KSC Dining has a new face at the helm for 2026. After previous director Patrick Friley’s departure last semester, Sam D’Angelo was hired for the role of director of dining services.
D’Angelo came to Keene with experience working in dining for both higher education and K-12 schools. Having started her career in higher ed., D’Angelo said she is excited to return to that environment.
“I went into private K-12 for the last 15 years and spent a lot of time with pre-K to seniors. It was a very good fit for my life at the time,” D’Angelo said. “I had two young children during that period of time. Now that they’re a little bit older, [it was] time to get back into higher ed. and be able to do some more creative, fun things and really try to expand palettes and challenge flavor profiles and work with the culinary team here.”
D’Angelo, who was announced as the new director of dining services in November 2025, said working with the KSC Dining team has been a good experience. D’Angelo is employed by Chartwells, KSC’s dining provider company, rather than by the college directly.
“I’m very fortunate to be fully staffed,” D’Angelo said. “And now we get to dive into operations and make sure that we’re following the student feedback and really capitalize on some of those projects that we maybe hadn’t been able to do. We were lacking staff over the last couple of years, and we are very fortunate to have client support as well.”
By the time D’Angelo joined the KSC Dining team, the results of the department’s annual “Voice to Vision” survey had been collected. She said this allowed her to get to work right away, putting those results into action.
“[The survey] was a great jumping off point for me and the team to look at what student feedback was, where you all want to go, what you’re looking for, and we prioritized the five themes that we got from that for the spring, for our events and for any culinary menu changes as well,” D’Angelo said.
One of the themes in question was “customization.”
“We opened stir fry for both breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday, so that was like a big change,” D’Angelo said. “And then we’re working on a build-your-own pizza. I know that was a big ask as well, so that’s up-and-coming.”
D’Angelo added the chefs have also been working on a pizza dough for staff to make from scratch.
“I think we finally got there,” D’Angelo said. “Small but very valuable changes [are] really where we’re focused for this spring semester.”
Another recent change is the removal of garbage cans from the first floor of the Zorn Dining Commons (DC). D’Angelo said the decision was for both aesthetic and practical reasons.
“One of the things that we were finding was that the trash was getting built up, or it was a little too close to the food,” D’Angelo said. “Certainly not contaminating or anything like that, but just ruining the aesthetic of what we were trying to do, the presentation and the colors and all of that stuff that we spent a lot of hard work doing, so just moving them.”
She added the new dish wall, where students bring dirty dishes to send them back for cleaning, played a big part in the decision as well.
“We really want to have the student body bring those dishes back to that dish wall so we can maintain that and really keep it separated from the food,” D’Angelo said.
Students have expressed varying opinions on the new strategy regarding garbage cans and the dish wall. Sophomore Faye Gianunzio said she is glad to see the change.
“I’m so happy they got rid of the garbage cans, because they smell so bad and they were attracting the flies,” Gianunzio said.
Sophomore Evren McTygue said they felt less favorable about the matter.
“The trash can removal is the dumbest possible thing they could have done,” McTygue said. “Do they know their priorities anymore?”
KSC Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Jen Ferrell, who works closely with KSC Dining to negotiate the college’s contract with Chartwells, said she viewed the new system and especially the dish wall as a big upgrade.
“[The dish wall] has just been fixed for the start of this semester, so last semester, we had to have racks with bins,” Ferrell said. “It’s not attractive, but it also creates more of an opportunity for things to be stinky, so now we have the new beautiful conveyor.”
Ferrell said D’Angelo has been an active part of conversations concerning dining in her time at KSC so far.
“I think she’s been really engaged with Keene State folks and starting to meet with students more and getting a little bit more engaged,” Ferrell said. “She really comes with a background that is focused on project management and efficiencies, and that’s great right now for us, so I think that’s going to be really a strength moving forward for her.”
Ferrell also spoke about how D’Angelo’s role will impact what students see from KSC Dining in the immediate future.
“Some of that is just looking at the labor you have and making sure that they’re in the right places,” Ferrell said. “For me, I think students will continue to see more of that, little changes here and there at first, and I think as [D’Angelo] gets a whole semester of operations and seeing how things work … she will have even more opportunity, then, over the summer to help plan [and] implement maybe some additional things next year that students will see.”
Chartwells Regional Vice President James Giles, D’Angelo’s supervisor, also spoke to her strengths as a fit for KSC Dining.
“When you look at shaping a dining program, it’s really important that the students have their voice and that they’re able to share their opinions,” Giles said. “I think Sam will do an amazing job on that.”
Giles and D’Angelo both encouraged students to follow KSC Dining on social media to stay updated about events, daily operations and community outreach. Those interested can follow KSC Dining on Instagram with the handle @keenestateeats.
Charlotte King can be contacted at
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