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50 stories in 50 years: the 1980s

FM’s second decade saw major features documenting and exploring issues like wellness, sustainability, commercialization and the impacts of the advancing computer age.

Mike Buzalka, Executive Features Editor

September 20, 2022

9 Slides
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For onsite foodservice—then still mostly known as institutional or non-commercial foodservice—the 1980s was a period of transition from its traditional role as a support service or amenity where the bottom line wasn’t the bottom line. Previously, hospitals fed the staff and in-patients, nursing homes fed residents, schools and colleges fed students, prisons fed inmates and company lunchrooms fed employees, and organizations mostly swallowed the cost overruns. 

In the emerging cost-conscious world of the 1980s, however, justifying those expenses and finding new revenue streams took on more emphasis with the result that onsite dining started to think more commercially, something that also fueled market penetration by contractors.

Meanwhile, issues like wellness, food safety and sustainability (though not yet broadly called that) elbowed their way into prominence, along with rapidly advancing technologies that held the promise of greater operational efficiency and enhanced service.

Here are 10 prominent FM cover stories from the 1980s…

About the Author

Mike Buzalka

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)

 

See more from Mike Buzalka
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