1990
Two colleges and a senior living community are tired of being just another account for the big players in the hospitality industry. They want to feel like big fish in a small pond—to occupy a place front and center in their dining provider’s mind. The founders of Creative Dining Services answer this call. They create a new kind of hospitality company, one that is client-focused, serving as a transparent hospitality management services partner that is aligned with clients and becomes a part of their communities. This personalization of programs and hands-on management style is an immediate recipe for success.
1995
The company has quintupled in five years and now has 16 clients in 4 states.
2003
Creative University is launched. Our corporate employee training and development program, it is supported by online and traditional classroom instruction, classes emphasize Leadership Development, Hospitality Operations, and Culinary Arts. In April, 2004, the National Restaurant Association presents us with their prestigious Winning Workforce Award for On-Site Dining Service Providers for this program.
2008
Grow(TM), our corporate sustainability program, debuts. Offering a flexible menu of sustainability initiatives, Grow allows our clients select the items that best fit their objectives. The program eventually includes SEED(TM), our sustainability certification program.
2010
Third-party sanitation audits are instituted at our locations, bringing an extra layer of quality control to our operations.
2014
Our Allergen Awareness program is deployed at all our locations. Providing identifiers that indicate if a dish contains any of the 8 major allergens, it is an immediate hit with our guests. Shortly thereafter, we begin to offer The Zone concept at many locations, providing food prepared on dedicated equipment that is free of the 8 major allergens.
2016
Farmstead(TM), our farm-to-table supply chain protocol, is developed and added to the Grow sustainability program. We roll out a corporate-wide HRIS program that streamlines hiring, onboarding, and incorporates training via Creative University.
2017
Our waste reduction program, Trashed(TM), joins the list of Grow(TM) programming available to our locations.
Present Day
From small beginnings with three locations to now over 70 clients, Creative Dining has built and deployed customer-centric programs designed to help us deliver outstanding service to our clients and their communities. All while enabling them to still maintain that experience of being a big fish in a small pond.