A Busy October

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Family Weekend
We opened Redhawks Market on family weekend so guests could experience our service on the south side of campus. Hearthstone Ovens, Smasher burgers, Papa John’s and Acentos Latino all featured a sample menu.

October Balanced U Focus: Healing and Immunity
As part of our Balanced U initiative for October, we provided educational materials and highlighted foods that that are “Immune Boosters”. Immune Boosters help build and maintain the body’s natural immunities. There are a wide variety of foods that contribute “Immune Properties”, so they were incorporated into promotions and special menus.

Visiting Chef
Part of Chartwells’ responsibility as food service providers is to expose guests to new tastes, flavors and dishes. One way this is accomplish is through the Visiting Chef promotions at Towers Café. Executive Chef Michael Reitman visited Towers to serve a fall pumpkin and squash bisque garnished with in-house roused pumpkin seeds.

Pink Up Cape
October is breast cancer awareness month and Saint Francis Medical Center and the Southeast volleyball team are asking area business to “Pink up Cape” by using pink decorations to help remind residents about the importance of early breast cancer detection. Chartwells participated in “Pink up Cape” by garnishing our Redhawks Market registers with pink lights.

Coffee Bar
Sometimes events don’t always go as plan. When the promotion schedule was created, it was naturally assumed that a coffee bar in late October would be a good idea. Who knew that it would be in the 70s?

Despite the unseasonal temperature, the coffee bar was well received. Chartwells provided fair trade certified Pura Vida coffee along with great desserts such as googey butter cake, chocolate cookies, pecan pie, donuts and assorted bite sized sweets.

Breakfast Pizza
Even though breakfast is the meal time with the lowest participation, we still provide promotional efforts to help students learn to appreciate the importance of breakfast, especially during October when the focus is immune building. Breakfast pizzas feature sweetened pizza crusts topped with fresh fruit and cream cheese sauce.

Theme Meal
It’s fall, it’s October and it’s getting colder. This means only one thing. It’s time to celebrate Oktoberfest! We featured a German style menus to compliment the theme, serving pork schnitzel, hot German potato salad, sautéed red cabbage, Noodle Kugel, boiled potatoes and potato cakes.

Smoothies for Breakfast.
As part of our healthy focus, we want our guests to understand that eating healthy can be fun and delicious. We featured real fruit smoothies not only for the extra antioxidants and immunity properties, but also because they are fun to drink and taste delicious. We served strawberry banana and blueberry raspberry yogurt smoothies one morning at Towers Cafe.

Apple Dipper Bar
It’s fall and the best fruit to feature are apples. But there are many ways to enjoy apples including fondue. An apple dipper bar was created so guests could build their own candied apples. We provided chocolate, house made caramel, nuts, Reese’s Pieces, Butterfinger pieces, marshmallows and chocolate chips.

Stealth Health Friday’s
One Friday a month is dedicated to Stealth Health Fridays, an approach to helping guests eat healthier by offering a nutritionally improved version favorite snack foods. For the latest event, we sampled brownies that replaced much of the liquid fat with pumpkin and served Black Tea spiced pumpkin seeds. Squash and Pumpkins are also high in beta carotene, vitamin C and B complex vitamins which are useful in helping boosting your immune system, which iwas the Balanced U focus for October.

5 Years
Congratulations to  Sheenia Davis, who has been a valued employee with Chartwells for 5 years.

YouFirst Moment
YouFirst is more of a associate centered program than a guest centered program. By recognizing teamwork and encouraging unity, we will have a more harmonious work force which will be recognized by our guests. It is difficult to quantify this program, but one way we gauge its success is how well the associates treat each other.

Recently, associates at took it upon themselves to recognize our office staff, Pam Lange and Cheryl Graff for their ability to make Chartwells a great place to work. The associates showed their appreciation by purchasing an engraved plaque for Pam and Cheryl that recognized their efforts to go “Above and Beyond”. The plaque had a plate for each appreciative associate. Both Pam and Cheryl were touched by the gesture and showed it with tears and hugs.

NY Street Foods
Street foods are currently a popular dining option  thanks to all the food trucks and local, quick service restaurants that have recently sprung up across the country. This year we introduce a number of promotions that tapped into this popularity.

An endless plate held in October offered a sampling of NY Street foods with all beef hot dogs, brats and red hot sausage (complete with toppings), falafels, gyros pitas and funnel cakes.

Towers Culinary Tour
We want to communicate to guests what goes on behind the scenes in our dining facilities. We like to show off the amount of fresh food and vegetables we feature, and show how clean and organized our facilities are.

With that in mind, we hosted a Towers Culinary Tour after the October Dining Services Advisory Committee meeting. We explained how we prepare the food we serve, the quantities we feed and the manpower and equipment needed to complete a meal service. We also show some of the challenges we face, and why the expansions proposed during the meeting are necessary.

Associate of the Month
Congratulations to Natalie Woodson for becoming Chartwells latest associate of the month. The associate of the month is a special award provided to a team member that best demonstrates a can do attitude, teamwork and guest service.

10 Year Anniversary
We celebrated a few anniversaries this month, including Amy Clippard who has been with us for ten years.

Premium Night
For the October premium meal, Chartwells decided to serve one final taste of summer. A large capacity smoker grill was borrowed and stored at the back dock of Towers Café so the staff could grill hand-cut pork steaks.

Along with the pork steaks, we served popcorn shrimp and stuffed portabella mushrooms, which received heavy praise from our vegetarian students.

Eggcellent Way to Start the Day
The egg might be one of the most underappreciated foods we serve. It seems each year a new study is released condemning or commending its healthy benefits.

Seeing how we have put a greater emphasis promoting breakfast participation, we figured an egg action station was an appropriate promotion. One morning at Towers Café, we staffed a made-to-order egg scramble station, complete with  powerful, immune boosting ingredients

Rotations
Rotations is officially open after is inaugural roll out in October. The feedback from the station has been extremely positive and each of the concepts have all been successful from a sales stand point as well. We are currently working on building additional concepts for a post spring break launch.

Southeast Showcase
We partnered with Southeast Missouri Hospital to provide food for their annual Showcase fundraiser. We served Squash Bisque and smoked chicken sliders.

More Health Conscious

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Yogurt Parfait:
     Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but that doesn’t mean it should not be healthy. To help train students to eat a nutritious breakfast, we offered a made-to-order yogurt parfait bar.
     We started the day off by offering low fat vanilla and strawberry yogurt along with a variety of fresh fruits and other delicious toppings such as toasted coconut and granola. Students were able to choose from fresh cut bananas, strawberries, peaches, blueberries or pineapple. Our staff assembled each parfait to order creating a delicious and nutritious morning treat.

Stone Slab Ice Cream:
     Stone slab ice cream is one of the most popular dining events at Towers Café. In fact, it is so popular we offer it every semester.
      The made-to-order dessert is a great way to end the dinner. Our team scoops vanilla ice cream and fold in any fillings the guest prefers on top of frozen granite slates. The ‘concrete’ options included chocolate chips, brownie pieces, Reese’s pieces, Butterfinger, sprinkles and chocolate sauce.

Stealth Health:
     Stealth Health is a two fold approach to helping guests eat healthier on campus. The first approach is to prepare foods in a healthier manner, therefore making people eat healthier without realizing they are doing so. This is accomplished by using improved cooking methods such as steaming vegetables vs. cooking with added fat, or substituting healthier ingredients for detrimental items. For instance, using light mayo or low sodium products.
     The second approach is to offer sampling of foods that can be eaten in place of their favorite snack foods. Our Stealth Health Friday events were implemented for this purpose. It provides a great way for students to interact with a registered Dietician and sample foods they normally would purchase or make on their own. For the first event, we sampled baked Cajun sweet potato fries that can be eaten instead of regular fries. We also prepared kale chips sprinkled with parmesan cheese that offers a flavorful, yet surprisingly crispy and satisfying snack.

National Pancake Day:
     One stack, two stack, even three stacks of pancakes were flying off the grill for national pancake day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, no matter what time of day, students were able to get their fill of pancakes. Among the options were blueberry, chocolate chip, whole grain and a whole assortment of toppings.

Ballpark Bar:
     In honor of the St. Louis Cardinals making the playoffs, we themed an Endless Plate event as a Ballpark Bar. We served hotdogs, nachos, veggie burgers, cole slaw, assorted veggies and cracker jacks.

Bella Italia Visits Towers Cafe:
     Mark Dirnberger, owner and operator of the Bella Italia in Downtown Cape, stopped by Towers Café to provide a sampling or his restaurant’s Chicken Marsala. Bella Italia is Cape Girardeau’s only locally owned Family Italian Restaurant and it was a privilege to have them on campus sampling their menu to our guests.

Balanced U and Theme Meals

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Balanced U
     If you are interested in eating healthier, don’t forget about Balanced U! Balanced U is a holistic approach to food and nutrition. It’s based on one concept-we eat food. To help guests understand how food plays into health, Balanced U consists of three components: Icons, Monthly Subjects and Stealth Health.
     The Balanced U Icons system is the simplest way to eat healthier on campus. The icons make it easy to identify “Balanced” options (better foods that limited in substances that can be detrimental to health); vegetarian options, vegan options and sustainable food choices. Eating healthy should not focus on what a food doesn’t have; instead it should focus on what it does have. The Balanced U “Balanced” items are nutrient dense with limited amounts of fats, sodium, cholesterol and calories.
     For more information on Balanced U, visit our nutritional info page. Also, Balanced U pocket guides are available free of charge. Visit Towers Café to receive your free card, or contact Chartwells Dietician Laura Vollink at nutrition@semo.edu.

Theme Meal
     Latin American Street foods were served during this year’s first theme meal. Theme meals are held once a month with lunch at the University Center and dinner at Towers Cafe. The menu included Lime Cilantro Chicken, Cheese Taquitos, Cilantro Rice, Frijoles Borrachos, Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla, Rotisserie Jerk Chicken, Fish Tacos, Taquitos, Latin Slaw, Tomato Raisin Chutney, Cilantro Lime Corn and Black Calypso Beans.

Campus Involvement
     Chartwells Marketing Director Trevor Sumner and Chartwells Dietitian Laura Vollink were invited to speak to the women of Alpha Xi Delta about business etiquette and healthy eating on campus. Sumner handled the Etiquette portion, while Vollink provided detail about the Balanced U program and initiatives Chartwells is undertaking to provide healthier, more nutritious dining. Everyone in attendance was provided with a sample “stealth health” brownie in which all fat and eggs were replaced with cooked black beans along with Balanced U pocket portion guides.

Chartwells Makes Best Use Of Seasonal Fruit

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Watermelon Eating Contest
Chartwells recently hosted the 3^rd annual Watermelon Eating Contest at Towers Café. The contest has quickly become one of the most popular events of the year. Damian Parks took home first place by polishing off 1lb, 15oz. of watermelon in 2 minutes. Congrats Damian.

Chef Michael Lemon Visits Campus
Chartwells Vice President of Culinary Innovations Michael Lemmon visited Southeast Missouri State University to meet the team and discuss culinary strategies. Chef Lemon is a well respected Chef and it was an honor to have him at our account.

Hawke Celebrates 10 Years
Regional District Manager Rafael Conde visited Southeast Missouri State University recently and presented catering director Cindi Hawke with a 10 year plaque recognizing here service to Chartwells.

Endless Plate
The first Endless Plate of the semester was featured at the University Center. Endless plate is hosted twice a month and gives students living on the south side of campus an all-you-care-to-eat dining option. For the first event, we featured a traditional Mexican menu with pork posole, vegetarian taquitos, Spanish rice, chips, pinto beans, housemade salsa, iced tea and water.

A Great Start

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Welcome Back Picnic

We kicked off the new year by providing the themed menu for the Welcome Back Picnic. The Welcome Back Picnic is an event in which the university partners with the Cape Chamber of Commerce so local business can reunite with returning students and introduce themselves to new ones. At the picnic, we served nearly 3,000 students a menu of crudités, pasta salad, nachos, grilled chicken sandwiches, burgers and vegetarian lasagna.

Smashers

Smashers had a great beginning. We have received a number of compliments from people who love the fresh grilled burger custom built toppings. The ordering process might take a bit of adjustment, but everyone so far sees it acceptable tradeoff to get a burger exactly the way they want it. Chartwells Marketing Director Trevor Sumner highly recommends the balanced burger for those wanting a healthier meal, or going all out and getting a burger topped with nacho cheese, jalapenos, crispy onions and Chipotle ranch.

Busy Common Hours

The first common hour was once again a busy affair. In the lunch hour, nearly 1,000 guests were served. This year we implemented a number of strategies to help alleviate the overcrowding. We offered a lunch special at Olive’s to draw guests to the eatery located in New Hall. We also heavily announced the busiest times and recommended that students avoid those times if possible. We even sold plate lunches outside the building to help accommodate more students.

Pre-service Meetings

As part of the YouFirst service campaign, out team conducts regular pre-service meetings to help ensure great service. As part of these meetings, we discuss specials, any potential service issue and anticipate guest questions an needs. These meetings help us to anticipate customer needs.

Gluten Free

We have some great news for those guests who are gluten intolerant. We recently purchased and installed a special bread machine that allows us to bake bread for guests with Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. We just received training on the machine and will be working with out celiac students to develop made without gluten menus across campus.

Summer Update

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What is New?
At Chartwells, we have made a commitment to support students seeking a healthier lifestyle. Because healthy is defined differently by each person, we have developed Balanced U to meet a variety of needs. Balanced U, which was introduced with a soft rollout last spring, will be fully implemented this fall.

 Monthly Balanced U Subjects:
Educational opportunities have been developed to focus on functional food topics of interest to students and positively impact a healthy lifestyle.

Stealth Health:
A back of the house kitchen strategy to increase the nutritional value of foods served to guests.

Balanced U Icon System:
Balanced U takes the guess work out of healthy eating. Balanced menu items, vegetarian cuisine and vegan dishes are easily identified by corresponding icons.

 New Burger Concept:
     Smashers, which is replacing Players Grill in the University Center, is a fresh approach to a traditional burger grill.  All burgers at Smashers are comprised of fresh, never-frozen lean ground beef meat balls. Each ball is smashed, seared and grilled to perfection before being topped with your choice of cheese, various burger toppings and house made sauces.
     The best feature of this concept is that each burger is engineered with each guests specifications through a unique ordering system that integrates efficiency with individuality. Want a burger with fried onions, gooey cheese and chipotle-ranch dressing? Not a problem with Smashers. Trying to eat healthy, but still want a burger? Smasher offers the Balanced Burger that has less than 500 calories and 15 grams of fat.
     Smashers customizable burger menu offers a long list of premium ingredients, allowing for numerous combinations. At smashers, every guest has full creative control of their own meal.

Value Exchange Rate increase:
Guests choosing to use their meal plans in our retail dining locations will have a bit more spending power next fall. The Value Exchange rate will be increasing. A meal will now be worth $4.00 for breakfast and $6.00 for lunch and dinner.

 New Dining Concept:
     If variety is the spice of life, then Rotations is full of flavor. Replacing Yan Can Cook Asian Cuisine this fall will be a revolutionary concept called Rotations. This concept is similar to the trendy pop-up style restaurants and address a key aspect our guests request the most: variety.
     Each week, the entire menu concept changes. One week Rotations will be a made-to-order pasta station, the next an all day breakfast. Other Rotations components planned for this fall include American style Asian cuisine and Chicago style hotdogs and sandwiches.
     At the end of every Semester, students will get to vote on which “Rotations” concept they would like to see next.

April

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Theme Meal: Picnic
April is a fine time to be outside, so we featured a theme meal that brought the taste of outdoors…indoors. A picnic theme meal hit the spot. Hotdogs, BBQ chicken, mostacholi, cut fruit, potato salad, slaw, corn on the cob and strawberry pretzel salad.

Endless Plate: Authentic Mexican
Cinco De Mayo was approaching, so we decided to celebrate by hosting an authentic Mexican Endless Plate. This event was one of the most popular endless plates of the year and appreciated by our guests.

Theme Meal: Kindergarten Night
Who doesn’t like to be a kid? Our guests get to turn the clock back and relive their childhood. Macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, fish sticks, Ants on a Log (celery filled with peanut butter and topped with raisins) are part of the menu.

Stone Slab Ice Cream:
The always popular Stone Slab Ice Cream night was repeated this semester.

You First:
You first associates of the month included Cynthia and Tiffany (May). We also conducted our Student Choice YouFirst associate competition. For the north side of Campus, LaChares was selected. Guests selected Kathy was selected as the best associate for the south side of campus.

 Special Guests:
Students were treated to a surprise visit by the Easter Bunny!

March

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Theme Meal: Fat Tuesday
March is always a fun time on college campuses. Especially on those schools like Southeast Missouri State University who feature a Chef from New Orleans. Chef Michael Reitman is originally from New Orleans, LA, where he received his culinary degree from Delgado College. Chef Reitman further refined his skills working as an apprentice at Arnaud’s Restaurant, a 527 seat Mobil Four Star and DiRoNA awarded French Creole restaurant. As a Cajun, Reitman particularly likes to demonstrate his flare for Creole flavors and showcase his skills in preparing fresh seafood dishes. These skills were on display at our Fat Tuesday theme meal.

 Visiting Chef:
Along with the Mardi Gras theme meal, Chef Michael visited Towers café to provide a tasting of real Louisiana Gumbo.

 You First Associate of the Month
March was also the first month for our YouFirst associate of the month selection. Verdist Poindexter of Rowdy’s was selected due to his outgoing personality and great work ethic. Good job Verdist!

 Endless Plate:
We hosted multiple endless plate events in March. The St. Patrick’s day menu had corned beef and cabbage, while pasta bar featured a selection of pasta and lasagna.

February

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Pre Super Bowl Tailgate Party:
In anticipation of the Super Bowl, we provided a super bowl theme meal at Towers Café and Redhawks Market.  We served a “Wings and Things” appetizer bar with hot wings, Crudités, Toasted Ravioli, quesadillas and slider sandwiches.

 Hot Chocolate:
Nothing takes the edge of a cold day like a real Hot Chocolate. One made from quality coco and steamed milk and not a packet and hot water. A different creamy concoction was available each week in the Beanery Café. The most popular was the Peppermint Hot Chocolate. Our guests at Towers Café were treated to a Build-Your-Own Hot Chocolate bar with candies, cookies, whipped cream, marshmallows and other fixn’s!

 Chinese New Year:
In honor of the Chinese New year, we hosted an Endless Plate event in our retail Redhawks Market location.

Pan Seared Salmon:
Chef Michael prepared a special dish for our guests at Towers Café by searing fresh salmon and providing tasting samples to our guests. The salmon we served was a Seafood Watch Best Choice recommendation. Our goal was to provide sampling and hopefully persuade more people to incorporate seafood into their diet.

Premium Meal at Towers Cafe:
Premium meal night at Towers Café. Steak, shrimp and stuffed portabella mushrooms!

Endless Plate: Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to the descendants of emigrants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania area. They have a number of unique culinary traditions, which we provided through our Endless Plate event at the University Center.

Its the start of a new year

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YouFirst:  Before the start of the spring semester our Chartwell team attended an associate orientation and YouFirst introduction. YouFirst focuses on putting associates first so they can, in turn, put our guests first. Our Chartwells associates are focused on enhancing the guest experience through genuine, enthusiastic service. We pledge to put you first at every meal, every day.

Leafy Greens: A dark leafy green promotion was featured at Southeast in the Towers Café and Wild Greens. Dark leafy green vegetables are good sources of many vitamins and minerals your body needs to stay healthy. Dark leafy greens contain vitamins and minerals such as A, C, and K, folate, iron and calcium. Research suggests that dark leafy greens may prevent certain types of cancer and promote heart health. Some examples of dark leafy greens consist of: arugula, broccoli, mustard greens, romaine lettuce, and spinach.  Visit our salad bar and give dark leafy greens a try!

Hot Chai Tea Latte: A hot chai tea latte promotion was featured at Southeast in the Beanery Café. Samples of the latte were offered to our guests as they visited the Beanery.  Nothing beats the cold like a warm cup of chai tea during this chilling weather. The chai tea is made with spices such as cardamom and cinnamon, mixed with milk, vanilla and then steamed. The latte has a touch of sweetness, but not overly sweet with the perfect blend of spice.

You First:
You first is our new way to let our guests know we listen and we care. When ever you see our “Simply Listen” sign, you know we made changes based on your comments. Recent changes inlcude providing light dressings and speedier service at Wild Greens, addition of Papa John’s Pizza, more fruit variety at Towers Cafe, implementation of Balanced U and communication of nutritional information.