What was your initial reaction when COVID-19 was characterized as a pandemic and Andrews switched to remote schooling? What were your thoughts about how this would affect food services for the foreseeable future?
My first thought was that it was devastating. I've been doing this for about 38 years, and this has been the most difficult and challenging experience of my career––and my cafeteria burned to the ground about 20 years ago at a place that I worked. That pales in comparison to this. Personally, it was just one of the most stressful experiences because I had to furlough 85% of my team. I’ve been here for 10 years, and many of my team have worked for me for eight, nine years. To send those people home into such an uncertain future, although we ultimately know that people got subsidies, we weren’t sure at the time. Every one of them can tell you that we were just weeping. That was devastating. As we got more into it, we realized that this was going to change our world forever. And as I began to network with the people that I work for, and they were listening to their clients and hearing what people were saying, we began to realize that there may never be another buffet salad bar. People were saying that they don't feel safe touching a tong that someone else has touched, they don't feel safe going along behind someone that has served themselves. And so, very early on as our governor, Gretchen Whitmer, began to layer restriction on top of restriction, we began to seek to see how serious this was and that it was going to devastate the way we have always operated.
You developed a program over the summer where individuals sponsored food for those in need in the Berrien community. What inspired you to do this? How did the program work?
We have a program called Farm to Fork, where I buy from local vendors to promote the farms that are local to Berrien Springs, Michigan. I actually had a ton of extra produce in the basement that we had bought because we thought we had until the end of the school year to get through, and that would have been just about what we needed. I would buy 50-pound bags of potatoes and carrots and onions and celery, and we had a ton of beans and rice in the basement, so we started making boxes. Several times we filled our big truck up and we went out and parked, and we would ask any family member that came out how many people they had to feed. Eventually, the food ran out, but people's hunger didn't, and we decided that somebody had to do something. I wrote to the university, and they said sure, we'll put the message out if you'll facilitate it. And so, they gave my phone number out and I started getting phone calls from all over the world. I got donations ranging from $1 to $1500 dollars. We provided fresh fruit and fresh vegetables to 45 families once a week, all summer. They still come and they say thank you, and I have pictures of their children that they would send. It was a fantastic experience for all of us; some of us actually adopted families all summer and we used our own money. I think it was more of a blessing to us than it was to them, and we made some really great lifelong friends.
What are some of the challenges that the Terrace Cafe has faced as a result of COVID-19 and current state regulations? How has it affected your job on a daily basis?
Since the executive order 2020-114 was issued, we have had to limit the capacity of normal seating to 50%. And so we implemented the dividers, the booths, and required six feet of separation between all parties or groups. We had to close all the waiting areas, so guests can’t just gather in a line or a lobby or anything like that. We had to close self-service food and drink options. We were just standing there for days figuring out how we would do this, and I even asked if we could make more space but I was told that it wasn’t possible. So that meant the salad bar went away, and the pizzas went away, and the drink stations and all of the cereal dispensers. Everything went away so suddenly and everything had to be served. I think that's probably the most difficult thing that we've had to get past. It's just because of the building and because of the configuration. There are just no easy answers. We want everyone at this university to thrive. We want everyone to be happy and while we understand you can't please everyone at the same time, we want the majority of the students to be happy with what we're doing. It is our heart. It is what we work toward every day. And it's devastating to us not to be able to offer that.
Many students have had questions about the opening of the Gazebo. Do you know when the GET app, which we are supposed to use to order food, will be up and running so that we can customize orders?
We sent the proposal for this app on June 6. The university paid for the service of this back then, so all that piece was done, but there’s been a huge amount of technical detail with the engineers, and working with Andrews, and working with the company that we got it from. With all of the back and forth it's taken all summer long. Our desire was to have this ready and tested by the middle of August, and that's why we felt like we'd gotten on top of it early. But as you can imagine, there are tons of universities on the same path. They've all tried to get on board at the same time, and so they're scheduling people as quickly as they possibly can, but it's taking longer than anticipated.
Is there anything that you think students often misunderstand about the restrictions that the cafeteria and Gazebo face during this time? What would you like all students to know about the role of Dining Services during the pandemic?
I've been here almost 10 years and this is the best staff I've ever had. Their hearts are so committed. We're doing our very best to make sure that everybody is as happy as we can make them during this challenging time, and I just feel that we need cooperation. I regularly have the Gazebo managers come and get me to please come and talk to a student or a couple or that refuses to observe the social distancing. For people who are here to be ministers and are here to serve you, that’s a very awkward position for us to be in, to police social distancing. And so we just beg that everyone will cooperate, that everyone will recognize that we can't have all the options and speed of service at the same time. We don't even close in the morning; the team stays open all morning long upstairs to accommodate, and there are about 50 students who have found that that's the perfect window for them. So we're super excited, we're happy to do it, but we just really need to work together instead of at odds with one another. This isn't us against you guys or you guys against us; we're in this together.
If you have questions, concerns, or wish to express gratitude regarding dining services at Andrews University, Chef Linda welcomes your feedback. Students may contact her via her email, brinegar@andrews.edu
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.