Marketing Manager of Chartwells, Tracy Jaquette has been working at Winona State University for eight years. Previous to her almost decade long experience when she joined the university, she comments that marketing was just starting to be a thing with dining.
“It’s so funny how people are like ‘it’s dining, it’s just food,’ but you think about how much socialization you do over food. I see more and more of it now of students just sitting here, talking and eating and this is where they’re hanging out,” Jaquette said. “This year, I’m seeing a lot more involvement and a lot more other campuses are saying the same thing in our region too. They’re eating us out of house and home. That’s what they are saying and it’s true.”
In July, Jaquette and many others started planning events and logistics. The corporate office at Chartwells gave each of their campuses a playbook for each semester depending on the size of the university. Each campus like Winona State is able to do other programs completely unique to them. Making dining a part of students’ education is easy with programming like the Teaching Kitchen and other special events to encourage involvement like Cheerful and giveaways over social media.
“Chartwells runs anything that you can eat on campus,” Jaquette said. “If you’re going to hang out here, make it part of your college experience. That has really evolved over the last eight years since I’ve been here.”
Second year Elementary Education and Art Teaching major student, Kaylee Kapalczynski has enjoyed eating on campus her first year and will continue that her second year.
“All of the dining options on campus are really great. The fan favorites are always the places in Zane’s and Einsteins but I really like the options and variety the dining hall has this year,” Kapalczynski said. “The dining hall is a great resource as an RA because it gives me a more informal way of interacting with my residents and others on campus. At the beginning of the year I encouraged floor dinners and now I consistently see residents at the dining hall and say ‘Hi’ to them.”
Kapalcznski comments that the food has been better this year so far.
“It is also a wonderful resource for those with dietary needs because the dining hall works to make accommodations and takes in recommendations from the Hall Council on campus,” Kapalczynski said. “This allows students to also get involved in a bigger part of living on campus as well.”
Well known events with Chartwells like Scrape the Plates and new events like Craft in the Cafe are being introduced in the dining hall and have been enjoyed by Winona State students.
From annual surveys done in October last year for Winona State students and for students across the country they found that Boba was highly requested. So Chartwells came up with a concept and thus came Happy Boba.
“We are one of the first schools in the nation that is running it,” Jaquette said. “They came up with it over the summer and it’s been a work in progress for about a year. We still are perfecting it.”
Jaquette also notes that Freshins might not be the only change students can see in Zane’s. Over winter break, Chartwells is looking to turn Burger 507 into a different concept. She notes that the menu might be a bit different and the station itself will have a new look.
“I’ve been able to talk to 20 plus orientation groups this year and that has made a world of difference too. It’s great to be in front of students and be able to educate them on the fun that can be in dining and how to use the meal plan,” Jaquette said. “It’s been very rewarding for all of us as a dining team to get such positive feedback so early in the school year. It really motivates us and it motivates our team too. We’re just feeding off of what the students have been telling us.”
