31 CHARTWELLS CHARTing A NEW COURSE Chartwells replaces Aramark as campus food provider in fall 2020. In fall 2020, Harding’s campus was introduced to many changes, and food was no exception. After 30 years of service, Harding cut ties with Aramark food service to begin working with Chartwells to provide food on campus. Though some dining locations remained unchanged, others were redesigned, relocated or replaced altogether. Among the changes to the dining experience was the transformation of the Charles White Dining Hall into the Range Food Hall. Due to COVID-19, the cafeteria was altered to encourage social distancing. Further changes were made in the Hammon Student Center, where Taco Bell was replaced with Tu Taco, and The P.O.D. became The Market. “Harding expressed the need for innovative programming,” Director of Dining Derek Good said. “Now we have The Range Food Hall, we do concessions and we have all the retail areas.” In addition to the updated cafeteria and student center, Chartwells partnered with local businesses. Slader’s Alaskan Dumpling Company was allowed to park their food truck outside of the Ganus Activities Complex. Slader’s employee and Harding senior Brielle Hetherington reflected on the importance of bringing the Searcy community together with Harding students. “I think having a SADCo. food truck on Harding’s campus is just one of many small ways to unify the Harding community with the greater Searcy community,” Hetherington said. “Slader’s has been story by Mitch Friesenborg Hungry eyes! The Range Food Hall staff serves food in fall 2020. The company redesigned the dining hall during the summer 2020 to encourage social distancing. | photo by Stanley Morales such a staple for Harding students since its conception, so to have Chartwells recognize that is really cool.” Another local business established a presence on campus. Replacing Java City in the Brackett Library was Midnight Oil Coffeehouse. The move came after Midnight Oil’s management approached Chartwells for a business opportunity. “When Chartwells came in, we had done a lot of research and saw that it might be successful pairing,” manager of Midnight Oil’s brickand-mortar location Eric Mount said. “We had looked at adding a second location, and we thought this made a lot of sense to try it out on campus where there was familiarity with students.” Associate professor and librarian Lisa Fuller felt the same way. She believed Midnight Oil’s presence on campus would be positive for students. “We were really excited about it,” Fuller said. “Midnight Oil has a strong history with Harding students, and they support some of the mission programs that mean a lot to us, so we were thankful that we would have a way to facilitate that support.”
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