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2023 FM College Power Players: the South

Here’s what’s going on at some prominent college dining programs in the South this spring.

Mike Buzalka, Executive Features Editor

May 12, 2023

15 Slides
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College dining is returning to normal after the disruptions of the pandemic, and this 2023 edition of FM’s annual College Power Players listing takes a look at some of the prominent programs in the country with four geographical listings (East, South, Midwest, West) for the sake of convenience. FM had sent solicitation for information to about a hundred schools from around the country and received responses from a majority, which are all reflected in this and the other three geographically themed galleries.

We asked each school to provide an update primarily in three areas: what remnants of COVID era policies were still in place in their dining program, what was the status of pre/remote ordering on their campus and what recent additions have they made to their program in terms of new concepts, venues, technologies, services, etc.

From the responses generally, it seems clear that the college dining community is pretty much back to pre-COVID normal except for one factor: the pandemic has accelerated the trend to remote ordering to the point where even schools that had planned to cut back on this service were forced to backtrack in the face of customer demand. In fact, a fair number of schools report that the remote order option even extends to traditional residential dining halls, often with some takeout component—another pandemic legacy.

Here are the schools in this listing with links to their respective profile page in the following gallery…

Clemson University

Duke University

Georgia Tech

Liberty University

North Carolina State University

Oklahoma State University

Texas A&M

Texas State University

Texas Tech

University of Alabama

University of Georgia

University of Houston

University of North Texas

University of Oklahoma

University of South Carolina

University of Virginia

Virginia Tech

About the Author

Mike Buzalka

Executive Features Editor, Food Management

Mike Buzalka is executive features editor for Food Management and contributing editor to Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News. On Food Management, Mike has lead responsibility for compiling the annual Top 50 Contract Management Companies as well as the K-12, College, Hospital and Senior Dining Power Players listings. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature from John Carroll University. Before joining Food Management in 1998, he served as for eight years as assistant editor and then editor of Foodservice Distributor magazine. Mike’s personal interests range from local sports such as the Cleveland Indians and Browns to classic and modern literature, history and politics.

Mike Buzalka’s areas of expertise include operations, innovation and technology topics in onsite foodservice industry markets like K-12 Schools, Higher Education, Healthcare and Business & Industry.

Mike Buzalka’s experience:

Executive Features Editor, Food Management magazine (2010-present)

Contributing Editor, Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News (2016-present)

Associate Editor, Food Management magazine (1998-2010)

Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1997-1998)

Assistant Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1989-1997)

 

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