December 6, 2025

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

Benedict Interviewed in Forbes about Feeding On-Campus Students During a Pandemic

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UMW Dining Marketing Coordinator Rose Benedict was recently interviewed by Forbes in an article entitled, “Will Coronavirus Improve Customer Service?” Benedict spoke about the ways UMW Dining is accommodating self-quarantined students, as well as those not in quarantine, living on campus during the pandemic:

 For example, the University of Mary Washington’s dining service has completely rethought the way it feeds students. The dining team now delivers food directly to self-quarantined students in the dorms. “We’re still on the line at lunch time and dinner time to serve the students who are still residing on campus, and who are not self-quarantined,” says Rose Benedict, a unit marketing coordinator at the University of Mary Washington Dining Services. “But since we are following the social distancing protocols, students are not permitted to eat in our dining room and must get all of their meals to go.” Read more.

Panera Opens at UMW’s University Center

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The UMW community and local residents can now enjoy Panera Bread at Mary Washington, thanks to the popular eatery’s new University Center location.

The UMW community and local residents can now enjoy Panera Bread at Mary Washington, thanks to the popular eatery’s new University Center location.

Starting this week, UMW students are enjoying broccoli and cheddar soup, Fuji apple salad and an appetizing array of baked goods fresh from the oven – without ever leaving campus.

Mary Washington’s long-awaited Panera Bread location on the second floor of the University Center opened Monday, now serving students and other members of the campus community, as well as local residents. The space formerly housed Qdoba and Jamba Juice.

“The opening has been great,” said Rose Benedict, Campus Dining’s marketing coordinator. “The students have been wonderful and patient as our new crew is learning the ropes, and everyone is loving the food.” Read more.

Panera Bread Opens at UMW

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Campus Dining is pleased to announce that Panera Bread will open in the University Center on Monday, January 13. This new venue will offer most of Panera Bread’s standard menu, and all ingredients will be 100% “clean” – no artificial flavors, colors or additives. We know you are going to love the quality and variety of our menu items.

The Campus Dining team has been working hard over the winter break to finish construction of the restaurant and hire and train staff in time to open for service at the start of the spring semester. There are more than 30 people on UMW’s Panera Bread team, and most of them are new to our Campus Dining operation. New internet and point of sale technical systems and equipment are also being introduced in this operation, so we ask for your patience as our staff completes their training and we work out any “bugs” in the technical systems.

Serving hours at Panera Bread will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. M-F and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Menus and nutritional information will be available by January 13 on the Dining website: UMW.SodexoMyWay.com. For additional information contact Campus Dining at 540-654-2165 or e-mail Dining@UMW.edu.

Faculty & Staff Dining Room Closing

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The Faculty and Staff Dining Room at the Top of the University Center will close for the winter break following lunch service on Thursday, December 12th. The main dining room at the Top of the UC will be open regular hours through dinner on Friday, December 13th.  A continental breakfast will be served from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 14th, after which the dining room will be closed until early January.

Details on the resumption of service at the Top of the UC will be posted on the Campus Dining web site (UMW.SodexoMyWay.com) during the first week of January. Most Campus Dining offices will be closed between December 20th and January 2nd. For additional information contact Dining@UMW.edu or call Rose Benedict at 540-654-2169.

Thank You to Stop Hunger Food Drive Supporters

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To all of our valued Stop Hunger Food Drive supporters:

I am really excited to share with you the results of our recently completed Stop Hunger Food Drive!  The total amount of food collected was 8,054 pounds! This is simply spectacular, and we want to thank everyone who worked so hard to make this a success.

A huge “thank you” to all of the UMW athletes who tabled in front of the Giant Food Store and solicited donations in our surrounding neighborhoods, and especially to Maddie Taghorn for coordinating everything so perfectly!

We also want to thank the Staff Advisory Council, Giant Food, and the New City Fellowship Church for your wonderful support.

All of the food is being distributed to the Eagle Resource Closet and to the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank. We received a call from the Food Bank today expressing their deep appreciation for our donations, and saying they really needed this help right now.

Again, our thanks to everyone for supporting the drive, and we look forward to doing this again, and even better, next year!

 

Rose Benedict
University of Mary Washington Dining Services

UMW Dining Services has BBQ Recipe Published in Magazine

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UMW Dining Service's BBQ Pork Parfait was featured in Food Management magazine.

UMW Dining Service’s BBQ Pork Parfait was featured in Food Management magazine.

UMW Dining Service’s summer is certainly getting off to a great start! First UMW’s catering team was voted “Best of the Burg” in the contest sponsored by The Free Lance-Star!  Now Food Management Magazine has featured the team’s BBQ Pork Parfait in their segment on State Fair-inspired cuisine!  This dish was part of the prize-winning menu created by UMW’s culinary team for last year’s Chefs’ Fare competition, and it’s still winning recognition! Read more. 

Rally TODAY to Celebrate Grace Anne Braxton’s Special Olympics Silver Medal

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Grace Ann Braxton, UMW Campus Dining and Special Olympics silver medalist. (Photo by Norm Shafer).

Grace Anne Braxton, UMW Campus Dining and Special Olympics silver medalist. (Photo by Norm Shafer).

Special Olympian golfer Grace Anne Braxton, a University of Mary Washington Campus Dining employee for more than two decades, putted her way to a silver medal at last month’s 2019 Special Olympics World Games in Abu Dhabi.

And the campus community wants to celebrate! UMW will honor Braxton – whom many of us know as “Amazing Grace” – on UMW’s Ball Circle TODAY (Thursday, April 11), at 4:30 p.m., with all the fanfare Mary Washington can muster.

Everyone is invited to come out and offer “Three Cheers for Amazing Grace.”

Grace Anne Braxton. Photo by Scott K Brown Photography Inc.

Grace Anne Braxton. Photo by Scott K Brown Photography Inc.

Please try to gather in front of the University Center at about 4:20 p.m. Sodexo will have an appreciation banner that everyone may sign, and cake will also be served (while supplies last!).

Tune in to NBC this evening at 6:45 p.m. to see Grace Anne’s interview.

UMW Wins Chefs’ Fare Contest

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UMW hosted a “Literary Feasts” Chefs’ Fare competition in which chefs from Shenandoah University, Virginia Wesleyan University, and Emory & Henry College competed against our UMW culinary team led by Chef Will Allison and Chef Mary Williams. Every school presented a menu based upon a work of literature. Our menu was based upon “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café” and featured BBQ Beef Brisket, Sweet Potatoes, Mac & Cheese, Collard Greens and, of course, Fried Green Tomatoes.

The other teams based their dishes on “Aladdin,”  “Lady & The Tramp,” and “The Old Man and the Sea,” and everyone got into the spirit of things by donning festive costumes and festooning their serving stations with a variety of creative decorations. UMW students tasted all of the dishes and then voted for their favorite. Our culinary team took first place, garnering more than 45% of the total votes cast!

 

 

Faculty, Staff Thanksgiving Lunch, Nov. 16

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Campus Dining will host a Thanksgiving lunch for UMW faculty and staff on Thursday, Nov. 16, between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. in the Maple Salon at the Top of the UC. The cost for faculty and staff will be $7.00, and $9.25 for other guests.  For additional information contact Rose Benedict at rbenedic@umw.edu or 540-654-2169.