Every month, we dedicate space to celebrating the accomplishments and innovative ideas of foodservice directors, nominated by their peers for recognition in FoodService Director magazine. Mixed in with the high praise and inspiring success stories of these leaders are smart ideas for other operators to consider and adopt to bolster their own facilities. With this in mind, we’re pausing to spotlight some of those key ideas that have proven successful for the industry’s most accomplished FSDs.
Goodwill can go a long way toward getting stakeholders to recognize the achievements and can-do initiative of a culinary department or team. For Michael West’s department at Stony Brook University Hospital in Stony Brook, N.Y., that starts with adopting a “yes first” attitude to customer service—agreeing to honor the request and then working out the details to make it happen. It’s a mission that’s especially appreciated in a hospital setting where patients often have very little say in what’s happening to them, West (FSD of the Month, May 2016) says.
In designing the Culinary Institute of America’s “The Egg” student dining commons, creating a space packed with amenities and activity centers was key to achieving a “unique and vibrant” hub where students would do more than just eat, says Waldy Malouf (FSD of the Month, March 2016). The senior director of food and beverages operations’ approach—for which he drew upon his long history as a restaurant owner and chief operating officer—was to focus on student satisfaction to create a place where guests would want to eat, hang out and share ideas. An in-house brewery, student-run restaurant incubators and discounted healthy meals all are important features at a facility that’s both feeding and educating its audience of future culinarians.
Because parking around SAP’s Palo Alto campus is a logistical nightmare, nearly all meal items excluding snacks are provided free of charge—leading to an 85% participation rate. But that doesn’t mean Resident District Manager for Bon Appetit Kellie Piper (FSD of the Month, June 2016) is skimping on the quality or quantity of offerings. Produce is sourced seasonally within 150 miles, and staff is encouraged to use special equipment like a ventless rotisserie and a pizza oven to invent dishes like an Indian-spiced rotisserie chicken wrap. If the team doesn’t have the resources to implement a new idea permanently, they’ll try it as a one-off, such as a pull-your-own mozzarella cart or a muddle-your-own bubble tea station, Piper says.
When it comes to serving ethnic and global cuisine to a diverse customer base, authenticity can be a goal that’s often discussed and rarely achieved. Rick Tinsley (FSD of the Month, January 2016), director of food and nutrition at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., taps his staff, who represent 10 different countries and many more ethnicities and backgrounds. Employees are invited to share recipes and traditions from their own families, and also are involved in the process of getting those ideas on the menu—from ideation to cooking.
In pushing to reduce sodium and trans fats and boost the the nutritional value of the meals served at Sunrise Senior Living in McLean, Va., VP of Dining and Senior Nutrition Tim Whelan (FSD of the Month, February 2016) was upfront with both residents and staff about his goals. After revamping menus to include more scratch cooking, Whelan borrowed a practice common in other noncommercial segments, but less so in senior living—he posted the full nutritional information of Sunrise’s meals online for residents. “We see this a lot in the college market, but not in senior living,” he told FSD magazine. “It’s more than just posting menus—it’s interactive, dynamic information.”
In trying to provide more opportunities to feed the students of Detroit Public Schools, Betti Wiggins (FSD of the month, April 2016), executive director of the office of student nutrition, makes it a priority to serve the community as well. Wiggins uses her district’s USDA Foods allocation to purchase 30% of her produce from Michigan farmers, including 80,000 pounds of blueberries from an African-American-owned market that freezes the fruit for use in parfaits. Wiggins also is spearheading a project to redevelop a vacant high school for food production and processing via a public-private partnership designed to create jobs for formerly incarcerated women returning to the community—women who conceivably have children in the school system.
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