When she is not planning meals for UNT students, Butler enjoys growing roses and traveling. She went on an Alaskan cruise last summer and is planning another vacation soon.

Right now, Butler and her co-workers in Dining Services are working to enter menus and recipes into the new computer system in preparation for the 2002-03 academic year. Menus are nearly completed for the fall, and students can be sure that Butler's homemade gooey macaroni and cheese will be making a few appearances in the cafeterias again next semester.

BY MICHELLE GARCIA paiswri1@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue:

• Regents confirm Lee Jackson as new UNT System chancellor
• There's a new bird on campus
• Summer graduation is Aug. 10
• About the commencement speaker
• Mean Green Village to return to practice field for Homecoming 2002
• UNT enters agreement with Mexican university
• 2002 Summer II enrollment climbs 8.5 percent over 2001
• UNT professor works to predict a fire's probable pathway
• UNT group ranks among the world's best computer security teams

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