Café Services Brings Unique Mix of School and Corporate Dining Experience to the Community Campus in Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Serving the nonprofits at the Community Campus in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is not for just any corporate food service company. So when the nonprofit community started looking for a new provider in fall 2014, it chose Café Services’ for its unique experience serving both school-based and corporate diners.
To a community that serves many of the Seacoast’s most vulnerable children and adults, Café Services’ appeal to diners of every age is big plus that makes all the difference. Today, the corporate food service company serving Massachusetts and the greater northeast is exceeding expectations for this unaffiliated network of daycare, education and healthcare organizations.
“The daycare professionals are thrilled with the food quality and appreciate that we go above and beyond to cater to the special needs of the kids,” says Café Services District Manager, Rich Kvetkosky.
Catering to Kids Takes Cooperation
Café Services prepares breakfast, lunch and a snack daily for the 200 children that attend daycare or early education programs at the Community Campus through Head Start or the Seacoast Community School. Ranging in age from 6 months to 6 years, many have food allergies or are on special diets.
Keeping meals on schedule is important. So is creating menus that meet state and Federal nutrition guidelines for kids.
A former food service director in the Café Services’ school division, chef/manager, Mike Armao, is the perfect fit for the job. He collaborates frequently with senior management and nutrition experts in the school division to create meals that are healthy and appealing to kids.
The Café Services team delivers it all with a smile, while simultaneously attending to the very different needs and tastes of the 150 adults that dine at the Community Campus’s 70-seat café. In addition to educators, childcare providers and healthcare professionals, these include brain injury patients that come for treatment at the Krempels Center.
Attitude Makes All the Difference
Providing caring, efficient service to these diners comes with its own set of challenges — such as creating a safe and welcoming environment for guests with mobility and speech limitations. At the same time, it’s a priority to ensure lunchtime is a smooth and positive experience for all.
Like his peers across the Café Services organization, Mike talks to diners frequently to get feedback on menus. The Café Services team prepares all meals fresh, using top quality ingredients, many from local sources. Giving diners a variety of creative dishes to choose from is a focus.
Getting off to a strong start at the Community Campus is all about attitude, says Mike. “We project a positive attitude every day. Every day, I ask myself, ‘How would I want to be treated if I was eating here.’”
I’ve been born and bred corporate dining and corporate catering from the very beginning of my career in the Silicon Valley and now, since 2001 in the Boston Metro Area. While working my way up through the ranks, all the experience has led up to my current position as the Corporate Executive Chef for Café Services, based out of Manchester, NH. I have the privilege to be able to utilize creativity, research and technology to dream up our company’s new culinary programs and custom menus for corporate cafeteria clients and bring them to life. Café Services supplies the resources to ensure success of our ever-evolving companywide culinary initiatives and I’m very grateful for the opportunity. Seeing the success of new programs in the field is my motivation. It’s a win win.