Gourmet Dining Replaces Sodexo as Campus Food Provider

The salad bar in the main dining hall. Credit: Jamie Goodman '23

Marist College welcomed a new dining services provider, Gourmet Dining, on July 1, 2023, to revamp the food offerings across campus this fall. 

When the previous contract ended this spring with former dining partner Sodexo, the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, Matthew McMahon, believed it was time to review the dining program to ensure it was meeting the needs of the Marist community. 

“We created focus groups to meet with students for feedback as to what they are looking for, what ideas they had, and to taste food from each provider,” McMahon said. “Overwhelmingly, Gourmet was the winner.”

Gourmet Dining is based in New Jersey and provides dining services to colleges across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. They are partnered with colleges like Seton Hall University, Monmouth University and Rutgers University. 

As for the fall semester, Gourmet is focused on distinguishing each dining location across campus. The main dining hall was renovated over the summer and now offers an allergy-friendly kitchen. Previously known as the simple serving station, which was the food prep area free of the nine most common allergies, “safe foods” will now be available in the main space. Many former Sodexo employees stayed on to train with Gourmet Dining in meal prep for an allergy-free kitchen.

“By having an allergy-free kitchen, students with allergies will not have to go to a pantry for access to food,” McMahon said. 

The fresh meal of the day in the main dining hall. Credit: Jamie Goodman '23

The dining hall will also offer a late-night dessert retail cafe. It will be open until midnight, offering coffee, desserts, pizza and sandwiches, all of which can be ordered ahead. In addition to updates to the main dining hall, milkshakes and noodles will be offered at North End Dining, along with updated weekend hours. 

Gourmet aligned itself with Marist favorites like expanding the Rossi’s menu and establishing a partnership with the Halal Shack, both of which can now be found in Donnelly Cafe. They also capitalized on Marist’s second campus in Florence, Italy, by making the Hancock Cafe offer a “taste of Florence” with Lavazza Coffee, grilled panini and a gelato machine. 

“[Gourmet] really wanted to get to know the students,” McMahon said.

Since sustainability is so important to the Marist campus, they are building relationships with local farms to source local fruit and vegetables. Gourmet is also ensuring compliance with New York State composting laws and established their own food donation guidelines. 

Marketplace will face the biggest change by becoming a ghost kitchen, a kitchen that does not offer a dine-in option. Students will use GrubHub to order food from local favorites that are now partnered with Gourmet, like Lola’s, Cosimo’s or Eastdale Bagels, to then pick it up from Marketplace. For students on the other side of campus, the Cabaret will offer food lockers so students can order food on GrubHub and keep the food hot.

By making a plethora of changes to the Marist dining options, Gourmet is hoping to entice upperclassmen to come back to the meal plan. Students can still pay out-of-pocket for food on campus, but Gourmet is planning an event almost every day in any of the dining locations once the semester is in full swing. They believe so much exposure to the community will give students more confidence in the food options. 

“Word will spread so juniors and seniors will come back to the dining hall because the upperclassmen will be curious,” McMahon said. “The key to success is having people who don’t need meal plans want to have meal plans.”