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23 lessons learned by onsite dining pros over the past year

After a traumatic year of safety issues, reduced business, operational challenges and the prospect of an uncertain future, we asked some prominent directors and executives in major onsite dining markets to give their thoughts about what they’ve learned over the past year.

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It’s an anniversary no one is looking at fondly. Last March, the United States experienced what one hopes is the most traumatic crisis to hit the country in our lifetimes, the COVID-19 pandemic. The result for onsite dining programs has been a significant change in how they operate—assuming they continue to operate at all.

Most programs have had to alter the ways their food is prepared and served, how it’s presented—packaged for the most part with no self-serve—and where it’s consumed. The pandemic has prompted innovation, technological advancement and menu creativity, a lot of which isn’t going to go completely away no matter how effectively vaccines end the crisis.

Obviously, different onsite dining markets have been affected in different ways and to different degrees, but no one was left untouched.

So what are the lessons to be drawn from this year of living dangerously? Food Management reached out to some prominent operators and executives in the major markets it covers to ask, “What have you learned about your program and the industry of which it is a part in the past year?”

Here are some of the answers.

About the Authors

Mike Buzalka

Executive Features Editor, Food Management

Mike Buzalka is executive features editor for Food Management and contributing editor to Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News. On Food Management, Mike has lead responsibility for compiling the annual Top 50 Contract Management Companies as well as the K-12, College, Hospital and Senior Dining Power Players listings. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature from John Carroll University. Before joining Food Management in 1998, he served as for eight years as assistant editor and then editor of Foodservice Distributor magazine. Mike’s personal interests range from local sports such as the Cleveland Indians and Browns to classic and modern literature, history and politics.

Mike Buzalka’s areas of expertise include operations, innovation and technology topics in onsite foodservice industry markets like K-12 Schools, Higher Education, Healthcare and Business & Industry.

Mike Buzalka’s experience:

Executive Features Editor, Food Management magazine (2010-present)

Contributing Editor, Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News (2016-present)

Associate Editor, Food Management magazine (1998-2010)

Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1997-1998)

Assistant Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1989-1997)

 

Tara Fitzpatrick

Senior Editor, Informa Restaurant & Food Group

Tara Fitzpatrick is Food Management’s senior editor and a contributor to Restaurant Hospitality and Nation’s Restaurant News, creating editorial content for digital, print and events. Tara holds a bachelor of science degree from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kent State University. Before joining Food Management in 2008, Tara was associate editor at National Association of College Stores in Oberlin, Ohio. Prior to that, Tara worked as a newspaper reporter in her hometown of Lorain, Ohio, where she lives now. Tara is a fan of food history, legends, lore, ghost stories, urban farming and old cookbooks. 

Tara Fitzpatrick’s areas of expertise include the onsite foodservice industry (K-12 schools, colleges and universities, healthcare and B&I), menu trends, sustainability in foodservice, senior dining, farm-to-table and innovation.

Tara Fitzpatrick is a frequent webinar and podcast host and has served on the board of directors for IFEC (International Food Editors Consortium).

Tara Fitzpatrick’s experience:

Senior Editor, Food Management (Feb 2008-present)

Associate Editor, National Association of College Stores (2005-2008)

Reporter, The Morning Journal (2002-2005)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-fitzpatrick-4a08451/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tara_Fitzie

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/tarafitzie/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tara.y.fitzpatrick

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