Higher Education Dining
CulinArt continually breaks ground in higher education dining with innovative program development, maintaining an emphasis on retail-oriented programs that afford students more choice, freedom and flexibility in their dining decisions than from traditional meal plans. From coffee houses and virtual cafés to nationally branded concepts, convenience stores and late-night eateries, CulinArt meets and exceeds the discriminating tastes of our college, university and graduate school students, faculty and staff.
CulinArt also places heavy emphasis on the means necessary (including food and entertainment) to help transform traditional campus dining facilities into multi-use environments that facilitate a sense of community among students, faculty and staff. This includes a wide variety of programming that may offer Karaoke Nights, talent shows, club meetings and more – all supported by delicious food and refreshing beverages.
Additionally, a growing segment of CulinArt’s higher education division is graduate schools, which include some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions that inspire future leaders in the fields of law, medicine, teaching and architecture/design.
Culinary Innovations
As the country becomes more culturally diverse (and with educational institutions, colleges and universities reflecting that demographic evolution), CulinArt is committed to providing a contemporary dining service program that reflects a campus’ specific community. By incorporating international cuisines into our concepts, and regularly introducing cultural theme days and promotions, CulinArt’s dining program offers more options to more students, faculty and staff.
CulinArt’s Culinary Development and Marketing Departments work together to introduce “diversity through multiculturalism” into the design of our concepts and menus for colleges and universities. CulinArt explores the composite of each of our operations’ populations, through customer feedback and one-on-one customer participation to determine a proper approach to the elevation of our culturally diverse dining service program.
Wellness Solutions
We know that students work hard, and it is our goal to provide them with nutrition programs that are both healthful and delicious. Our campus dining service strives to offer culinary creations that replicate homemade comfort foods, but with a healthy twist. CulinArt Signature programs such as Eat Well and 500 Calories-or-Less allow students to make choices that they can feel good about. These selections focus on whole, naturally flavorful and nutritious foods. We enjoy partnering with student activities, athletic directors and health centers to provide ongoing educational support in the college and university setting. Our staff of registered dietitians and nutrition experts can often be found on campus discussing the latest nutrition trends, participating in health and wellness fairs and seminars, conducting café tours, and educating on special dietary needs, among other activities.
Sustainable Solutions
CulinArt is committed to adopting sustainable food service practices in all aspects of our operations – not just for the benefit of our clients and ourselves, but also for the betterment of college students. We firmly believe that food can and should be incorporated into the educational process. Involving students in activities that range from recycling and composting to on-campus gardening and even visiting farmers’ markets goes a long way toward achieving that goal.
Toward that end, CulinArt offers a comprehensive suite of solutions for colleges and universities that can be deployed in operations based on the goals and priorities of our clients. We believe that programs should be modular, scalable and dynamic to meet the needs of our clients as well as changes in the marketplace. Indeed, CulinArt’s growth emanates from the ability to assist our clients in moving their greening efforts forward by adopting sustainable practices such as local sourcing, on-campus gardening, recycling, composting, and using sustainable resources, among other tasks.
Marketing Solutions
Just because you provide on-campus dining services does not mean that your faculty, staff, and students are going to utilize them, especially with the selection of dining options available just off-campus. As a result, having an aggressive dining services marketing strategy is essential to generating excitement, attracting customers, and improving the revenue potential of your dining program.
At CulinArt, we develop targeted marketing strategies for the higher education sector. We customize those strategies according to each campus’ unique culture and customer satisfaction data. This enables us to effectively promote our services to each school’s students, staff, and faculty.
From limited-time retail promotions and daily specials to themed promotional events, we create fun, spontaneous, and exciting dining environments for today’s discerning student diner. With CulinArt handling your school’s dining service program, your students, staff, and faculty will enjoy healthier, more delicious food and a stronger sense of community.
Technology Solutions
Today’s higher education students are no strangers to the conveniences of technology. So, why not provide them with technological solutions that are designed to make their campus dining choices easier and more user-friendly?
At CulinArt, we offer next-generation dining service solutions for today’s higher education institutions. Our innovative web-based solutions allow you to service your students, faculty, and staff faster and more successfully, all while increasing the ease and efficiency of managing your school’s dining program.
CulinArt’s technological solutions allow our clients to seamlessly convert old-fashioned restrictive meal programs to the more popular declining balance programs. This lets your students, faculty, and staff members decide what they will eat, where, and when – thus improving customer satisfaction and loyalty (as well as revenue potential).
Our Educational Institution Dining Service Technology Solutions include:
- Cashless Payment Systems – Our cashless payment systems give students more financial freedom while improving the dining service’s overall revenue potential.
- Digital Menu Boards – Digital menu boards attract and inform busy students about the day’s menu. And, the boards can be updated as needed in real-time.
- Webcams – Webcams installed in the dining commons allow students to make more informed decisions about when to visit the dining facilities. They can access the video feed online at any time.
- Web-Based Accounting Software – Our easy-to-use web-based accounting software program allows for unit-level financial reporting, which transfers information instantly between our dining service locations in the field and our corporate office.
With the technology solutions offered by CulinArt, our higher education clients enjoy improved quality control and more accurate budgetary management for food costs, labor costs, inventory control, forecasting, and more.
Food Safety
With such a wide array of dining options available at most higher education institutions, ensuring that each one is safe, sanitary, and always providing fresh, high-quality food can be a challenge for any food service. But, at CulinArt, we utilize best-in-class food safety practices in all of our dining programs, so you can have peace of mind knowing that your students, faculty, and staff are enjoying the healthiest food in the safest environments possible.
Our higher education food safety practices are designed to help your school’s foodservice program exceed the strict code regulations of local health inspection departments. To accomplish this, CulinArt’s practices include:
- Mandatory Safety Training and Development Workshops that are held monthly
- ServSafe® certification accredited by the National Restaurant Association
- Registered ServSafe® Instructors located in all of our geographic areas
- All initiatives and programs are inspected and supervised by our Director of Food Safety
- All safety initiatives are qualified and implemented by our Regional Safety Coordinators
- Fresh foods are selected and purchased from approved and highly qualified vendors who are regulated by federal, state, and local laws
- A strict food inspection program that includes inspections by our vendors before delivery, and then secondary inspections by our team members before preparing and serving
- All team members, at both the management and associate levels, are trained in ServSafe®/HACCP procedures, which include proper temperature control (receiving, cooking, cooling and serving), storage, and personal hygiene
CulinArt also has established partnerships with Shoes For Crews, a leading provider of safety footwear for the hospitality industry, and Travelers Insurance, which provides regularly scheduled risk assessment inspections to help identify and resolve potential safety issues before they arise.
Financial Management
Higher education dining programs are unlike any other. These complex programs usually involve multiple dining locations, food courts, snack carts, coffee kiosks, and sports arena concessions, among other places. As a result, it can be a challenge to manage the financial responsibilities of such a large-scale program.
At CulinArt, we specialize in providing high-quality food service for the higher education sector. And, our dining programs come with the added benefit of our proven financial management solutions. We custom-tailor our programs to meet the unique culinary needs, campus culture, and budgetary requirements of each of our education clients. Colleges, universities, technical schools, community colleges, and other types of higher learning institutions face specific challenges in providing their students with quality dining options. CulinArt helps you reach your food service goals without sacrificing quality and with minimal impact on your budget.
Cafe Design Consultation
Higher education students, faculty, and staff have a lot of options when it comes to choosing where to eat. One of the most effective ways of keeping their dining dollars on campus is to provide them with smartly-designed, retail-oriented dining facilities and always-fresh culinary creations. At CulinArt, we help educational institutions accomplish this task with our professional design and total dining program development services.
From concept to construction, CulinArt handles every step of your dining service’s renovation. We partner with some of the country’s leading architects, designers, and equipment retailers to create fully-functional, technologically-advanced, and profitable dining services for the education sector.
CulinArt’s suite of design services include:
- Schematic Design – Our designs optimize traffic flow and visual appeal for students and staff and workspace efficiency for culinary teams.
- Concept Development – Every project’s concept development is managed by a team of professional marketing managers, operational executives, and consultants, each of whom are experts in food industry trends and program development.
- Equipment Layout – Our well-established vendor relationships enable us equip your kitchen with quality products without compromising your budget.
- Construction – We have management personnel onsite during the construction for point-of-contact support.
