Chick-fil-A, Star­bucks talks are hap­pen­ing

Big changes are hap­pen­ing on cam­pus, and Paw­print had a chance to in­ter­view with Ronell Barnes, stu­dent ex­pe­ri­ence man­ager, to dis­cuss the up­com­ing food ser­vice up­dates.

Austin Davis: Stu­dents are cu­ri­ous about what’s go­ing on. Every­one re­mem­bers a sur­vey, vot­ing for what­ever out­side ven­dors are go­ing to come into the Maryville com­mu­nity. Stu­dents are cu­ri­ous and Paw­print fig­ured that we could take re­spon­si­bil­ity for pass­ing in­for­ma­tion to the stu­dents. The first ques­tion is what are the changes that will be hap­pen­ing to Gan­der this up­com­ing year?

Ronell Barnes: To be hon­est, I think that a lot of things I am go­ing to say may or may not hap­pen be­cause there are not any signed con­tracts. Ob­vi­ously, every­one knows that we’ve been talk­ing to Star­bucks. We [Fresh Ideas] have also been talk­ing to Chick-fil-A. Be­cause of the sur­veys, those were the two places that re­ally stood out to the stu­dents went to look at. We want to look at Star­bucks, but more so Chick-fil-A. In the next year, we’re hop­ing to have some an­swers to that as far as time­line. Those com­pa­nies have been ap­proached by Fresh Ideas. We are talk­ing to Chick-fil-A about what would work, what would­n’t work, what they’re will­ing to do and vice versa. More im­por­tantly, it is a busi­ness so how does that busi­ness im­pact Fresh Ideas so I can tell you that those con­ver­sa­tions are very se­ri­ous. My ex­pec­ta­tion is that these things will hap­pen but I do not know when. I think that it’s re­ally geared to­wards what the stu­dents want.

In the mean­time, I think what we are try­ing to do pro­vide some of that some of those op­tions in the in­terim. So, we’re hav­ing Panda Ex­press in March at the chef’s table, sim­i­lar to the Chick-fil-A at the chef’s table last week. We’ve been try­ing to give us a lit­tle bit of that flair in the in­terim but also try­ing to pro­vide other op­tions in the din­ing hall as well. In the din­ing hall, we have com­mit­ted that in the next two weeks, there would be fried chicken pro­vided in the din­ing hall every Tues­day. There is a process go­ing on right now to ac­tu­ally add a gyro ma­chine in the din­ing hall so ex­pect­ing to see that fairly soon. It is go­ing to fol­low up af­ter the week that the fried chicken is put into place. We have tried to do things like the pop-up. I’m pretty sure that that’s some­thing that we’ve seen re­ally in­ter­est­ing in the be­gin­ning but kind of tailed off. So, we’ve been mak­ing some changes to some of those pop-ups such the break­fast skil­let which is pota­toes, pro­tein, pep­pers and onions on the Mon­go­lian Grill.

“We want to look at Starbucks, but more so Chick-fil-A. In the next year, we’re hoping to have some answers to that as far as timeline.”

Dur­ing the sum­mer, there will be changes made to the grill menu. It is go­ing to be a lit­tle bit of a dif­fer­ent ex­pe­ri­ence on the grill. We want to keep the chicken ten­ders and burg­ers, how­ever look­ing at the toasted ravi­oli, we may give op­tions like a buf­falo chicken toasted ravi­oli. We’re go­ing to be more cre­ative with those op­tions. That is part of my job which is to get in­for­ma­tion from the stu­dents on how we can bet­ter en­hance what Gan­der al­ready has.

AD: So, from the po­ten­tial changes that you talked about that could be hap­pen­ing to Maryville, how do you think this will af­fect the stu­dents?

RB: Well, I ex­pect the stu­dents to en­joy their din­ing the din­ing op­tions with Fresh Ideas cre­at­ing more din­ing op­tions. From the in­flux of 200 more stu­dents, it is im­por­tant to be able to have some op­tions that will en­hance Gan­der. There are only cer­tain days a week where you can go and have a chicken sand­wich, so it will get old at some point. We are mak­ing sure our stu­dents have as many op­tions as they pos­si­bly can. Be­ing the newest stu­dent ex­pe­ri­ence man­ager, I un­der­stand the op­tions al­ways are the same but that’s why it’s so im­por­tant for us to fo­cus on dif­fer­ent con­cepts as sup­posed to just menu op­tions.

I un­der­stand that we’re not just cater­ing to one pop­u­la­tion that just likes burg­ers and French fries, but we’re try­ing to de­velop con­cepts cater­ing to the ve­gan per­son, the veg­e­tar­ian per­son, the per­son on a fish diet and the per­son with food al­ler­gies. No mat­ter what food group that one may fall in that, there will be an op­tion in Gan­der. We want to make sure that we still can pro­vide our stu­dents with more op­tions as we pos­si­bly can.

AD: What are the some of the things Fresh Ideas are look­ing at as far as long-term goals?

RB: Speak­ing from Maryville, Maryville wants to be the culi­nary hub of every­thing Fresh Ideas. What that means is try­ing to be the first at every­thing. It is try­ing to be in­no­v­a­tive. We’re also try­ing to be the first to tech­nol­ogy. That is one thing we will be work­ing on in Gan­der which is try­ing to give stu­dents more ac­cess to the smart­phone with some of the op­tions. We are look­ing at putting more like kiosks in the din­ing hall where one can walk up and there is a com­put­er­ized sys­tem. One can or­der food some­thing which is be­ing looked at for the deli specif­i­cally. We are try­ing to be the leader of all things con­cern­ing stu­dent din­ing.

AD: Is there any­thing else you would like to add that the stu­dents should know?

RB: I think the stu­dents should know that they should have their voice heard. Con­tact­ing me is prob­a­bly the best thing for the stu­dents. Maryville has never had a stu­dent ex­pe­ri­ence man­ager. Most col­leges that are of this size typ­i­cally don’t have one. I am 100 per­cent a ves­sel for the stu­dents. Ob­vi­ously, the an­swer won’t al­ways be yes but it will be some­thing I have to work on. I am the stu­dent ad­vo­cate so com­mu­ni­cate with me con­cern­ing ques­tions about din­ing hall. The ideas from the culi­nary team need to be done by the stu­dent body. It is Fresh Ideas re­spon­si­bil­ity to ex­e­cute the ideas, brought from the stu­dents, to make sure the stu­dents’ needs are met.

Have any ideas that could help the stu­dent din­ing ex­pe­ri­ence? For tips and sug­ges­tions for Fresh Ideas, Barnes email ad­dress is rbar­nes2@freshideas­food.com.