Dining Services Scrambles Team, Keeps Students Fed at Southside

Even with the snow, Dining Services kept feedings students at Southside without decreasing its selection of food. Workers and management put in extra time for the service- all that was different were the paper plates.
(Photo taken via camera phone by C2M Executive Editor Kevin Loker)
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‘Snowmageddon’ hasn’t beaten Dining Services. Despite reports that the major winter storm sweeping across the mid-Atlantic may leave a record snowfall, a core of the service’s employees and managers have been “wanting and willing and really working” to help keep students fed, according to the head of the service.

“[At Southside], we didn’t miss a beat today,” said Regional District Manager of Sodexo Denise Ammaccapane. “All sections were up and running . . . Without Boundaries, Worldatarian, everything.”

Twenty-three managers, as well as a group of hourly workers, were put up in a nearby Best Western Friday and Saturday night in order to work through the weekend. According to Ammaccapane, the team developed a rotating schedule, and a four-wheel drive, eight-passenger SUV was rented to shuttle workers to and from the university.

“We even had a Jeep that was out picking [other] people up within a ten-mile radius,” said Ammaccapane. Managers Tony Maas and Casey Barry helped with the pick-ups.

Even so, Southside was still understaffed, and in a move to both reduce manpower and save energy in case the facility were to lose power, all meals were served on paper plates.

“The paper plates didn’t bother me at all,” said junior global affairs major Julian Swierczek. “The University is putting in a lot of work and, paper or not, I still get to eat.”

The facility always keeps enough paper products in case the dishwashing machinery goes down, according to Ammaccapane. But Dining Services still planned in advance for the storm — if the facility were to lose power and be forced to run on its back-up generators, Executive Chef Peter Schoebel had already ordered in 21 tons of easy-to-prepare food.

“We even ordered no-bake cookies,” said Ammaccapane. If the facility were forced to run on its generators, only certain equipment would work, but it would last long enough to feed students for three days.

With the Johnson Center and its food court closed for the weekend, and with many students stuck on campus, Southside’s numbers have been far from down. According to Ammaccapane, at one point on Saturday, every seat was filled and management had to open up the Blackstone Room, a room typically reserved for private meetings and events.

“But they all got to eat,” said Ammaccapane. “Everyone has gotten to eat.”

Dining Services has also made serving the University’s police and all of its facility workers who have been out patrolling and plowing in the winter weather a priority. They have all received free meals at Southside.

“The University’s really been doing an amazing job,” said Swierczek. “They definitely deserve a thank you.”