Feeding the flock: Inside the heart of FGCU’s dining program

9 – minute read

What students are eating today looks notably different from what they ate 10 years ago.

Chartwells, Florida Gulf Coast University’s dining partner, has been feeding the flock at FGCU since 2016. Prior to 2020, menus leaned toward students’ appetite for healthy options like quinoa and kale power bowls, according to Tara Scrivano, Chartwell’s resident district manager and the university’s de facto director of dining services.

 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s all about comfort food. Think meat and potatoes. And on any given day at FGCU’s South Village Dining Hall, the numbers are staggering. The staff serves an average 1,500 meals daily during the fall and spring semesters — roughly 315,000 meals annually — as students cycle through for brunch, lunch and dinner. 

 

“We really try to offer as many items at SoVi Dining on a daily basis as possible. It’s a balance. We want to have all this fun, exciting, trendy, maybe new flavors, global flavors, but then we also have to have those familiar products and menu items,” Scrivano says. Her team is focused on creating a place students return to again and again for comfort.

A woman stands, making the FGCU Wings Up gesture with her right hand, in front of a sign that reads Student Success
Tara Scrivano, Chartwell’s resident district manager and FGCU’s de facto director of dining services.

Let’s taco-bout the food

 

Scrivano calls SoVi Dining “the heart of our program.” On a walk-through, students might encounter nearly 100 items and ingredients being served.

 

About 80% of the menu is guided by regional Chartwells standards, while the rest reflects local creativity and student preferences. Scrivano regularly surveys student diners and seeks input from student and staff representatives from Student Success & Enrollment Management, Housing & Residence Life, Athletics, Business Services, Organizations & Student Involvement and Resort & Hospitality Management. 


Alongside staples like pizza, burgers, chicken tenders and French fries are grilled chicken, a salad bar, global flavors, theme-night dishes and Southern classics such as barbecued and fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, okra and collard greens. Menus rotate on a 16-week cycle, but what actually gets cooked depends on real-time demand and seasonality. 

A close-up photo of greens growing in a row
A close-up photo of curly fries
A close-up photo of roasted vegetables
A close-up photo of barbecued chicken pieces
A close-up photo of macaroni and chesse
A close-up photo of chicken tenders
A close-up photo of twp chicken salad wraps
A close-up photo of pepperoni pizza

Student preferences can shift quickly, too. “That pasta dish that might have been gangbusters the first year is flops the second,” Scrivano says.

 

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, students preferred lean proteins, vegetables and lots of greens. In the years since, only one trend has remained steady: comfort foods. 

 

“Meatloaf and potatoes is our No. 1 meal. We use a blend of ground beef and ground turkey, and we typically will go through more than 100 pounds per night. We always serve it with our homemade mashed potatoes made in our giant floor mixer — a normal cream and butter recipe. We typically go through 100 pounds of mashed potatoes each night, as well. This translates into about 500 servings of each,” she says.

Top 10 Meals at SoVi Dining (no particular order)

·         Meatloaf with mashed potatoes

·         Sliced beef with gravy

·         Spaghetti and meatballs

·         Pasta Alfredo with chicken and broccoli

·         Orange chicken, fried rice and vegetable lo mein

·         Build-your-own taco bar

·         Chicken Parmesan with pasta marinara and garlic breadsticks

·         Smothered pork chops (in a mushroom and onion cream sauce) with egg noodles

·         Beef stew with buttered noodles and mashed potatoes

·         Barbecue chicken with macaroni and cheese

Each week, SoVi Dining also brings themed food experiences, including “International Fridays,” plant-based menus and “Sundaes on Sunday” with an expansive ice cream toppings bar. There are also several stations built around a massive paella pan — 32 inches in diameter and able to hold 150 servings — one of Chartwells’ signature kitchen features. But it’s not just used for paella. “We have ‘Nacho Average Tuesday,’ where we make a humongous batch of nachos in that pan. It stops you in your tracks,” Scrivano says.

A man in a white chef's jacket stands in front of an oversized paella pan under a sign that reads SoVi pan-ovation
David Lopez, campus executive chef.
Wooden letters read SOVI
An oversized pan with seafood paella
The giant paella pan at SoVi Dining Hall has been used to make nachos, spaghetti and meatballs, a shrimp boil, fra diavolo, and, of course, paella.
A woman in ball cap and white chef's jacket stands in a screened-in, outdoor area like a porch, holding uncut produce
Susie Person, chef manager.

Stirring up some partnerships

 

Across 16 campus locations, FGCU Dining Services serves more than 900,000 meals annually. Behind the scenes, Chartwells employs six chefs, more than 25 sous chefs and lead cooks and more than 250 dining associates. Of those employees, Scrivano estimates 55% are FGCU students — a detail that shapes both the food and the experience. 

 

“They know what students are looking for,” she says. “They’re living it.”

A young man in a green t-shirt, a young brunette in a white, short-sleeved blouse and a young, redheaded woman in a black t-shirt and glasses sit together at a table eating plates of food
First-year students Liam Porter, Alexis Feldman and Karcen Hightower enjoyed brunch at SoVi Dining this summer.
A young, blonde woman in a blue FGCU t-shirt and black shorts stands before a buffet of pizza in a dining hall
First-year student Ava Theiller at SoVi Dining this summer.
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A young man in a blue polo shirt stands in front of a buffet in a dining hall. A TV behind him reads SoVi Dining and features an image of the FGCU campus
FGCU student Brenden Charles is the Howard Hall convenience store supervisor.

Brenden Charles is one of those student workers. The senior forensic studies and criminal justice double major has worked for Chartwells for three years in various areas and advanced to supervisor at the Howard Hall convenience store. Although he no longer works at SoVi Dining, it remains a special place for him.

 

For South Village residents, who are primarily first-year students, SoVi Dining is a home away from home and becomes part of their daily routine. They meet friends. They bring laptops and spend hours doing schoolwork. When they arrive on campus, they are displaced from family and suddenly more responsible for themselves than ever before — which can feel overwhelming for some, Charles says.

 

“SoVi Dining truly is the heart of food at FGCU,” he says. “Our team really helps students during this transitional period in their lives and serves as a friendly, familiar face.”

 

Charles’ work experience helped him gain skills “not easily taught in the classroom,” including food preparation, effective time management and leadership and interpersonal skills.

 

Chartwells also offers internships, service-learning opportunities and partnerships beyond campus dining, including a program with Lee County Exceptional Students that provides hands-on job training. 

 

Dining options across campus continue to evolve based on student feedback. Recent additions include partnerships with local vendors like Cuban Connection and Hummus Express and a rotating lineup of more than 17 food trucks. A new location planned for Marieb Hall South will feature a hybrid coffee shop and market concept, including sustainably sourced, single-origin beans from a Bonita Springs roaster.

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Meanwhile, SoVi Dining is rolling out new menu items — from handmade empanadas to rotating produce bars and made-to-order ramen and pho — designed to keep pace with student tastes. 

 

“We don’t want to stop growing and evolving,” Scrivano says. “We’re always pushing the needle.”

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