Just days after Bank of America, the nation’s largest bank, named Brian Moynihan as its new chief executive in January 2010, bank officials invited Art Gallagher, president of Johnson & Wales University’s Charlotte Campus to meet Moynihan at an economic development conference it was sponsoring. It was a courtesy call with a message. Bank of America, headquartered in Charlotte, considers JWU an important part of its home community.

“They feel very invested in the success of Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte,” says Gallagher. With good reason. Eight years ago Bank of America was leading a revitalization of the Charlotte business district. But the area needed an infusion of residents — people who could bring life to the city after dark. Major corporations such as financial services giant Wachovia and international food service corporation Compass Group, joined Bank of America to convince JWU to consolidate two smaller campuses in Charleston, S.C. and Norfolk, Va., into a larger campus in Charlotte.

The assumptions made about the university’s economic impact proved correct. Businesses in Charlotte and elsewhere in Mecklenburg County have enjoyed an infusion of spending on goods and services that topped $14 million in fiscal 2009. Today more than 2,400 students are enrolled in the downtown campus, bringing life to an area that once rolled up the sidewalks after 5 p.m.

“It’s clearly safe to say that Johnson & Wales was one of the most significant economic development projects for the city of Charlotte that we’ve ever landed,” says Tony Crumbley, vice president of research at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. “You can come here on a Tuesday night at 9 p.m. and the streets are full of people. Five years ago at 7 p.m. it was dead.”

JWU employs about 215 full- and part-time workers on its Charlotte Campus, along with 364 part-time student employees. Nearly 40 percent of those regular employees — not including student employees — live in Charlotte or elsewhere in Mecklenburg County.

But while there was an assumption about economics in Charlotte, there was also an expectation that Johnson & Wales would become an active participant in the community. Bank of America donated land for the JWU campus and Compass committed to hiring graduates. That caught the attention of people in North Carolina.

“Charlotte is a place that’s all about active participation and good citizenry,” says Gallagher. “You can’t just move here, show up and do your job. Our leadership team and faculty serve on many boards. Our students are engaged in community service.”

reaching out
During the 2008–2009 school year, students, faculty and staff at the Charlotte Campus provided nearly 19,400 hours of community service with 35 partner organizations in the community. At local elementary schools, university students work as classroom aides, tutors and mentors in after-school programs.

Since opening in fall 2004, the school has collaborated with the Mecklenburg County Health Department to develop a culinary training program that helped 30 cooks at local child care facilities learn how to prepare healthier meals. It has played host to 250 residents of five Charlotte shelters in the Holiday Meal for Our Neighbors in Need. And JWU has a longstanding relationship with the Second Harvest Food Bank. Together they run an annual Kid’s Café Junior Chefs Cook-Off, in which 20 youths can experience cooking in culinary labs and presenting competition dishes to a judging panel, in front of family and friends.

“They’re a wonderful resource,” says Kay Carter, executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metroliner. “They help us with lots and lots of projects, almost all related to children. One of our goals is to end childhood hunger, and they really embrace that as a goal as well."

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