When the local hospital closed in 1989, the city of North Miami lost a significant employer. But then Johnson & Wales University arrived in 1992, and things changed.

First the university acquired the North Miami General Hospital building, a 156,000-square-foot facility that the city had been unable to fill. Then it slowly purchased other properties, renovating some and leveling others, making sidewalk and landscape improvements and gradually bringing the area back from blight and crime.

Enrollment grew from 82 culinary arts students in one building in that first year, to more than 2,000 students pursuing careers in business, hospitality and culinary arts on a 28-acre campus. The university became one of North Miami’s largest employers with more than 250 full- and part-time employees on campus. In 2009 alone, JWU spent about $15.5 million on goods and services, while spending by students and visitors to the campus amounted to another $16 million. Today, employment provided by Johnson & Wales, combined with spending by the university, students and visitors, supports more than 700 jobs in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and generates more than $63 million in economic output.

Those are the numbers. But ask someone in North Miami about Johnson & Wales University and you’ll hear about its community involvement.

“Anytime any organization that has needed anything has called on Johnson & Wales, Johnson & Wales has said ‘yes,’” says Scott Galvin, a North Miami city councilman. “‘Can we get food for a reception?’ ‘Absolutely.’ ‘We need some volunteers to go clean a park.’ ‘You’ve got it.’ Their involvement in the community is unprecedented.”

But don’t look to the university to just buy a table at a fundraiser. In keeping with the school’s philosophy of volunteerism and leadership, students at the North Miami Campus engage in local activities. During the 2008–2009 school year, they donated more than 14,000 hours of community service, focusing on three key areas: hunger, children and education.

“We’ve worked with a local elementary school on numerous mentoring projects since our early days in North Miami,” says Loreen Chant ’89, president of the JWU North Miami Campus. “We also have strong relationships with the Overtown Youth Center, Junior Achievement and Share Our Strength.”

Four times every academic year, the North Miami Campus runs a program called Big Chef-Little Chef with W.J. Bryan Elementary School during which students work with the elementary school students to teach them about proper nutrition. Since 2002, incoming freshmen have spent their first day on campus participating in the Join, Work, Unite service-learning day, performing community service for various charities in North Miami.

“We recognized that by bringing students in on Day One and getting them involved in the North Miami community, as opposed to the greater South Florida community, we could have a bigger impact on our home city,” says Chant. “So we decided to focus more on North Miami where the needs weren’t being met.”

Many of those freshmen, roughly 33 percent, are the first in their family to attend college. That’s the highest percentage of first generation students among the four JWU campuses. The student body at the North Miami Campus includes students from 41 states and 41 countries. Of North Miami’s 5,248 alumni, 40 percent live in Miami or the surrounding Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

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From North Miami, JWU has also contributed to the growth of tourism and hospitality in one of the most dynamic regions of the country. The university has been involved in the hospitality industry throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Casa de Campo, a resort in the Dominican Republic, set up an educational center staffed by Johnson & Wales for all of its resort personnel. The school also supplies a steady stream of skilled workers for many of the world’s most prestigious cruise lines that have operations in Miami.

Demonstrating the school’s diversification beyond hospitality and culinary arts, the university has developed close connections with the North Miami criminal justice community. In 2009 industry professionals participated in a broad review of the school’s criminal justice curriculum in the College of Business, resulting in numerous enhancements to the program and the design of the criminal justice laboratories on campus. Chant says her staff has also developed strategic relationships with local law enforcement professionals and federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, General Services Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“These connections have helped create a well-rounded and unique experience for our students, including experiential education opportunities, co-curricular activities, and outstanding career potential,” she says.

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