The University of Lynchburg’s Burton Dining Hall has been honored by the National Association of College & University Food Services with a bronze award for Residential Dining Facility of the Year.
The award, one of the NACUFS’s 2025 Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards, “celebrates exemplary menus, presentations, special event planning, and new dining concepts” and the “innovative ideas and successful implementation of these programs.”
It’s the second year in a row that the University has been recognized by NACUFS in the Residential Dining Facility category and just one of numerous awards — gold, silver, bronze, and honorable mention — that Lynchburg has received from NACUFS over the years.
This year’s winners will be formally recognized at the NACUFS 2025 National Conference, held July 8-11 in Salt Lake City.
“I’m incredibly proud of our dining team for achieving recognition from our industry peers … for the second consecutive year, securing a bronze award for the Burton Dining Hall,” said Shaun Dearden, Lynchburg’s director of dining services.
Ben Hostetter, dining hall service manager, worked with the department’s leadership team and student marketing interns to prepare entries for Burton Dining Hall, the Westover Room, and On Common Ground.
“I put a lot of time into it, and there was a lot of effort from the marketing interns as well,” Hostetter said. “Each submission was sort of a day in the life of the operation, getting perspective from the openers, the lunch folks, the closers, including all of what we get done over the course of a day, which is thousands of individual tasks.”
Dearden described the process as a “team effort” and praised Hostetter for his leadership. “I’m just super proud of all of our leadership team members here in dining services and certainly proud of Ben’s efforts to help lead and spearhead the award entries this year, which is a massive undertaking,” he said.
“I’m just blessed to have a lot of talented staff members on my leadership team, and … I couldn’t do this job without them. And, of course, the accolades should be placed on their shoulders.”
