Fort Lewis College has shaken up its dining scene by cutting ties with Sodexo, the longtime food supplier and management service for its campus dining services.
Sodexo, which provides services to more than 500 colleges and universities nationwide, has been the primary provider to Fort Lewis College for the past 25 years.
The decision to change came as FLC’s contract expired with the food supplier and the college decided to go with Fresh Ideas Food Service Management after completing a bidding process to look at food providers.
The college signed a five-year deal with Fresh Ideas.
Fresh Ideas is a company based out of Columbia, Missouri, servicing K-12 schools, colleges and universities, senior living facilities and businesses across the United States.
“The overwhelming response was that Fresh Ideas was the best fit for our campus based on presentations and interactions they had with the community,” said Fort Lewis College spokeswoman Nardy Baeza Bickel.
She said Fresh Ideas' commitment to using natural ingredients and focus on the student experience was among the selling points.
Sodexo has faced criticism in recent years for the quality of its food, with reports of poor standards coming from students at Drake University and the University of New Haven.
“When we started to collect a lot of student feedback for this bidding process, it became clear that students were wanting something different and new,” said Student Union Director Amber Grenhart.
Grenhart said one of the advantages of moving to Fresh Ideas was the company’s commitment to adding cultural food items to the dining hall menu.
“We have a very diverse cultural background on campus, and we looked at how to provide foods from different people's tribes and homeland, so that there is a little piece of home when they come to Fort Lewis,” she said.
The transition to Fresh Ideas has been challenging for the college at the start of the new semester.
“There's been a few challenges that were unexpected due to, in part, that we've had a lot more students having meals,” Baeza Bickel said.
She said Fresh Ideas didn't initially have enough staff to accommodate the number of students dining at the student union.
To address the issue, Fresh Ideas has hired 10 additional staff members, Baeza Bickel said. The company has also brought in chefs from around the country to help train employees.
But based on feedback from student surveys, Grenhart said the overall response has been positive.
Fort Lewis College operated under a fixed pricing contract with Sodexo and will do the same with Fresh Ideas. The fixed pricing model means Fresh Ideas covers the upfront costs of setting up operations at FLC and receives a portion of the revenue from meal sales, while FLC maintains control over meal prices for students.
Fresh Ideas has also invested in upgrading the college dining hall’s infrastructure. The upgrades will include building a Zia Taqueria kiosk on the upper level of the student union. The college declined to comment on the amount of money Fresh Ideas invested into upgrading dining service infrastructure.
Baeza Bickel said the college incurred no upfront costs when transitioning to a new food service management provider.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
