Food for though: in spite of rising food costs, off-campus competition, and finicky students, dining directors are finding innovative ways to please their 'customers' while making a healthy profit.

Keeping students well fed can add significant revenue to an institution's bottom line. However, before food service can be the cash cow that everyone expects and desires it to be, experts say it must be operated as a business and not as a peripheral auxiliary service.

"Food is one financial area that can grow on a college campus without a huge investment," says Dean Wright, dining services director at Brigham Young University (UT). "You can open a new food operation at a reasonable price. But to build a new residence hall or add on to a bookstore is a much bigger challenge." Yet, creating a lucrative food operation isn't always so easy, especially when faced with tough competition from area retail operations.

"Campus food service, to remain competitive, must become more commercial in appearance and structure," says Rob White, president of Envision Strategies (www.envstrategies.com), a consultancy group that specializes in campus food service. "That requires constant innovation, renewal of facilities, and reinvestments." It's time to say goodbye to the old, traditional dining halls or "airplane hangars" as White calls them.

"As schools took to a more distributive and retail model, many will find the need to replace the traditional halls with more strategically operated boutique operations," he says. "I see very few situations where a campus is so isolated from the outside word that it can say 'We are going to maintain a traditional program: Change is going to be a given."

Schools that embrace changes in the marketplace and adapt to their students' ever-changing needs tend to see the most customer satisfaction and bottom-line benefit.

Timing is everything

Wright at BYU learned that a successful food service operation is measured primarily by the use it gets, and not how pretty it rooks. Last March, he opened Legends Grill, a new dining facility featuring 11 plasma screen TVs, a rotisserie grill, and a hearth-baked oven. White it sounds inviting, "We couldn't get students to come to it and that's despite a massive ad campaign we launched to promote it," he says. Wright chalks it up to bad timing. When the school asked their students why they weren't coming, their response was: "We already know where we are eating." "Students are truly creatures of habit. By about the fourth or fifth week of a semester, they know the path that they walk and for the most part they don't deviate," Wright says.

To counter these students' fixed dining routines, he devised a more strategic plan. "We've learned that the time to open an operation is right before fall semester. This way, you can get the attention of the incoming freshmen who have yet to determine their geographical eating patterns. Furthermore, during the fall, BYU has many more students on campus (about 30,000), and that's compared to about 6,000 in the spring and summer," Wright says.

"We learned that if we open an operation mid semester, we may not see financial success for it for almost a year," he adds. But, maybe immediate success is overrated? "One good thing about this is we had a soft opening. We worked out the bugs and are in better shape to financially bank on those sates next fall," Wright says.

Another challenge is to sidetrack attention away from the big cafeterias that are mainstays on campuses. "The bigger operations are a tot easier to operate and tend to run more efficiently," he says. "To make our smaller operations successful, we've had to provide uniqueness." For example, the business school cafe is now the only food operation on campus that offers panini sandwiches. While the same basic sandwich is offered other places, it is not in panini form in any other place. "Students appreciate these nuances," he says.

Non-traditional meal plans

Most schools require their students to purchase meat plans simply because it's perceived as a sure-fire way to generate revenue. But, University of Georgia, with its voluntary, all-you-can-eat meat plan, has proved that such programs can be just as Lucrative, if not more so. "I spend 100 percent of my time pleasing customers who want to be my customers," says Michael Floyd, food services director at the university. "But with a mandatory program, I'd have to spend 80 percent of my time trying to please the 20 percent that don't want to be my customers." The problem with that, Floyd says, is that you can never please that group. Just this year, more than 96 percent of the university's students who live on campus and about 1,500 students who live off campus, bought a meat plan. In total, the school generated $20 million, $4 million more than Last year.

Floyd created a great incentive to attract off-campus students: free, one-hour parking. The school currently validates 400 cars every night, some 250 more than three years ago, when the incentive was created. "That is what drives participation on campus," he says. "They come back to campus at night not only to eat with us but because they have a campus community network here." The late hours--they're open tilt midnight Monday through Thursday--also contribute to its success. Snelling Dining Halt serves more than 1,800 customers between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. and about 400 between 10 p.m. and midnight.

Combating rising food costs

Julaine Kiehn, director of campus dining services at University of Missouri-Columbia, has seen a sharp increase in her food operations costs, particularly in the dairy and meat segment. "Thank you Atkins, mad cow, and Low carb diets," she says sarcastically. "Commodity items have increased specifically because of these factors."

In fact, as of April this year, the price index of producers of beef and veal products (both fresh and frozen) went up 17.2 points from April of last year, a 13.5 percent increase, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, dairy producers saw a 21.8 percent increase in their price point index from April of 2003 to April 2004. The setting price for beef and dairy products is clearly on the rise.

Kiehn says the cost per meal at the University of Missouri has gone up seven percent since last year. Cheese, milk, eggs, chicken, and beef are particularly expensive, she says. But, she says she's lucky. "Luckily, we had budgeted some extra money this year. But some of my peers are seeing double digit increases," Kiehn says. "We've never seen food cost increases Like this."

In order to offset the rising food costs, Kiehn says she and her staff will have to do some "menu engineering" which means they will tweak the combination of foods they offer. "Maybe we'll offer them pasta and chicken tenders together instead of just two or three servings of chicken tenders," she says. There are other options to consider too. "Do we just charge more for the meal plans? Do we reduce the portion size? Or just Change an ingredient?" Kiehn asks. "These are some of the questions we will have to start asking ourselves."

Grab n' Go

Take-out used to mean ordering from the local pizza joint down the block. Now, college students are getting take-out from an even closer location: the campus food court. "This is a lifestyle change for this generation of students," says Richard Turnbull, director of dining services at Oregon State University. "They are on the run. Even if they do eat part of their meal in one of our dining facilities, the rest of it is packaged to go." About 40 percent of OSU's students request foods to go, which is up from 15 percent five years ago, Turnbull says. But, there is demand not only for prepackaged fast food, but also for healthy, organic food-to-go. Turnbull says his students are requesting certified organic foods--those that are grown without pesticides. "This generation has a whole mindset about healthy eating. There's a lot of self-consciousness that exists here." But OSU is not the typical school--its number one beverage seller is water, not soda. And its most popular take-out foods are sushi and smoothies. "Students in Oregon are probably more impacted by culinary developments and California cuisine. They're more into CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) and trendy foods than they are into Pizza Hut," Turnbull says.

Geography does play an important role in students' preferences and eating habits. At OSU, you won't just get a burrito or a taco, you'll get carnitas or chile rellenos from the Sonoran region of Mexico. At the same time, Turnbull says, there would be a revolt if the macaroni and cheese and Rice Krispie treats were eliminated.

Serving a Diverse Population

If only all students had the same eating habits, life would be easy for Ted Mayer, executive director of dining services at Harvard (MA). "Harvard students have a couple things in common: they all come from the top five percent of their class and they have high expectations," he says. "But, their backgrounds are different." Mayer says eight percent are vegetarians, one percent are vegans, three and a half percent have eating disorders, eight percent say they have have food allergies, and 16 percent are international. "Then there's the student who grew up in the mountains in West Virginia who wants a slab of ham with milk gravy," says Mayer. "There's no such thing as 'normal' when it comes to students' eating habits."

In addition, students often request special foods such as fair trade bananas. Fair trade goods promote more equitable dealings with producers in developing countries. It's clear that student activism has filtered into the food service world too. "College is a time when students explore and test their knowledge, and change the world," Mayer says. "But there's a significant increase in cost to the school." Fair trade bananas cost $5 more a case, and students eat about 60 cases a year. Mayer says if he switches to fair trade completely, he'll have to find ways to offset their cost.

Then, there are students who boycott foods, Like grapes. One group of students asked Mayer to offer grapes. Their Leader was a student whose father owned a winery. The anti-grape movement was Led by a student whose parents were migrant workers. Mayer put the question to a vote. Two-thousand votes Later the pro-grape students won. "These issues are raised when you deal with any informed group of people. These students pay a Lot of money to go to college and they have a great sense of entitlement," Mayer says.

RELATED ARTICLE: What to do when the cafeteria closes.

Students at South Georgia College are no longer going hungry on weekends and after 7 p.m. on weekdays (when the cafeteria is closed). That's because Zaxby's, a local fast casual restaurant, started offering pre-paid food cards to students last fall, as part of the college's student meal plan. "Since we serve such a small student population, it hasn't been practical in the past to extend the cafeteria hours," says Wanda Lloyd, vice president for Business at South Georgia College. Students put a total of $700 on their gift card each semester, $550 of which is typically spent in the cafeteria and $150 of which is allotted for spending at Zaxby's. "Parents are really excited by the cards too, especially those who are wary of handing their kids $150 in cash money," Lloyd says. "This way they know their money will be spent on food." While this pre-paid card program started out as an experiment, it has become so popular that Lloyd plans on partnering with other area restaurants in the future. In terms of generating immediate revenue for the school, it doesn't, but, it does save the school money in the long run. "As a result," Lloyd says, "I don't have to extend cafeteria hours or pay a large firm to run our food services."

RELATED ARTICLE: To carb, or not to carb.

Students are particularly perplexed by the recent invasion of fad diets, all of which seem to endorse a different, contradictory eating lifestyle. In many cases, these diets demonize certain food groups (namely, carbs) while touting others (proteins). This comes after years of being told to pile on the fat-free carbs and steer clear of fatty red meats and cholesterol-rich eggs. How are students, let alone the general population, expected to interpret these mixed health messages?

"Students are very confused on the role of the carbohydrate," says Susan Ash, dietician at the University of Rhode Island. "Some students are very nervous about them; some don't care at all. But, overall the message being sent right now is carbs are bad for you, they make you gain weight."

It seems as though students aren't the only ones lacking carb clarity. Even the Food and Drug Administration has yet to determine what "low carb" means. In an attempt to demystify the carbohydrate, Ash created an educational program about carbohydrates and their role in the diet. The handouts she passed out discuss "healthy carbs" to include in one's diet, a guide to using the Food Pyramid, and information on how to read nutritional labels on food that is advertised as "low carb." She also conducted a survey of 192 students--117 were female and 75 were male--on how they felt about carbs. While 35 percent said they were concerned about eating too many carbs, 99 percent said that carbs were important to their health. "I'm surprised and pleased that they realize the importance of carbs," Ash says. "However, I am still concerned that 35 percent think they might be eating too many of them."

Despite the popularity of low-carb branded foods, most schools have yet to label their food as such or offer branded low-carb foods. "I don't think it would be a good idea to sell Atkin's products. That would be endorsing this kind of eating," Ash says. "We must find the balance between promoting what's popular to increase sales and bearing the responsibility of discouraging fad dieting."

But, she does admit that the Atkin's craze has produced one beneficial side effect: more protein consumption for women. "I don't see women not eating protein anymore," Ash says.

Despite the low carb craze, Ash says there are still long lines at the pasta station and students' favorites still include chicken fingers and chocolate chip cookies. "Diets run in cycles," Ash explains. Back in the 1860s, low carb diets were considered the way to go, she says. What does this say about our lifestyle choices? "It says we've pretty much been dieting for close to 200 years and we still haven't gotten a whole lot thinner."

RELATED ARTICLE: Innovations in food service.

We asked some of the top campus food service providers: What is the most innovative thing you've done lately? Here's what they said.

ARAMARK: COFFEE AND KAFKA By challenging the rules, sometimes you can change them. Take, for example, coffee bars in college and university libraries. Not too long ago, signs on library doors welcomed students with a simple, direct message: "No food or drinks allowed."

ARAMARK thought about that for a while and came up with an equally simple, equally direct response: "Why not?"

"Students spend a lot of time at coffee bars, sitting and sipping coffee while they study," said Mike Vignola, resident district manager of ARAMARK Campus Services. "Where else do they study? The library. We explained to our clients that coffee bars could draw even more students into the library, and help to build a sense of community on campus."

Clients listened--and in many cases needed convincing--but now a trend has begun. ARAMARK has so far introduced coffee bars in a dozen campus libraries, garnering rave reviews from both clients and customers. St. John's University (NY) is one of the biggest success stories. It took a year to change the rules, but a Java City specialty coffee location recently opened in a small corner at the university's St. Augustine Hall library entrance.

Students love it--and plenty of teachers stop by, too. Best of all, first-month sales exceeded $24,000 in December 2002. Fiscal year 2003 sales were more than $221,000 and fiscal 2004 sales are estimated at $370,000.

--Kate Kalmakis Moran, ARAMARK Corporate Communications, Campus Services

CHARTWELLS: BRINGING RESTAURANTS TO CAMPUS

What could be more appealing to a college student than eating at a nationally recognized restaurant right on campus? Beyond the traditional quick serve restaurant brands that proliferate college campuses today, Chartwells is the only food service company that owns restaurants through its parent company Compass Group. Now they are becoming part of the dining portfolio offered to their college and university partners. Beginning in 2001, Chartwells implemented Au Bon Pain soups in all retail locations at more than 225 colleges and universities. Chartwells recently opened two full service Au Bon Pain bakery cafes at Radford University (VA) and St. Louis University, The fresh bakery cafes are lively, bustling marketplaces where students personally select their menu choices from individual stations located throughout the cafe.

In addition to Au Bon Pain Cafes, this fall University of North Carolina, Charlotte, became the first campus to open the famed Mamma Leone's Italian Eatery. The second location will open this fall at Clarion University (PA).Traditional Italian favorites including pizza, pasta, calzones, salads and more are featured. With students raving about the food and atmosphere, sales have exceeded expectations.

Compass Group North America is a leading contract food service company with $6 billion in revenues and more that 116,000 associates throughout the U.S. and Canada. Its parent company, UK-based Compass Group PLC, is the world's largest contract food service company and was ranked the 10th largest employer by FORTUNE magazine in 2003. It has worldwide revenues of $19 billion with over 400,000 associates working in more than 90 countries.

SODEXHO: FOOD AS PERFORMANCE

"For the past few years we have implemented European style kitchens on campus. We have seen these trends in large, metropolitan city restaurants such as New York and Boston, where the focal point of the dining experience is based on sensory perception, hearing, seeing and smelling the food as it is prepared. This ability to "perform' and serve the customer provides an interactive overview of the productivity phases by removing the kitchen in the back of the facility and placing it amongst customers. This style helps to ensure quality and freshness in the eyes of the customer as items such as vegetables, which are always fresh, are now cut directly in front of them or a tender roast is cooked to perfection because customers can see the chef taking it out of the oven. We are duplicating this exact process on our campuses and have seen tremendous response. Marshall University (WV) and Fordham University (NY), for example, have beautiful facilities and the students love the set-up. These mini restaurants create individual, customized plates of food one portion at a time. It is one additional way we are creating restaurant-style quality on Sodexho USA campuses across the U.S."

--Matt Matini, Sodexho Campus Services Division Executive Chef, CEC