Post Classifieds
Dining services tour gives students insight, Chartwells delivers
By Lazarus Lynch
On October 17, 2012
Last Wednesday, Manny Lezama, senior director of food service at Buffalo State College, led
students of the United Student Government Food Service Committee on a behind the scenes
tour of the Residential and Retail dining hall kitchens.
Lezama, a former New York City chef and restaurateur, works for Chartwells, the
foodservice group at BSC.
Lezama and his team of about 250 employees, including managers and supervisors, work
daily to serve nearly 2,000 meals in the resident dining hall, and 4,800 transactions in the
retail operation.
This year, Andrea Gustafson, senior earth science major, chairs the FSC and has been
working closely with Lezama and staff to implement positive changes in the dining hall
services.
Ean Woodward, executive chef at BSC, showed the production of the food and described
precautionary measures for keeping food safe to eat.
Chartwell's food production includes no processed food including chicken tenders,
hamburgers and sauces made from scratch.
Lezama spoke highly of the symbiotic relationship between students of the FSC and dining
services. When comparing student input in previous years, Lezama concludes that this
year, students have taken responsibility of their college experience.
He stressed the importance of keeping to a high standard of quality, fresh and healthy food,
as well as providing first-rate customer service for students.
"In our refrigerator, we separate our meats from vegetables and fruits to avoid cross-
contamination," Woodward said.
Yet, according to observations by the FSC, there is much work undone.
Tim Ecklund, associate vice president of Campus Life, Gustafson and the FSC gathered a list
of grievances to address. Lezama said he acknowledges the past, and is working with the
FSC to enforce corrective action.
In September, Gustafson and committee members pleaded with dining services to
decongest traffic near Spot Coffee by implementation of walkway signs. The committee
attributed crowding near Spot Coffee to the construction project in Campbell Union Hall,
and deemed it as a safety hazard.
Seeing the importance of the matter, dining services immediately took action by placing
two signs near Spot Coffee, directing non-customers to not walk across the resting areas in
effort to reduce traffic.
The committee also addressed its concerns of understaffing and slow service with Spot
Coffee and The Train Grill.
"After ordering a carrot dog at the Train, I've waited exactly 13 minutes before I was told
that they ran out of carrot dogs," said a student of the committee. The committee also
expressed its dissatisfaction with the diversity of kosher and vegan meal options.
"What you'll also see, in addition to name of the food item, is a barcode that identifies
whether that product is vegan, vegetarian, or gluten-free. So anyone with dietary needs can
check it out," said Marissa Dinello, marketing director of Campus Dining Services.
Lezama said Chartwells is committed to meeting the diverse tastes of the student
community.
The committee, however, commended Lezama's team efforts in working to change bread-
making and cookie production at Subway, offer more variety at Café Oh-Le, and include
nutrition analysis of all food products.
The back-of-the-house tour gave students of the FSC a new perspective of what it really
takes everyday to feed thousands of students.
Lezama said he estimates Chartwells' annual revenue is about $3.5 million in annual food
cost.
Although Lezama said his interest lies in meeting the budgetary bottom line, he also
realizes the value of pleasing customers.
Chartwells and its dining services are moving environmentally greener by usage of
biodegradable containers and Lezama spoke of adding an Argos Tea by January 2013, and
Denny's fresh skillet takeout thereafter.
Furthermore, by working jointly with Gustafson and the FSC, Lezama said he wants to
make Chartwell's nutrition analysis program, webtrition, more user-friendly for students.
He said he is also committed to lower prices on parfaits, meeting more dietary needs,
adding chicken to the Residential salad bar and monitoring the traffic flow of stations.
Lazarus Lynch can be reached by email at lynch.record@live.com.
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