Written by Tiane Davis // Photo by Briley Kemper
University President Mike Williams and Vice President Jean-Noel Thompson announced in chapel Tuesday that Harding will hire Aramark to replace Chartwells as the primary campus food service provider beginning in May. The University executive leadership team, which consists of four people, decided to replace Chartwells for multiple reasons, Williams said. Student feedback surveys and focus groups had shown disappointing results.
“What we had heard was an overwhelming amount of dissatisfaction,” Williams said. “Although some changes were made, we didn’t feel like the changes were comprehensive enough to merit going forward.”
Since 2020, when Chartwells started its contract as Harding’s primary food service provider, the food quality at Harding has not been consistent, Williams said. When quality started to decline, the company’s responsiveness to complaints was slight.
“It was a leadership problem,” Williams said. “Part of leadership is responding to the needs of the people you’re trying to serve, and it wasn’t a secret that the student body and faculty and staff had misgivings about the service.”
Thompson said all hourly workers will be offered the opportunity to keep working at the University, but under different leadership.
“The staff here are all good people,” Thompson said. “They would be retrained, and they would report to this new leadership model, but it comes with a high sense of, ‘We operate differently.’”
Thompson said when the University executive leadership team decided to hire Aramark, they looked at several key areas of change. The first was that Aramark would bring the University a “higher confidence in consistency.”
“It’s never going to be perfect, and students will never be every day perfectly satisfied — that’s just food,” Thompson said. “But it should be a lot better.”
Another change that the University expects Aramark to bring in the coming years is better accommodations to food sensitivities/allergies. Additionally, Thompson said, expectations for responsiveness to change will be higher than before. He said if anything about the food service brings complaints, Aramark wants to engage with students as soon as possible to make improvements.
“The food just has to be better,” Thompson said. “You can’t come in and make us really happy for three months and let it go down. It has to be consistent across the board, and when it’s not, what are the systems in place to get something corrected right away? They’ve proven to us that they can do that.”
Chief Financial Officer Tammy Hall said one of the biggest changes through the process will be allowing students to use meal swipes anywhere they want and take their food to the cafeteria without having to swipe in. Offerings will stay the same, but Student Center restaurants that offer meal exchanges will offer them during all hours of the day.
“Part of this is community,” Hall said. “We want students eating together. You’ll see this group of friends sitting in the cafeteria, and three of them may have a caf meal, and one will have Chick-fil-A, and one will have Einstein’s, but they can all sit together.”
Hall said the process of rehiring Aramark and guaranteeing success on their part has lasted “at least 12 months.” She said she reviewed 13 different versions of the financial model before the committee decided on a final one. Hall acknowledged that Aramark had failed to meet expectations in the past but has been through changes and seen success with larger schools.
“I think it will be a good thing in the long run,” Hall said. “Change is good for all of us. It makes us uncomfortable, but usually in the end, it makes us better.”
Aramark had previously been Harding’s food service provider for over 20 years before Chartwells was hired in 2020. Aramark director of business development Heath Drulman said that since Aramark was previously removed from service, the company has undergone a “transformation” under the new leadership of President and CEO Jack Donovan.
“Under his leadership and guidance, we went back to our roots and implemented the ‘hospitality ecosystem’ that focuses on our guests through servant leadership, delivering on our promises and putting our culinary excellence up as the standard of what you should come to expect,” Drulman said. “… Introducing ‘Bison hospitality’ will represent a resurgence as part of the great experience of being at Harding.”
Drulman said to keep quality consistent, the company will form a “partnership committee” with students that will accept feedback and make sure expectations are met. He said students will be invited to help make menu decisions as well as participate in a student panel each year to give feedback.
