Bon Appetit promises improved campus dining services

With less than a week before Penn Dining Services facilities open for the semester, officials are gearing up for the first year of operation under the direction of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Bon Appetit Management Co. and are optimistic about the newly created partnership. When students return to the dining halls next week, they will find better food options, more diverse menus and improved food quality and customer service, Penn and Bon Appetit officials said. "My expectations are that students will be very pleased with the quality of the food," Associate Vice President for Campus Services Larry Moneta said. The move to outsource Dining to Bon Appetit terminated 20 managerial positions within the department. Employees whose jobs were eliminated were given the chance to reapply for a position within the new management structure. Of those 20 employees, 11 chose to apply to Bon Appetit for new positions and eight were hired, according to Bon Appetit Chief Executive Officer Fedele Bauccio. And while several of the Dining employees lost their jobs, Bauccio defended the new deal by saying the majority of those who chose to apply with Bon Appetit were hired. Only three dining services managers -- Managing Director of Campus Dining Peg Lacey, her executive assistant Pam Lampitt and Meal Contract Coordinator Adam Sherr -- were initially assured of keeping their jobs. Since the deal went into effect on July 1, officials have worked to prepare for the coming year by training both new and old staff members, Bauccio said. "The staff is very excited from what I can tell," he added. "We've done some really fun things this summer." Bauccio said that many of the dining facilities will have a "new look," including the dining halls in Kings Court/English College House and Hill College House, which was completely renovated this summer. "We're trying to display our food in such a way so that people can see that it's fresh," Bauccio said. "I'm excited about being able to offer students some really terrific quality food." Lacey, who is responsible for integrating the new managerial system with the old Dining structure, said the department has held "transitional meetings" throughout the summer and new management staff has adjusted well. "We've dealt with issues as they've come up," she said. "It's a good mix, I think, of managerial talent." Bon Appetit signed on in March 1998 to serve as the University's primary caterer and to advise Penn on Dining restructuring. The company also signed a deal to operate all food service facilities in the Perelman Quadrangle, the $82.5 million student center scheduled to open next year. Officials have stressed that the decision to outsource was based on a desire to increase the quality of food, and not to cut costs. Bon Appetit will provide tuition and benefits packages to all Dining employees similar to what they had received from the University. Those packages include extending tuition benefits to the former Penn employees for 10 years as well as standard benefits such as medical, dental, vision and life insurance. The move is the latest major outsourcing deal that the University has entered into in the past two years. In 1997, Penn announced plans to outsource most of its facilities management operation to the Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co., a highly controversial decision that affect about 160 employees, 120 of whom were rehired. That deal was estimated to save the University about $15 million a year in the facilities management costs. The University has also recently outsourced the Faculty Club and part of its benefits administration department, as well as a large deal in 1997 to outsource its entire facilities management operation to Trammell Crow Co.

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