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Pictured in the front row, from left, are Ken Dougles, Eva Galbraith, Allen Nemec, Ada Neighbors, Robin Harris, Anna Filson, Nate Rebman and Joe Perone. In the back row are John Boswell, Laurence Shiner, Josh Filson, Jan Tronvig-Greenwood, Jason Robinson and Dan Murphy.
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Sodexo Team From WIU Earns Top North American Award

December 6, 2013

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MACOMB, IL - Fourteen employees of Sodexo Education on the campus of Western Illinois University recently flew to Maryland to receive the company's Spirit of Progress Platinum Award.

Allen Nemec, district manager; Ada Neighbors, general manager; Dan Murphy, director of operations; Eva Galbraith, retail manager; Anna Rice, graphic artist; unit managers Jason Robinson, Robin Harris, Jan Tronvig-Greenwood, Joe Perone, Ken Douglas, John Boswell and chefs Laurence Shiner, Josh Filson and Nathan Rebman collaborated to create a new dining concept for the three campus dining centers.

Dubbed "Destination Dining" by the team, nine pop-up restaurant concepts, serving premium entrees, appeared randomly across campus. Entrees ranged from lobster, steaks, a two-pound cheeseburger, smoked baby-back ribs and even a dessert featuring chocolate-covered bacon. Stations featuring a destination dining platform were transformed by Sodexo's staff into themed restaurants between lunch and dinner. Advertised to the students through Facebook, the website and using phone text messaging, these pop-up dining locations were extremely popular with the students who often formed a line prior to opening.

The concept born at WIU proved to be so successful that 270 colleges and universities across North America are now featuring this approach to campus dining.

For their efforts, the team was recognized with the Spirit of Progress Platinum Award for supporting the company's growth initiatives through increased value, operational excellence, technical expertise, and responding to challenges with innovative solutions that result in greater performance and opportunity.


"Spirit of Sodexo is the annual corporate awards program honoring individuals and teams within our company who demonstrate outstanding performance in support of our mission and values and our commitment to diversity and inclusion," said George Chavel, CEO of Sodexo North America. "This program has enabled us to recognize Sodexo employees at all levels of the organization who exemplify the values of Service Spirit, Team Spirit and Spirit of Progress, and played a key role in ensuring we deliver on our mission to improve the quality of daily life for our clients and our customers. To put it quite simply, there is no higher honor within our company."


The team was selected from 920 nominees representing 125,000 employees at 6,000 locations across North America. Upon their arrival they were treated to a reception at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. The following day the team toured Sodexo NorAm headquarters before the awards banquet, which was broadcast via the web.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing