By Lisa Phillips
News Editor
Published Spring 2009
As a school, it’s a commonplace, a rite of passage in a way, to gripe about the cafeteria at K. We lament about the lack of Lucky Charms or that the theme line has no options. There’s only cheese pizza, the meat looks gross, the peanut butter’s chunky not creamy.
I certainly have done my fair share of complaining about the Caf. But I’ve worked at Sodexho almost the entire time I’ve been at K, around 3 years, and it’s began to make me look at the other perspective, the view from behind the counter.
What my job has taught me is how much work it really takes to produce those cafeteria meals each day. When you walk into the cafeteria, you don’t automatically realize the sprawling kitchen that lies behind. The chefs that labor to put out those theme line items. The dishwashers. The stockers. The managers. It’s a large-scale operation to produce that much food.
And these men and women are given quite the daunting mission. Providing tasty, interesting food to almost 500 hungry college students a day? Certainly not a task I’d want in my lifetime.
Think about how much work goes into producing the options that we see in front of us. Those vegetables don’t come all cut up, they’re chopped that way. All of those dessert cups are individually made. The cereal is stocked, the dishes are stacked, that endless pop supply doesn’t refill itself.
And these people are really making the most of what they’ve got. If it’s one thing I’ve encountered consistently at my job, it’s that these people really do try! They’re given bulk food to work with, but they care about offering variety, about fulfilling student needs. They want to provide healthy options for those who want them, fried options for those who don’t, vegetarian options, dessert options, etc.
I think we tend to objectify the cafeteria when we criticize, to dehumanize it. We forget that we are in turn criticizing real people who are trying their best to bring us good food every day. I’m certainly guilty of it.
I guess what I’m arguing is, give the cafeteria a break. It’s understandable if there’s not always a crazy variety of options. Satisfying the taste buds of every student every day is impossible; people want different things. Yes, we pay a lot of money for this school, but we can also be human, to appreciate how much labor goes into the food we see.
And it’s worthwhile to realize how good we really have it. As a junior living off-campus, in my occasional visits to the cafeteria, I’ve suddenly began to appreciate how luxurious it really is to just put your dirty dishes on the conveyor belt, to not have to wipe down your own table. To eat a good salad, I now have to buy, wash, cut, and assemble; while in the Caf, I waltz through a line of already-prepared vegetables for me.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t gripe about the cafeteria. Keep those comment cards flowing. An ongoing dialogue is essential: it keeps Sodexho in-tune with what students want. And they will do their best to listen. Starting next year, a ‘Health Foods’ section will be available, in response to student comments.
No, Sodexho food is not the same as your mother’s. It won’t always fit your tastes. There won’t always be good options. But I think we sometimes get so caught up in criticizing the institution that we forget the humanity involved. People work hard to produce all of that food, and it wouldn’t hurt us to be appreciative.
Or maybe, when you really like something in the cafeteria, take a minute to comment on that also. Let them know that the effort is noticed and appreciated. In a world where consideration is all-to-quickly forgotten, a kind and encouraging word can go a long way.
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