With UNF’s food service provider’s contract up for renewal, Chartwells is proposing several new restaurants for campus — like Panda Express and Dunkin’ Donuts.
Chartwells held a presentation Jan. 13 in front of students, staff and faculty about what they hope to change, keep and implement if its contract gets renewed. Using new technology, Chartwells has been able to incorporate statistics and data into deciding what they should bring to campus.
The presentation focused primarily on students from Jacksonville, since more than half of the student body is from Jacksonville and it’s surrounding areas.
Chartwells wishes to bring in some new things and take out some others. Chart wells plans on taking out Chick-N-Grill and Papa Johns and replacing them with Panda Express and Create. They also plan on updating the Boathouse to foster more of a sports-bar atmosphere, by bringing in more local breweries and renovating the restaurant.
Chartwells also plans to replace Outtakes by Alumni Square with Osprey Market — a food convenience store that has more expanded food like milkshakes and fresh salads. The Chartwells Interim District Manager, Emily Williams, said the new store will have something for everyone.
“You’ve got fresh, you got easy, and you got junk food when you want it,” Williams said.
The last proposal is to have a drive-thru on the east side of campus by the Osprey Cafe that would also have an outside sitting area. A possible brand that could fill that spot is Dunkin’ Donuts.
Chartwells hopes to include several different programs for meal plans including early membership, membership appreciation gifts and lottery scratch off tickets for commuter students who buy the more expensive meal plans. They will also be changing their catering services to make them more organized and understandable.
They want to promote more during orientation and get more student participation by having more events in the Cafe and putting signs around campus with a “pin drop” on it letting students know there is a dining service nearby.
Chartwells also wished to change it’s name to “UNF Dining Experience.” They want to make the dining service on campus more about the students and less about the company.
In the presentation, Chartwells also focused on the sustainability and the fresh food programs they would bring into the Cafe and to the university. The wish to have more Teaching Kitchens with the current dietitian and have possible classes in the Cafe to show students how to cook healthy meals.
In the Q&A session, Dallas Burke, the Senate President, brought up how expensive the commuter meal plans are and how he himself, a commuter student, doesn’t have a meal plan because of the high costs. Chartwells didn’t have a plan on changing the current meal plan prices but noted that they have heard many concerns from students from their surveys that the prices are higher than what students wanted.
One major item that was brought up during the Q&A from UNF representatives is that freshman are not required to purchase a meal plan next fall semester due to the change of housing policies. However, if a first-time student chooses to live on campus, they will be mandated to have a meal plan.
Chartwells’ current contract with UNF is will be up in June. UNF will then announce whether they will keep Chartwells as their dining provider. Chartwells is the only dining company that has applied for UNF dining so far.
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