Bucknell began a partnership with Chartwells Higher Education on July 1, 2024, transitioning away from our dining partner of ten years, Parkhurst Dining; 165 of the original 169 dining services hourly employees were retained, and the same three main dining venues (the Bison, Commons and Bostwick Cafeteria) remain open.
“The Bucknellian” sat down with Prince Johnson, Resident District Manager at Bucknell University and representative of Chartwells and Chelsea Hough MS RDN LDN, Campus Dietician at Bucknell, to discuss Chartwells’ foray into Bucknell’s environment and dining culture thus far.
“Transition always has challenges,” Johnson said, “but the year is going well.”
In just the first few weeks of operations as the academic year kicked off, dining management have already received feedback from parents and students, and they are working tirelessly to adjust “in real time” according to student needs and preference. Emails sent to [email protected] directly reach the management team; Johnson hopes to get students “as involved as possible” and is looking to incorporate student input to make Bostwick, in particular, a user-friendly dining experience.
As Chartwells adjusts to Bucknell, they are also implementing some changes in the dining facilities around campus. “There are new rollouts every week,” Johnson explained, referring largely to the adjustments implemented in Bostwick, such as re-introducing the soft serve machine. “We’ll be adding an espresso machine at Seventh Street [on Sept. 19], so students should look out for that!” Students can also anticipate a few other adjustments to Seventh Street Café—Chartwells is looking into adding a creperie-style menu to the cafe sometime this semester. They’re also hoping to bring bao buns and boba tea to the Commons, a dining facility located by the South Campus Apartments.
Johnson’s goal is to see Bucknell’s dining program continually evolve. “I want to make all areas inside Bostwick, especially, as customizable as we can.” Multiple “renovations” are currently on the docket, including expanding the allergen-friendly offerings. The “Delicious Without” station addresses cross-contamination concerns, and the chefs on staff are “more than happy” to assist those with difficult-to-balance allergies.
Campus dietician Hough “[wants to] set up meetings with students” to see how to best support those “who deal with multiple allergens.” She’s starting an “avoiding allergens” support group in the hopes of collecting real student feedback on the current dining options; Hough, too, wants to maximize student involvement and input and is prepared to answer any and all dining-related questions students send her way. As it stands, Hough played a role in establishing the “dedicated ‘avoiding gluten’ fridge” in Bostwick and champions the recent addition of screens in Bostwick that display a comprehensive list of all ingredients present in a given dish.
The focus on cross-contamination and allergen awareness from Bucknell’s student body was “unexpected” in Johnson’s words, but he and his team have done their best to ensure all relevant information is available to students. The website “Dine on Campus” (https://dineoncampus.com/bucknell) has been made available for anytime access to menus, both current and upcoming.
Bucknell has, in many ways, exceeded Chartwells’ expectations. Johnson reported feeling welcomed among the student body, many of whom have been “happy to engage” with dining services and their requests for feedback: “Bucknell is awesome!”
The rollout of “meal trades,” which enable students on anytime access dining plans to trade a “swipe” at Bostwick for an item in the Bison, has been an unexpected success. Johnson is proud of the connections he and Chartwells have already built with staff, sports teams and campus organizations.
