Dear Student,

Welcome back to an exciting fall semester at Delaware Valley College!

Part of the excitement is the selection of Parkhurst Dining Services as Delaware Valley's new dining partner. At Parkhurst, we are passionate about our food and our guests. Each day we strive to live the Parkhurst Promise by developing personal relationships and delivering exceptional culinary experiences to those we serve.

Our talented chefs, together with their accomplished culinary teams, are proud to serve Del Val students, faculty and other guests with a wide variety of farm-fresh, healthy, flavorful and consistently prepared-from-scratch food. Through our relationships with more than 100 farmers and growers, we source more than 20 percent of our food locally, which allows us to prepare fresh, seasonal food in all of our cafes and retail venues. We also look forward to working with Delaware Valley's farm manager to use your school's harvest in our recipes. Our guests enjoy fresh, wholesome food while we support and build our relationships with the local, as well as campus, agriculture.

Greening and supporting your campus' green efforts is also one of our goals. EcoSteps illustrates the progress Parkhurst has made  to address sustainable food service, green our dining operations and expand our role as a socially responsible organization. To enhance the greening of our dining operations, our spent fryer oil, for example, is used to help produce bio-diesel fuel versus sending it to a rendering facility to be used for cosmetics or animal feed. Other accomplishments include the switch to bio-degradable service ware, onsite pre- and post-organic recycling (composting) of food waste and onsite gardening where possible.

Engaging your campus community with special events and activities, such as our highly popular Traveling Chefs tour, is just one example of how Parkhurst provides you with something "out of the ordinary". Chefs from other Parkhurst managed schools will visit Del Val to prepare global foods to order and in front of our guests using authentic ingredients and local agriculture to prepare the selections.

Our goal is to create a guest experience that exceeds your expectations for excellent food and service, all while providing you with the nourishment to succeed in your academic career at Delaware Valley.

We look forward to meeting you, and most of all, serving you!

Tony Williams
Parkhurst Dining Services