Thanks to a progressive and award-winning dining program, mealtime for Marshall students has never been better.
The dining experience on Marshall University’s Huntington campus is likely to be unrecognizable to all but its most recent graduates. Today’s students expect high-quality food with customizable options. They want to choose, and they don’t mind waiting.
“There’s no herding them through a line,” said Mark Arnold, general manager of Marshall Dining by Sodexo. “Look, Burger King has been telling us to have it ‘our way’ for 30 years. That wasn’t always the case in residential dining, but we’re looking at it differently now.”
Marshall Dining by Sodexo powers all of the dining options on campus, offering 12 locations with an impressive variety of fare, from fast food to local favorites, in spaces ranging from large dining halls to quaint coffee shops. Their team members do it with concern for sustainability, recruitment, retention and continual improvement. They’re committed to listening to the students they serve through surveys and social media platforms such as @marshalldining.
“At the end of the day, people want to be heard,” Arnold said. “And we’re listening.”
When students seek comfort food, they can head over to Harless Dining Hall. If they crave a diner vibe, they can walk over to Twin Towers and hit The Den by Denny’s or Mein Bowl Asian Market, or grab something to go from the 1837 Fresh Food Market. And, if nothing satisfies like Italian fare, local favorite La Famiglia is located in the Memorial Student Center along with popular on-the-go options like Steak ‘n Shake, Chick-fil-A, Huntington Market and an expanded Starbucks for the perfect cup of coffee. Upstairs, the John Marshall Dining Room is the place for a midday buffet. Bonus: you can reserve a table.
Drinko Coffee Shop gives yet another place to caffeinate and grab a snack, soup, sandwich or even a freshly prepared hot dog.
“There are certainly a lot of dining options for a university Marshall’s size,” Arnold said. “It’s a great mix of national and local brands.”
Alas, as much as students praise that kind of variety, they are creatures of habit. Chef Josie Wallace said most students gravitate toward what they love, and these days that includes hamburgers, pizza and quesadillas, as well as her chicken alfredo and pickle-fried chicken.
“They love when we have breakfast for dinner, too,” Wallace said. She and her team stay busy at Harless, cooking more than 800 hamburgers and 2,000 pizzas every week. Also in high demand is the chicken sandwich. Whether it’s Harless, The Den or Chick-fil-A, her team is on track to serve 150,000 of those crowd pleasers this year.
“And should the students ever get tired of chicken sandwiches, then we are ready to adapt,” said Kevin Madson, Marshall Dining operations manager. “We crave feedback. We engage on social media, meet biweekly with a student advisory board and hire interns in marketing. Our team will huddle, plan and adapt. If the students want Swiss cheese added to the options at Harless Dining Hall, it’s no problem. We just tell them, ‘Sure, check back tomorrow.’”
But change isn’t always that easy. Recently, the team got a little help from the iCenter at the Lewis College of Business to solve a problem — students found it challenging to select the perfect-sized meal plan. They didn’t want to waste food, but they didn’t want to run out of meals either. Working with the iCenter, they designed a process called the “meal plan picker” that asks lifestyle and scheduling questions to help students decide what plan is best for them. iCenter director Dr. Ben Eng helped facilitate the process. “We experimented with several versions and improved each until students loved it,” Eng said. “The meal plan picker will launch in the fall.”
Marshall isn’t Hogwarts. Food doesn’t just appear on tables. It takes a special recipe of full- and part-time employees to make culinary magic. Sodexo USA has been a contractor for the university for 34 years. It handles all campus food service and employs 150 people — one-quarter of them are students. Beyond daily meal service, those employees do all the big events like Week of Welcome picnics, athletics concessions and catering for meetings, banquets and conferences. Although that sounds like a lot of cooks in the kitchen, everyone has a specific mission, such as strategizing how to make it through a global pandemic while safely serving students.
Shortly after a $5 million renovation of the Memorial Student Center that created refreshed space for on-the-go options, the global pandemic struck. Yet food service to students never faltered, even during the lockdown. A rudimentary online ordering system served those remaining on campus. As the pandemic evolved and students returned, the system got a little flashier, and despite outside forces like supply chain and labor issues, the team remained committed to variety and safety.
“We never reduced quality,” Madson asserted.
Feeding the Herd well is one thing. Keeping mealtime safe for those with food sensitivities and life-threatening allergies is another. Arnold personally meets with those students. They learn about Simple Servings, a special food station in Harless Dining Hall that offers options prepared without eight of the top-known food allergens. Marshall Dining’s efforts in this area have not gone unnoticed. Last fall Marshall was awarded bronze status by Sodexo’s internal auditing team. By the spring of 2022, the team had received gold status — not an easy feat considering the complexities of the Simple Servings program to keep students safe.
“That’s unheard of,” Arnold said. Next up, they will apply to be recognized by FARE (Food Allergy Research and Education Corp.), the go-to resource for families navigating food allergies.
Food service at Marshall’s level can leave an enormous environmental footprint. The team works with the Marshall Sustainability Department to promote initiatives like trayless dining to save water, energy and waste, and the “skip the straw” campaign to reduce single-use plastic. The university also has partnerships with local farmers for food and composting. Coming soon, Marshall’s waste digester will turn all pre- and post-consumer food waste into compost, eliminating tons of garbage and materials from going to a landfill.
Sustainability is also about communities. During the pandemic, unused food nearing expiration was donated to the Huntington Fire Department. During normal business, excess catered food is wrapped, frozen and picked up by volunteers for those facing food insecurity. Leftovers are appreciated by families at the Huntington Ronald McDonald House. Recently, Marshall was awarded a $1,000 grant from Sodexo for its food pantry.
“That’s one of the things that makes Marshall special,” said Arnold, who has been at the university for roughly a year. “Whether you work here, are a student here or are a Huntington resident, you just feel like part of this larger community. It’s amazing. It just makes you want to do more good deeds.”
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About the Author: Lalena Price is a freelance writer living in Kenna, West Virginia. She earned her B.A. in journalism and her Executive M.B.A. from Marshall University.
Photos (from top):
Mark Arnold is the general manager of Marshall Dining by Sodexo.
A state-of-the art facility, Harless Dining Hall is filled with natural light and offers seating for 340.
There are 12 dining locations on the Huntington campus, from large dining halls to quaint coffee shops, offering everything from fast food to local favorites. Marco’s Deli is part of the 1837 Fresh Food Market located within Tower’s Marketplace.