One day in May many years ago, I was one of a group of panelists talking about trends in non-commercial foodservice at the Foodservice Consultants Society International’s annual meeting in Chicago during the National Restaurant Show.
One of the trends I identified was the growing movement on college campuses to turn their student centers into food courts. They mimicked the popular shopping mall dining venues by attracting commercial fast food concepts such as Burger King, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and the like. If memory serves, at the time of the panel discussion, Michigan State University had just opened a food court in its student center with no fewer than seven national brands.
I didn’t hide my disappointment at this trend. I probably had been covering college foodservice for six or seven years and I was in awe of some of the innovations going on in the business. Where other outsiders saw mystery meats, unidentifiable entrées, rubbery eggs and lack of choice, I saw all the foodservice potential being realized on college campuses and all the culinary talent being cultivated, and it was exciting to write about.
And now, it seemed, universities were starting to turn their backs on all that talent and mall-ify their campuses. I told the consultants that I feared college foodservice directors were in danger of becoming landlords, mere stewards of other brands, instead of being the innovators I admired. Once that image was fully ingrained in the heads of the campus bean counters, I added, how long would it be before foodservice professionals were being replaced with real estate managers and administrators had given in to what I considered to be that lowest common denominator?
In the more than 20 years since I raised that question, nothing of the sort has transpired, for several reasons. The model was too expensive for many colleges to commit to. Food manufacturers came to the rescue by creating “house” brands that foodservices could customize for a fraction of the cost. Most important, many directors found that they could coexist with commercial brands by focusing on their strengths. For example, if a campus foodservice program was known for its pizzas it would capitalize on that, while letting a national brand sell something else, like burgers.
Through the ensuing years, commercial brands have remained in the mix. But the brands are skewing more local these days, as universities live up to their pledge to be more sustainable and support the local environment.
What I saw back in the early ’90s was, to my young mind, a brewing revolution, a potential palace coup. What it was, in truth, was simply an evolution. Instead of a takeover, a symbiosis has occurred, and I think college foodservice is the better for it.