Leading Food Service with Excellence

Chelsea Dickens, Sr. Director at Compass Group embodies compassionate and purpose-driven leadership. With over a decade of experience in food and nutrition services, she champions operational excellence while fostering a culture rooted in kindness, collaboration, and community impact.

Chelsea Dickens shared her valuable insights for the 2026 edition of Food Business Review on how strong leadership, innovation, and commitment to quality can drive excellence in food service industry.

Career Progression at Compass Group

I started with Compass Group over 10 years ago, actually parking cars for the valet service we offered at the hospital. Throughout my 10 years, I have worn many hats, including Cashier, Bookkeeper/Admin, Patient Experience Manager, and Director of Food & Nutrition Services. I will never forget my first Director position with Compass Group; it was a small surgical hospital averaging 5-6 patients a day. The small locations help shape your future and teach you just how much the little things matter. Through hard work and dedication, I have grown into the leader I am today.

Multiple principles have shaped my leadership along the way. The top two would be compassion and perseverance. I am constantly reminding my teams to have compassion for those we serve; not everyone gets to clock out and go home at the end of the day. You must put yourself in the shoes of others, and we are here to serve, whether that be the nurses, doctors, patients, or even family members. Working in the healthcare industry, you must have perseverance. Days are long and hard, but we always show up and put our best foot forward. My favorite story to tell my team is that Goofy at Disney does not always walk around dressed and talking like Goofy. When he clocks in, he gets sprinkled with a little bit of “Pixie Dust” and gets into character. We must do the same every day!

Building a Diverse and Collaborative Team

Your team is built from different personalities, cultures, and positions. With the right mixture, you have built the right team. To ensure engagement and consistent common goals, I encourage the team to maintain ongoing communication. We collaborate with each other on menu items, patient satisfaction, retail operations, and finances.

Days are long and hard, but we always show up and put our best foot forward.

I constantly challenge my associates to come up with ideas outside of the box. If something may be ending its shelf life, what can we do to repurpose it with a new image and flavor. A great example is making different flavored banana breads out of those not-so-pretty bananas. They are delicious, especially when you add chocolate chips.

Embracing Healthy Eating Trends

Newer trends are leaning more towards healthy and self-conscious eating. If cauliflower can be the base of a pizza, we can be anything! Coming up with fun and innovative recipes using healthier ingredients has been exciting! We have a community garden at my current hospital where we grow local fruits, vegetables, and herbs for the patients, families or even the hospital staff to take home with them. For this garden, I collaborated with the local Girl Scouts to plant the crops and learn about sustainability.

Key advice for future leaders

One piece of advice I would share with leaders in the food service industry is to go above and beyond, be extra, and get in there with your front-line associates. They know more than anyone else’s ideas, areas of opportunity, and what is working well. Working in food service, especially in healthcare, you can make someone’s day just by doing a little more. Remember, a little bit goes a long way.

I once had a family member in my hospital for an extended period. She explained to me that the days are long and boring; during COVID, she could not have many visitors. I then came up with the idea of what I called “Mommy Milestones.” Every week, we would visit the mothers on bed rest, waiting to deliver their bundle of joy, and congratulate them on making it through another week with a small gift. The gifts would range from a pair of socks, a puzzle, a book, or even a sweet treat to decorate. It was such a small gesture that it made a huge impact.