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Design

Morehead State Introduces
The Rock

orehead State University (MSU) in Kentucky is unveil-
ing a new dining commons this month that is named
Mafter a prominent graduate.
Rocky Adkins Dining Commons, nicknamed “The Rock”
is named for the longtime majority and minority floor leader
of the Kentucky House of Representatives. “He played bas-
ketball here in the early 80s and was the team captain on an
NCAA Tournament team,” said Bill Redwine, assistant vice
president for Auxiliary Services. “He is a very loyal supporter
of the institution.”
“This is all about our students,” said Adkins at the dedica-
tion for the facility in June. “This will give them a place to
study, eat and socialize with their classmates and friends. MSU
has played a pivotal role in my life, and I am very honored was natural, having this new building and being able to bring
to have my name placed on this building. It also adds to the the Fresh Food Company to another campus in the state.”
beauty of our campus.” The Fresh Food Company concept has little to no back-of-
The 25,000-square-foot dining commons, which is set to the-house food preparation. “Almost everything is done in front
open this month, replaces Beakers, the longtime all-you-care- of the students,” he said. “Depending on the size of the facility,
to-eat dining hall in the residential area of campus. “Beakers that determines the number of stations you have, but you will
has been around for a while,” Redwine said. “It is a very dated have a variety of stations. Some will have a salad bar, a grill,
location. While it has had some superficial renovations since a home-style cooking station, an international station, a deli,
the 70s — when I was a student — you can put lipstick on a pizza/pasta. All of these things are made-to-order, or if there
hog so many times. It is outdated. It is small. It is dark. There are given selections at a station, the items are all prepared in
are just lots of reasons that it needs to go away.” front of the students, hence the Fresh Food Company.”
The Rock features the Fresh Food Company concept from Beakers did have made-to-order items, but not to the extent
campus foodservice provider Aramark. “The Fresh Food Com- that The Rock will. “It took an old traditional cafeteria with
pany, in the Aramark world, is the Cadillac — if you will — of everything back-of-the-house, prepared there and brought out
our residential dining facilities,” said Jeremy Hacker, district as a Real Food on Campus concept and utilized the smaller
marketing manager with Aramark. “That is the type of experience prepared portions so that it was continually refreshed,” said
that we wanted to make available to students on the Morehead Redwine. “Students could see it being brought from the kitchen
campus and really make it part of the facility. That transition in smaller quantities, but it still lacked that watching them
prepare it right in front of you. That will be brand new for
our students to see that concept.”
The stations chosen for The Rock’s Fresh Food
Company were picked based on what has been
popular throughout Aramark’s other locations,
as well as what was popular at Beakers.
“Aramark has done a really good job of
intercept surveys of our students dur-
ing the regular time on campus to get a
really good view of what their palates
call for and have looked at doing that
also,” he said. “They have looked at what
has been popular in the much smaller

16 | OCTOBER 2017 ON-CAMPUS HOSPITALITY