Restaurant Reimagined
Restaurant Reimagined was our first really big Region Reimagined event hosted in Junction City! It stemmed from our first Quality of Place discussion in Junction City, as quality of service and first impressions seemed like something we could have a major impact on for our region. Theresa Bramlage, as a Tri-Chair of Quality of Place, took the Region Reimagined Work Group input and ran with it. Ten percent of our workforce is related to the restaurant industry, and nationally generates $800 Billion in revenue each year, so this is a critical portion of our economic base.
Theresa Bramlage, Deanna Munson and Amy Garner from the Junction City Chamber of Commerce did all the heavy lifting with hours upon hours of volunteer time developing a training curriculum and coordinating a day-long training, inviting other restaurants to participate, making contacts with restaurant owners in Manhattan and Wamego for future events, working with Cloud County Community College to ensure it is a program that can be sustained and expanded regionally, and planning the big event with live music and trained staff. In addition to their exhaustive hours of volunteer time, Deanna Munson and the Bramlage Foundation invested approximately $7,000 to create and implement the program on behalf of Region Reimagined. The training was extremely impressive and done with class. It was truly inspiring. Check out this video from The Chef and I and Munson staff as they were inspired and appreciative of the training! https://www.facebook.com/chefk123/videos/401930870716860/
On October 24, 2019, the event was attended by the Region Reimagined network, including folks from Wamego, Manhattan and Junction City—showing their support of the program and of Region Reimagined! Theresa Bramlage and seven of her dear friends, Larie Schoap, Brenda Hoefler, Sandy Butler, Kim Franz, Bruce McMillian, Val Rubio, Hilary Worchester, Diane Novak, Joyce Meris, Amy Garner, Dawn Stephens, Dr. Adrian Douglas and three additional Cloud County Community College representatives, the owner of the Chef and I, Christy Rodriguez and many, many more attended the special event to ensure its success. THANK YOU!!!
Restaurant Reimagined’s role (time – about 12 hours total) was primarily promoting the event, meeting with Cloud County Community College about creating a hospitality career path among the educational institutions, and attending the training day to promote and bring awareness about Region Reimagined to the training participants (Munson’s and The Chef and I staff). At the training, we talked about getting involved in Young Professionals, how much of a critical role the they play in the region to ensure all guest have a good first impression of the region, and what opportunities are available to continue their training as a career—and of course what Region Reimagined is and what it is working to accomplish.
Restaurant Reimagined program was initiated, paid for and implemented by Junction City champions. It was a huge success bringing valuable service training to our workforce that will also help to improve first impressions of our region, promoting our unique Farm to Table experiences, and opening the door to additional career pathway opportunities in the hospitality industry. Our goal is to make it regional! Thank you Theresa Bramlage, the Bramlage Foundation, Deanna Munson, Katie Swaim, Munson staff, Amy Garner, the Junction City Chamber of Commerce, The Chef and I, and Cloud County Community College for investing your time and resources to launch Restaurant Reimagined–moving Region Reimagined forward using a multi-faceted approach and coming together to make this special collaboration happen for our region!