Niagara University grows food marketing program with industry leader’s ‘who’s who’

Ashley Decker had just transferred from Baylor University in Texas to Niagara University in Lewiston and was close to home when she found her future career in 2018.

Already interested in marketing, she lived in Buffalo and wanted to go home. She notes that Niagara has her own partnerships with food industry giants like her Rich Products, Wegmans, and others, producing talent to feed a large chunk of the job market desperate for growth. I knew.

According to Niagara’s Food Marketing Center of Excellence, Western New York is home to approximately 1,200 companies involved in food manufacturing, distribution, retail, and/or warehousing, making it one of the industry’s top five markets nationally. .

Peggy Choong, one of Decker’s professors, suggested that if you want to stay in western New York, a focus on the food industry through Niagara’s specialized programs can set you apart from other marketing majors.

“She introduced me to various classes and industry experiences and sold me within 10 minutes,” says Decker. “I changed my major that day.”

Through Niagara’s Center of Excellence, Decker became the first recipient of an International Food Service Manufacturing Association Scholarship and participated in an internship at Rich Products. After graduating in 2019, she was hired by Rich’s as her Digital Marketing Coordinator and has since been promoted twice, most recently to Digital Integration and Performance Marketing Manager.

Decker’s experience illustrates exactly what Niagara’s Food Marketing Center of Excellence has set out to achieve. This means building strong partnerships with growing local industries that provide a direct pipeline to profitable employment for students, the region and the businesses involved.

Founding partner Rich Products has recruited approximately 40 Niagara graduates through this program to help develop and sustain their careers. While working at Rich’s, Decker earned her MBA in food marketing at her Niagara, further accelerating her career.

With college enrollments declining, partnering with big companies to train future workers has become an important goal of higher education. Niagara’s food industry program first planted its seeds ten years ago and has been ahead of the game, growing the program to meet changing industry trends and workforce needs.

It started in 2013 in the mind of Bill Chiodo, food retail expert at Affinity Group Retail. A friend recruited his Chiodo to the advisory board of St. Joseph University in Philadelphia. Chiodo found it “pleasant” that his hometown of Buffalo had a much larger food market but “had no funnel for people to get involved in the industry.”

“Rich’s, one of the world’s largest food companies, is headquartered here,” Chiodo said. “Wegmans is one of the best employers in the country. Tops [Markets] Top 20 here, but top 10 elsewhere. But there was no food industry pipeline here. It got me hooked.

Chiodo began talking to the university about creating the program, and Niagara was “enthusiastic about the idea,” he said. He was also passionate about food companies. Since then, the center has grown from a handful of large partners to “a celebrity leader in the food industry,” he said.

Mark Frascatore, dean of Niagara’s Holtschug School of Management, said the Center of Excellence “is engaged with every major food company in western New York, with every major retailer on our advisory board. There is.”

It has also attracted attention from companies outside the region, such as PepsiCo, Big Chicken and Clorox. The biggest event of the year, the Food Marketing Summit, is held each fall and brings together about 250 food industry representatives. Half are from outside West New York,” Chiodo said.

Jamie McKeon, senior vice president of demand generation at Rich Products and founding member of the Food Marketing Center of Excellence advisory board, said in recent years the program has expanded to include other areas and resources. I’m here.

According to McKeon, the center’s initial focus was to develop food marketing professionals like Decker, but it has also developed all sorts of talent, from accounting to communications to human resources to data analysis, to help them advance their careers in food. I realized that there is room to build a

The Center of Excellence now has a Food Industry Leadership Program open to students of all majors, with national conferences, trade shows and conventions that allow students to see how sausages, pizzas, sodas and sodas are made. From corporate tours, we offer a myriad of experiences. such as pasta and pastries.

“The field trips alone are great,” said Decker. “One day you might be in class at Whole Foods and the next day you’re making pizza at Rich Products.

McKeon said close ties with the industry have kept the program relevant as it has adapted to major changes.

Since its inception, marketing, purchasing, and most business-to-business interactions have all gone digital. E-commerce, branding, and consumer analytics are being transformed by new technologies. Sustainability has become more of a necessity than a concern. Nutrition and “food as medicine” have become important health issues.

Generation Z is playing a big role, embracing vegetarian, vegan and organic, demanding more “plant forward” products and sustainable packaging and green practices from the companies they support. They use social media as a creative vehicle for sharing food content that creates excitement for innovation and new products.

“We can help students understand that their interest in food offers opportunities from a career perspective,” McKeon said. “Since the pandemic, the competition for talent has only intensified. We are always looking for creative ways to build our pipeline.”

The pandemic has also introduced the term “supply chain” into jargon, making a hitherto overlooked segment of the industry visible. In response, Niagara added a Supply Chain Excellence Center that teaches skills such as logistics, transportation management and international trade.

“I don’t want to thank the pandemic, but five years ago nobody knew what a supply chain was,” says Frascatore. “Now, parents at open houses are saying, ‘What’s this new chain of supply thing?'”

Another prevalent pandemic trend is snacking.

“With more people working from home, snacking has exploded,” says McKeon. Consumers, especially his Gen Z, still want to have fun. They want to treat themselves, but in smaller, healthier portions.

Chiodo said the creative side of food stimulates local entrepreneurship more than any other industry. The Center of Excellence has just added his mentoring program that pairs students with advisory board members who can help students pursue their goals and ideas.

“Having senior-level people in the food industry serve as mentors to our students is just out of this world,” said Chiodo. “We are really proud to have built this program and it is something the entire industry should be proud of.”

Decker is so proud of the Center of Excellence that he tells everyone he meets about it. One of hers who listened to her: her older sister who brought her to Niagara to pursue the same career as her.