Chartwells:

Harvest Program

Eat. Learn. Live. From students

to society, our job is to serve
you.
Table of Contents
1

Introduction... 3
Background 3
Proposal.. 4
Staffing 5
Budget.. 6
Authorization.. 8
Targeted Questions and Answers. 8
Sources.. 10

Introduction

Throughout the world, hunger is a growing issue. 1 in 7 people go hungry because of their lack
of ability to pay for food, lack of government regulation, and presence of war and natural
disasters. Overall, it is a serious issue affecting the global economy that does not receive enough
recognition in neither developing nor developed countries.
Although hunger and poverty are issues that receive extensive attention outside of the United
States, in respect to developing countries in Africa and Asia, the United States is completely
overlooked as a country that faces the same problems. In 2013, 49.1 million Americans lived in
food insecure households, including 33.3 million adults and 15.8 million children. Even in Texas,
1 in 6 people suffer from hunger.
College campuses usually provide meal plans to students in order to provide a stable food supply.
However, most of the time college students do not finish the meals on their meal plan because of
other food options around the area, along with many other reasons.
At the University of Texas at Dallas, the dining hall food is provided by Chartwells. Chartwells
is a company that caters to multiple college campuses across the United States. By providing
students with a set number of meals each week in a buffet setting, students are able to eat all the
food they need. Nevertheless, many of these meals are never used, causing an excess of food in
dining halls.

Background
Although the University of Texas at Dallas campus is smaller than most and hunger is not a
pressing matter in the Dallas area, trying to combat the issue here would be the first small step
toward a greater plan. By achieving success in a smaller setting, it will be easier to implement
the same plan in other areas around college campuses with similar issues. Therefore, our goal is
to take a percentage of the unused meals from the meal plan and excess Comet cash to donate
food to those who need it more. Many homeless and hungry people would love to have access to
the food that many of the students take for granted. The social issue of hunger can become less of
a problem and the excess food can be put into use. The University of Texas at Dallas campus can
give back to the community and help future customers recognize the philanthropic values of the
company.

Proposal
3

Food is one of the most primal needs of life, and hunger is the misery caused by the lack of it.
Every year America throws out somewhere around 40 million tons of food, yet we still have
hungry people lining the streets of every major city in America. You might be wondering,
Where does this 40 million tons of food go every year? It goes to dumpsters and landfills. It is
wasted. We plan to take the portion of that food that would inevitably go to waste from
universities and donate it to the homeless and the hungry of Dallas.
At the end of every day college dining halls waste perfectly good food that could be saved and
reused or given away. According to the environmental protection agency 22 million meals are
wasted each year, and every one of those meals could go to a hungry person who needs it.
The University of Texas at Dallas has two dining halls, a number of fast food restaurants, and a
program called the Comet Cupboard that can begin to eradicate this problem in the Dallas area.
The two dining halls have meal plans associated with them that every freshman living on campus
has to buy. These meal plans have a certain amount of meals on them every week that each
freshman pays Chartwells catering company for. At the end of each week most freshman do not
use all of their meals because a lot of them are local and get food from home, or they go out to
eat. Our plan with the dining hall and Chartwells is to take the extra meals that students have left
over and have Chartwells donate them to the North Texas Food Bank.
We plan on doing this by teaming with the Comet Cupboard, which already has a good
reputation and connection with the North Texas food Bank, and Chartwells catering to provide
food for the underprivileged and homeless in downtown Dallas. Certain aspects of this project
that we plan to focus on is distribution, continuity, and volunteerism.
We want to distribute the food in a safe way so that everybody can be fed and the
volunteers are not put at risk, because handing out food in downtown can get dangerous. Many
risks we plan to avoid are creating mobs, encroaching on private property, and volunteers going
off on their own. To avoid this we propose handing out prepared lunch or dinner bags or boxes
that we hand out from a truck or vehicle with a lot of storage in order to stay mobile and prevent
creating a mob. The truck will also create a safe environment for the volunteers. Another goal is
to maintain the program over time and not let it be just a one-time event that phases out. We want
this program to sustain itself and over time spread to all the other cities and schools that
Chartwells caters at. Lastly it would be ideal for the entire program to run on Chartwells kitchen
staff and UTD volunteers. It would be a great way for many college students to go out into the
community and volunteer as well as a way to sustain the program at a low cost.
The effects of this program will reach the hungry in downtown Dallas as well as the
environment. It will affect the hungry in downtown by feeding them and it will affect the
environment by reducing waste. Furthermore the environment will be helped because, Landfills
full of decomposing food release methane, which is said to be at least 20 times more lethal a
greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. And America's landfills are full of foodorganic waste is
the second largest contributor to the country's landfills (Ferdman). This project not only serves
our primary goal of feeding the hungry, but it does so much more.

Staffing
4

The Chartwells Harvest Program will require several different types of staff members and
employees, each with different credentials and backgrounds. Each of these positions is detailed
below:
The Managing Team
Project Manager: As the head of the managing team, this person will be responsible for
coordinating and leading all team meetings and keeping the project successful. This person will
be in charge of hiring staff and assigning each employee with specific tasks relating to the
project. This person will also be in charge of communicating with the North Texas Food Bank
and the University of Texas at Dallas and ensuring the strength of the companys relationship
with them. This person should have a Master of Business Administration and preferably a Project
Management Professional Certification from the Project Management Institute.
Assistant Project Manager: This person will be the second in rank for the project. They will be
responsible for organizing the structure of the team meetings and taking notes for future
reference. This person will assist the project manager with various tasks, such as, but not limited
to, hiring staff and assigning each employee with specific tasks relating to the project. This
person should have a degree in Business Administration and preferably a Master of Business
Administration.
Accountant: This person will be in charge of handling all of the budgeting and expense tasks for
the project. This person should have a degree in Accounting and be a Certified Public
Accountant.
General Staff
Kitchen Workers: These employees (4-5) will be in charge of sorting through the food and
placing it into respective containers before it is transported to the North Texas Food Bank. These
employees will also be in charge of loading and unloading the trucks that will be used to
transport the food.

Budget
5

The University of Texas at Dallas currently provides students with the below meal plan options:
Plan

# of Meals per
Week

Cost with Tax

Comet 19

19 per week with

$50 Meal Money
14 per week with
$100 Meal
Money
10 per week with
$150 Meal
Money
5 per week with
$100 Meal
Money
$750 Meal
Money

$1973.06

Cost per Meal (not including

Meal Money; 4 months per
semester)
$6.33

$1751.57

$7.37

$1665.82

$9.47

$982.35

$11.03

$750

Comet 14

Comet 10

Green

Orange

All first-year students, living in University Commons (UC) are required to purchase a meal plan.

Estimated Rooms in Old Res Hall 375

Estimated Rooms in New Res Hall 200
# OF STUDENTS LIVING IN UC 1,725 (3 students per room)

More than 10% of the prepaid meals go to waste. Our plan is to take that unused percentage and
use it to pay for food for the homeless. All unused meals per week are forfeited.

Average cost Per Meal $8.55

Average Total ($8.55 X 1,725) $14,748.75
10% for Donation and Business $1,474.88

The budget (as follows) shows the expenses and income that the company will incur. However,
costs such as transportation, storage, and dumping fees are taken care of by The North Texas
Food Bank because Chartwells is a food distributor and will be donating in mass.
For expenses, the Staff is needed to handle the food and preparation for pickup. The food bank
will take care of the actual transportation. The program supplies include the pre-paid food (by the
students) and the containers in which the food will be given to the food bank. The budget shows
the costs per year, but the food will be delivered on a monthly basis.

The Income is rooted by the funding required to cover the expenses; the unused meal cash is
included in this total.

Projected
Budget (per
year)

INCOME

Grants

$356,525

10% of Pre-paid, Unused Meal Plan (varies per month;

estimate per year)

Total Income

$1,475

$358,000

EXPENSES

Staff (Project Manager 100K, Assistant Project Manager

75K,

$355,000

Accountant 60K, Kitchen Staff (4), 30K each)

Program Supplies (Food 1475 and containers)

$3,000

Total Expenses

$358,000

Authorization
To Whom It May Concern:
The need to put an end to the growing hunger rate in the greater Dallas area has become more
prevalent now than it has ever been before. Chartwells as a company is looking forward to
becoming a prominent driving force in the fight against hunger with this project.
Many of the students across the campuses that we supply food to in the area let some of their
meals just go to waste when they could be put to use for a greater cause. We hope that this
project of donating unused meals to the North Texas Food Bank will lower the number of people
that are stuck with no food for days at a time.
This project presents an exciting opportunity for our company to be the leader of the movement
that will make our city of Dallas a much healthier and more developed area. We want to inspire
everyone within our company to believe in accomplishing that goal together; but we also want to
motivate the surrounding companies and businesses to take action in this fight as well.
It would be a great pleasure to this team and this company to see that there is as much support as
possible behind this project. Please take into consideration this proposal that will help
Chartwells, the city of Dallas, and the people of Dallas.

Targeted Questions & Answers

Q: How would you go about delivering the unused meals since the dining hall serves its food
buffet-style?
A: The Project Manager will work with the University of Texas at Dallas and the North Texas
Food Bank in order to set up a standard for the size and contents of each meal that is donated.
That standard will be used in order to ensure that the food is distributed equally and adapts well
to the serving style of both the University and the North Texas Food Bank.
Q: Chartwells food is perishable, the North Texas Food Bank generally only accepts nonperishable foods?
A: Charwells will be creating a partnership with the North Texas Food Bank that will address
these concerns.
Q: How does the transportation work?
A: Because Charwells is a dining service, the North Texas Food Bank will come to the
Chartwells location in question and pick up the meals, Chartwells will simply be responsible for
preparing the meals to be picked up.
Q: What happens if there are few unused meals?
A: We estimate that there will be at least 2000 un-used meals each month (200 of which will be
donated), however, if we have less than 1000 un-used meals in a month, we will simply add that
number to the next month and donate that many more meals the following month.
Q: Why start the pilot program in Dallas?
A: Although Dallas is not a city where hunger and poverty are a major issue, they are still
present. Because both Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas are small, they will be perfect
to test run this new program. It is important that we start small in order to ensure greater success
when we reach out to the larger programs in other areas that Chartwells caters to.

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Sources
What is a Project Manager and How Do I Become One? (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2015, from
http://www.corpedgroup.com/resources/pm/WhatisaPM.asp
Welcome to Chartwells. We serve higher education. Eat. Learn. Live. (n.d.). Retrieved February
9, 2015, from http://eatlearnlive.com/highered.html
(n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2015, from http://web.ntfb.org/document.doc?id=253
Meal Plans. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2015, from
https://ezpay.utdallas.edu/C20239_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=61
Hunger and Poverty Fact Sheet. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2015, from
http://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/impact-of-hunger/hunger-andpoverty/hunger-and-poverty-fact-sheet.html
The Issue. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2015, from http://www.revolutionhunger.org/theissue#What
Eat Learn Live Home. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2015, from
http://www.chartwellsschools.com/Pages/Home.aspx
Americans throw out more food than plastic, paper, metal, and glass. (n.d.). Retrieved February
9, 2015, from
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/23/americans-throw-outmore-food-than-plastic-paper-metal-or-glass/
How Much Food Could Be Rescued if College Dining Halls Saved Their Leftovers? (2014,
January 21). Retrieved February 9, 2015, from http://nationswell.com/three-years200000-pounds-later-food-recovery-network-still-asks-gonna-eat/

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