

Nothing brings me more joy than to see our campuses returning for a new semester. At the very heart of that is our people, whose resil ience the last few years has been humbling and inspiring.
This month I was pleased to cele brate many of them during the Compass Night of Stars as well as during our second annual You First Day. Our teams are again working hard to promote togeth erness on campus as we return with four signature JoyFul events – the first being Fall FestiFul that saw the largest farmers market on a college campus. We hope you can join us as we continue to create moments of joy through food.
The
CEO, Chartwells Higher Education
ThankFul returns on November 16, with the ThankFul Table.
This Friendsgiving event will take place at 300 campuses nationwide as we promote togetherness and gratitude with what brings everyone together – a great meal. We will be donating 45,000 meals to help fight food insecurity as we head into the holiday season and host activities
that focus on gratitude. This year we are incorporating a Teaching Kitch en event into our celebrations where students and guests will be invited to create Mini Pumpkin Pies and Apple Pie Parfaits, one for them and one to give to a friend. Join us at our ThankFul Table on November 16.
Students at the University of Miami participate in the Largest Farmers Market on a College Campus with Fall FestiFul.
reCognizing our exTraordinary people Through Compass group’s premier be a sTar program
As the premier recognition program within Compass Group, Be a Star is one of the highest honors our teams can receive.
These awards are presented to team members that go above and beyond the call of duty, creating positive impacts and influence on their peers, our guests and our communities. These difference mak ers truly embody the culture of Chartwells Higher Education.
On October 11, we were delighted to host the Compass Night of Stars, where each of our winners
traveled to Orlando, Florida, to spend time with CEO Lisa McEuen and their winning peers for a night of celebration. The teams enjoyed an amaz ing dinner, live performances, and being personally honored on stage to receive their awards.
Our JoyFest series returned on October 6 when our teams at 300 colleges and universi ties across the country came together to create the lower case largest farmers market on a college campus. Featur ing local vendors and partner
ships, this event was geared toward building community by connecting guests and stu dents directly with the farmers that are responsible for grow ing their food. Campuses ex panded on the event with ev erything from create your own
bouquet of flowers and paint your own pumpkin stations to fresh fall recipe takeovers and pumpkin tic-tac-toe. We are so excited to continue to grow our JoyFul series this year as we connect and build community through food.
University of Florida Gators at the University of Florida enjoyed their first JoyFul event! As their new dining partner, our team featured produce from Florida farmers, giveaways, a photo booth, and more! Additionally, Florida Fresh Dining donated meals to the campus pantry and
featured “A Taste of Gainesville” by supporting ten local restau rants to provide complimentary samples during JoyFul, including Mi Apa’s Cuban sandwiches, Dank Cakes vegan desserts and Flavorful LLC’s West-African pine apple ginger juice.
Babson’s FestiFul was complete with a Farmers Market celebrat ing local partners, as well as lo cal produce, specialty crops, a fall-themed lunch menu, free re usable bags, pumpkin iced cof fee, gelato donut sandwiches, Bindi Desserts, a photo booth,
Wichita State University had a fantastic JoyFul Day with its Fes tiFul Event. The team featured a huge farmers market that show cased local vendors such as Lof fredo produce, Farris Wheel Candies and Reverie Roasters. Their catering team “wow’d”
lawn games, and live music. If that wasn’t enough, the team invited the university RecFit assis tant strength and conditioning coach to teach a high-energy pumpkin weightlifting class!
guests with a flower market that was the most popular station of the day. In addition, the team had a henna tattoo station, pumpkin tic-tac-toe and more!
Our Chartwells YouFirst program recognizes and devel ops our extraordinary team. This year, we were so proud to again celebrate YouFirst Day on October 12, our an nual day of recognition across all 300 of our campuses nationwide. YouFirst Day is our time to celebrate the ones that make it all happen — from engaging student events to creative culinary creations and Homecoming extravaganzas, our people always deliver.
In honor of YouFirst Day this year, the team at the University of Memphis treated their associates to an upscale catered lunch with a variety of asso ciate’s favorite foods. They also had activities for the associates, such as team superlative awards with give away opportunities for an iPad, and a photo op wall!
NYU celebrated YouFirst Day in style with hand-written thank you notes to each of their associates as well as an amazing raffle for great prizes. Win ners had the chance of scoring sweaters, gift cards, and more with the grand prize being a 50” TV!
We’re reimagining The Campus dining
University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte Greens begins with good food and a vision to re imagine what “fast” food can be. Charlotte Greens’ plant-for ward menus are a representa tion of this very same ideology. This past August, the UNC Char lotte opened Charlotte Greens,
serving up a variety of delicious veggie-forward bowls made of fresh, flavorful ingredients that focus on wellness and quality.
Bowling Green State University (BGSU) Dining has completely overhauled their largest all-youcare-to-eat facility, Oaks Dining Center, into “Social House,” a new dining facility experience dedicated to creating fun, inter active spaces for students to eat, gather and play. Over the
summer of 2022, BGSU’s team revamped station menus, de veloped student-centric pro gramming and collaborations, installed new games and graph ics, and overhauled the interi or’s design for a complete trans formation focused on gathering. New at District House
The George Washington Univer sity proudly launched District House this semester, a revamped dining hall on the Foggy Bottom campus. This dining space fea tures new options, such as True Burger, Halal Shack, D.C. Taco House, Crisp and DH Pizza & Pas ta Co. It also has the latest in
technology including text confir mations, mobile ordering and ordering kiosks for a streamlined dining experience.
Our newest partnership with HowGood, an independent research company with the world’s largest database on ingredient and product sustainability, is now empowering our guests to make more sustainable food choices.
On menu boards nationwide, guests can now determine the en vironmental and social impact of many of the foods they eat with HowGood’s climate labeling. Evaluated based on eight impact metrics including greenhouse gas emissions, processing, water us age, soil health, land use, working conditions, biodiversity, and ani mal welfare, the data is used to determine which recipes have the best relative impact compared to conventional foods.
UChicago’s Partnership with One Family Farm is just its latest example of a mission-focused initiative to col laborate with Minority-Owned Ur ban Farm Solutions. This initiative provides farmland protection, land access and removes barriers to en try for minority farmers.
Based on previous purchases and projected forecasts, during the 2022
to 2023 academic year they esti mate buying nearly 40,000 pounds of kale, 14,000 pounds of arugula, 65,000 pounds of green peppers, and various amounts of other pro duce from minority- and wom en-owned partnering farms.
With a commitment to helping busi nesses scale-up their operations, UChicago Dining provides resourc
es, information and ongoing support to these businesses. This, in turn, helps improve the socioeconomic status of the local community, edu cate and enhance the student ex perience at UChicago, and provide sustainable income for their small business partners.
“I grew up in the Metro area in Puerto Rico. My fa ther, Antonio, was born in New York but raised in Puerto Rico and my mother, Norma, was born and raised in Puerto Rico.
I began my studies as a biology major because I wanted to become a veterinarian. Life took a fun turn, and I ended up working in a restaurant for a semester. This experience changed my entire ca reer choice. I loved every bit of the hectic and creative lifestyle restaurants provided. The next se mester, I enrolled in a culinary management pro gram and never looked back.
Every time I go to Puerto Rico, my mom makes my favorite meal, “serenata de bacalo,” which is a traditional dish made mostly during the holidays or over Easter to substitute meat. It is salted cod that
has been washed completely to take off the salt and thrown into an “escabeche” (a classic type of pickling process) with onions, peppers, herbs and spices. It is served over a mixture of sweet and savory root vegetables.
I think my culture has made me a very strong wom an. Being brought up the way I was encouraged me to be very inclusive and open-minded. To smile and enjoy my days, even while being away from my family. It is my foundation, and I proudly walk around every day knowing it made me who I am.”