Centers for Excellence is a designation given only to the Compass accounts that lead the nation in performance, innovation, community engagement and exemplary deployment of the Compass’ high standards of service. Out of more than 9,000 Compass accounts in North America, less than 60 accounts have gone through the rigorous process of attaining Centers for Excellence certification (CFE).

Chartwells at Missouri State began the audit process in Fall 2015 under the leadership of Tony Hein, district manager at Charwells. Throughout two “Deep Dive” pre-audits and multiple checklists of items to be upgraded and systems to be put into place, as well as a reconstruction of our campus culture and daily focus, Chartwells at Missouri State received their first certification as a Centers for Excellence in September 2016.

Compass then restructured the CFE audit process further adding additional levels of requirement in essence making the audit process even more difficult to pass. In January 2019 under the new leadership of Quintin Eason, resident district manager at Chartwells, Chartwells at Missouri State was reaudited and passed with a score of 99%. At the time of audit, this was the highest score in the nation.

The team on campus then submitted  for National CFE account of the year. This included a five minute video submission, as well as case studies and supporting documentation detailing how Chartwells at Missouri State assisted and in many cases created innovations that have been used throughout the country. It included how the team has been a pilot site for many new programs including:

• Carbon foodprint software
• Zipgrow on campus hydroponic growing
• Vegan/veg revolution dining
• Relaunch of the Charwells National You First Program
• Chartwells National Chef Incentive Program
• Labor pilot

The award nomination was submitted in July 2019 and in early September 2019 the on campus team was informed that they had won Compass National CFE Account of the Year. On Oct. 16, Quintin Eason traveled to Orlando, Florida, to accept the award on behalf of the team.

This award is the culmination the hard work and leadership displayed not only by the leadership of Chartwells at Missouri State, but exemplified daily by the nearly 300 Chartwells associates on campus as they daily strive to live the CFE standards and to work by the mantra that, “CFE starts with me!