 "Photo: Wes Starnes for The Hilltop")
 "Photo: Joshua Doby for The Hilltop")
 "Photo: Joshua Doby for The Hilltop")
When Chartwells food services received negative reviews about the cafeteria offerings at Mars Hill College last fall, the company sent Bill LaFrankie, who as MHC’s new director of food services, is striving for change.
LaFrankie has already implemented many changes this semester, and he hopes to accomplish much more.
Students are clear about what they want when it comes to their food, he said. It boils down to variety, healthy choices, long hours, seven-days-a-week service and all-you-can-eat for low rates.
“I know a good piece of bacon when I see one, and the stuff that you guys have been eating every morning, that does not have my name on it,” LaFrankie said. “I think that’s what I bring – an energy and a recognition of what’s good food and what isn’t.”
“Good” food quality was one problem LaFrankie faced upon entering his new job. On a scale from one to 10, he rated the Caf food quality a four when he first arrived in January. Even the spirits of the staff were low upon his arrival, he said. LaFrankie rated the morale of the staff at one.
Because of surveys that students filled out last semester, Chartwells responded.
“Things must have really been off the charts to the negative last semester, and the company responded,” he said. “It’s important that the company listened, and the company responded, and that’s a sign of a good company.”
LaFrankie thrives in overcoming the challenges surrounding this job, and for him, the cafeteria, food and atmosphere alike, can only improve.
Premium meals are one addition that LaFrankie has already begun to implement into the cafeteria’s menu. On Feb. 18, the staff fired up the grill behind the serving line and cooked shrimp and chicken. On Feb. 25, Philly-cheese steaks were on the menu. LaFrankie hopes to make this a weekly event.
“I have selected Thursdays as a day that the Caf will generally be offering an upgraded or special entree. Normally, this will be an action station on the flat-top grill,” LaFrankie said.
In addition to premium meals, several other improvements have been made in the cafeteria such as continuous service from lunch to dinner, the improvement of food quality, like bacon, and the institution of a four-week menu cycle. Hot soups are being served more often, along with more “alive station cooking,” as LaFrankie likes to call it.
Also, the dining hall chefs are now allowed to be more inventive.
“We’re allowing the folks that run the pizza bar to experiment and do different, fun pizzas,” LaFrankie said.
LaFrankie is promising students more positive changes. In the fall, the cafeteria will be continuous from breakfast until dinner, and soon after spring break this semester, a composting and sustainability program will commence.
Food waste was and continues to be another ongoing problem, he said. In late January, LaFrankie initiated a sustainable project called, “Scrape Your Plate Sunday,” in which every student is asked to scrape his/her food waste into a tub beside the trashcan. After calculating the food waste based on the number of students who visited the cafeteria that day, on average each student wasted almost five ounces.
“If we as a campus can reduce that number by eating all that we take or taking less per visit to the buffet, we can reduce our food cost, and we will return that savings in the form of quality, premium meals,” LaFrankie stated in a recent, campus-wide email.
There was no menu cycle before LaFrankie, causing weekly and sometimes daily repeats of meals.
“My vision is quite simple,” LaFrankie wrote. “To offer all of you a safe, healthy and tasty dining experience while offering our associates a dignified, safe, harmonious work environment.”
MHC students have made a positive impression on LaFrankie by welcoming him with respect, gratitude and hospitality.
“From what I have seen in my time here, the student population is incredibly respectful…and that’s a good thing,” LaFrankie said.
For LaFrankie, the job is a varied schedule that begs for a sense of creativity and artistic quality.
“Generally speaking, we are integrating a more solid culinary approach to what we are doing here,” LaFrankie said.
LaFrankie is a veteran in the food industry. After receiving a BA in Communications and a BFA in Elizabethan Theater at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., he traveled to New York and Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.
LaFrankie was 21 when he grabbed his first job as an assistant manager in the food network in California, and he also obtained one when he moved to New York. A year and a half later, LaFrankie returned to Virginia and worked in theatre in Washington, DC.
Simultaneously, he continued to participate in food management.
“I was always supporting myself in the food service business, while I was challenging myself to fulfill a life in the theatre and television and film,” LaFrankie said.
Soon after returning to DC, LaFrankie gave up his life as an actor and decided to pursue a career in the food service business. LaFrankie originally began in fine dining services in DC; LaFrankie also helped to open up a horse track in Williamsburg,Va., in 1996.
After being the food service director at the track, he was recruited to be the catering director at The College of William and Mary for a competitor of Chartwells. LaFrankie remained there for four years, before being reassigned to open a new account at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
After taking a short break from the business, LaFrankie was hired by Chartwells to revamp MHC’s cafeteria.
“It seemed like a really good fit, to come back into the business and take on an account that had some challenges to it,” LaFrankie said.
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