Stefanie Robb (EL 227)
GREENSBURG, Penn. --The cafeteria is important to a university, but many people will not sit down to think why it is essential. This place requires a lot of service from different people to maintain its status. A daily schedule of duties for students, employees, or the community. I went behind the scenes of an everyday Seton Hill worker in Lowe Dining Hall.
Besides the one familiar job position of the “lunch lady,” there are cooks, cashiers, line servers, the salad department, and dishwashers. The 25-30 dining staff members offer an all-you-can-eat buffet in the dining hall.
Margie Dominick, a cafeteria worker for little over a year now, told me her daily schedule of a cafeteria worker’s life. After watching Dominick work during one of the lunch hours, it was obvious that being in the cafeteria is a complicated, yet enjoyable job.
“I look forward to work everyday to see new faces that are not familiar and I love the ‘feel like mom’ feeling,” said Dominick.
A routine schedule is followed every hour from 5:45 am until 9:00 pm at night. From preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner to cleaning the entire dining hall in a certain amount of time, the service personnel work hard in a one day. Plus, they have to make sure everything is spotless for their viewers. Even though they work in the cafeteria, they have to take care of the employee room as well.
Margie mentions, “We work together and a 14-hour day feels like 7 because we make work fun.” In addition to the cafeteria workers, many of the maintenance crew helps out with cleaning around the dining hall.
Different events go on behind the scenes of the cafeteria everyday. For example, as well as the cafeteria work, the workers are also hired to be caterers for special event. This would include, parties on or off campus, office meetings, and they even have a concession stand to benefit the sports teams. According to the Seton Hill website, the dining service staff provides Party Tyme Specials and special events for multiple clubs and organizations.
“Since I work in the cafeteria for a few extra bucks, I do a little of everything. I enjoy the cultural atmosphere. I believe this atmosphere brought me to work here,” said Katie Graff, freshman.
Many work-study students work in the cafeteria and have the benefit of meeting new people everyday. The different cultural backgrounds combine to form a diverse community. The tasks are simple; yet, it helps keep a student occupied on a daily basis for a cafeteria worker.
Stefanie Robb is a freshman at Seton Hill University. She is majoring in Secondary English Education.
Posted by Reporter at November 21, 2003 11:30 AMGood job with your story Stef. A lot of people don't know what goes on "behind the scenes" in the cafeteria. Great job reporting the full story to SHU.
Posted by: Anne Stalder at November 20, 2003 4:22 PMGreat coverage. I like your personal touches, but you may want to take the narrative, "I" out of the article's equation.
Great Job, and keep writing, we need thorough people for the Setonian.
Posted by: Amanda at November 20, 2003 10:57 PM