Encouraged by the popularity of his Corner Meal Plan company, majority owner and president Kent Shwager recently embarked on two new business ventures in the food service industry.
In July, Shwager, a 1994 College graduate, and his staff, which includes several University students, began franchising the Corner Meal Plan into Meal Ticket. Like the Corner Meal Plan, Meal Ticket will offer a debit card system that eliminates the hassle of cash, providing students at other universities with easy access to local restaurants and food deliveries.
Eventually, Meal Ticket will offer this service nationally.
Shwager anticipates eight to 10 new universities will adopt Meal Ticket by this summer.
Shwager's second enterprise is the College Catering Company, which began as an alternative catering service for the University's fraternities and sororities. College Catering allows organizations within the University community to order meals from restaurants through the Internet and have the food delivered to their houses.
"It's such a simple system for everyone involved. All the menus are online," said Andrew Bashum, Sigma Alpha Epsilon president and University representative for the College Catering Company.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon was one of the first organizations to use the catering service.
Under the Service's plan, fraternities and sororities must sign a semester contract and order their meals a week before delivery. The restaurants offer a variety of meal choices, ranging from Mexican to Chinese cuisine.
The advanced ordering system cuts down on waste for restaurants because the companies know how many meals to prepare in advance. This allows them to keep costs down and charge competitive prices.
Current subscribers said they feel they are paying a small price for the increased quality and variety of their meals.
"The thing I like most about it is that you can select any meal you want from any restaurant on the Corner Meal Plan," Kappa Alpha President Hunter Hyde said.
While most Greek houses employ a single cook or catering service to prepare food either on a daily basis or for special events, the College Catering Company offers both reasonable prices and the flexibility of over 200 dishes to choose from.
"We realize that University students as a group are only allotted a certain amount of money for their food and we want to make it as reasonable as possible," Bashum said.
Hyde said Kappa Alpha has been ordering daily dinners through the College Catering Service since last spring.
Prior to College Catering, Kappa Alpha employed the same cook for 15 years and then ordered from a local catering service.
He said he finds the College Catering Service a much better alternative, and cheaper than the previous caterer.
"We love it and we're not likely to be switching services anytime soon," he added.
Six university fraternities are currently College Catering Company subscribers: Kappa Alpha, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Pi Kappa Phi, St. Anthony's Hall, Delta Upsilon and Sigma Alpha Mu.
Agreements have been made with Corner Meal Plan restaurants to provide meal packages exclusively for the College Catering Company subscribers. In Charlottesville, College Catering offers a list of nine restaurants: the Biltmore Grill, Coupe deVille's, Yuan Ho, Boston Market, the Greenskeeper, Subway, Jerry's Subs and Pizza, Dominos and the Blue Ridge Catering Company.
The online reservation provides a comment box that allows organizations to specify nutritional requirements or choose between different drinks or side order options. Changes or complaints are passed directly to the restaurants.
Schwager has anticipated the reality of College Catering Company's transition into a national company since July.
He plans to expand slowly, beginning with ACC schools.
"The biggest change is that when you run a small local business, the objective is to fine-tune it to suit local conditions. When you go national, you have to target efficiency and be able to replicate easily," Shwager said.
The College Catering Company's online reservation system has made it an efficient and low-cost enterprise, and one well-suited for expansion.
Shwager is currently marketing his College Catering Company to other Greek organizations. He also hopes to develop a new network of participating restaurants and student organizations at other college campuses.
"By going through Greek nationals and using the Greek network we've been able to find entrepreneurs interested in working for us," he said.
Wesley Carr, a student at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, is now manning the College Catering Company's UNC service, which is the company's first market outside the University.
Bashum anticipates concentrating further marketing in two to three more colleges in North Carolina in the coming months.
Interested organizations can visit the College Catering Company at www.CollegeCateringService.com or the Corner Meal Plan at www.CornerMealPlan.com.
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