Campus dining services have evolved significantly since Harvard University opened the country’s first college dining hall in 1766. Today, the prestigious school serves an average of 22,000 meals a day, or 5 million meals annually. Harvard and many other colleges and universities leverage their food service programs in their marketing efforts to attract new students and faculty, claiming “personalized options,” five-star culinary experiences,” and “farm-fresh, local offerings.”
However, customized salad stations, wood brick pizza ovens, and panini bars in the campus dining halls may no longer be enough to get you a spot on one of the many “best college dining” lists.
Today, some colleges have dining halls within dormitories, kosher-only dining halls, farm-to-table options, fully immersive culture experiences, and even call-ahead pick-up windows to enable students to skip the lines. Meanwhile, many schools have also formed partnerships with local restaurants and national retail chains to enable students to use ‘dining dollars’ at these establishments. Options have become the name of the game.
While economics, competition and student satisfaction are the driving forces behind these moves, more recently, other factors have come into play causing dining service directors to think outside the box to redefine their business models further. One of those factors is the recent pandemic. It’s been more than two years since COVID first upended the lives of nearly twenty million U.S. college students and wreaked havoc on college campuses as well as all other congregate settings. That part is well known. What’s not as well-known is the creative ways some schools have responded to ensure student and staff needs for safe and healthy on-campus food and beverage services are met.
Steve Shaheen is the CEO of Definitive Technology Group. Steve co-founded Definitive Technology Group to help companies in a wide range of industries solve workflow problems and decrease costs by leveraging the power of mobility.
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