Spring Break
Dining hall employees deserve respect, gratitude
Julia Dykes
Issue date: 2/2/09 Section: Opinion
As a student and CSU dining service employee, I felt the need to express to the student body what it's really like to work in the cafeteria.
Many have expressed that they feel that this job is for people who don't have any aspirations in life. This was made very apparent in a comic printed last week in the Collegian.
In the comic, one of the characters is looking for a job and another character suggests applying at one of the dining centers. The original character then replies that they "haven't given up on life just yet!"
This comic, while a bit humorous, was very offensive to those amazing people who work behind those lines.
Many people who work in dining services have culinary degrees, other degrees, or are currently pursuing a degree. Not to mention, the gracious people who have been working here for many years despite the ungrateful, and sometimes downright rude, students. However, we enjoy and love the life that we lead.
Between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., the morning crew arrives to begin preparing your breakfast and the last crew doesn't leave until midnight, after supplying food during your latenight study breaks.
We not only prepare your food, we wash your dishes, wipe your tables, clean your spills (which are usually left unknown to us because some of you seem too proud to let us know you had an accident), we protect you from others using your ID cards by checking the pictures before we scan and (most importantly) we serve your food with a smile (even if you don't say please or thank you ... or are preoccupied on your cell-phone).
This is who we are: We are great-grandparents and grandparents, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives and sons and daughters. We are also nearly 400 of your classmates.
We are not just a function. We love, we laugh and we cry (just like you).
We love what we do, but what we don't love is when people disrespect the fact that we are making an honest living and treat us like the lowest of low.
Many have expressed that they feel that this job is for people who don't have any aspirations in life. This was made very apparent in a comic printed last week in the Collegian.
In the comic, one of the characters is looking for a job and another character suggests applying at one of the dining centers. The original character then replies that they "haven't given up on life just yet!"
This comic, while a bit humorous, was very offensive to those amazing people who work behind those lines.
Many people who work in dining services have culinary degrees, other degrees, or are currently pursuing a degree. Not to mention, the gracious people who have been working here for many years despite the ungrateful, and sometimes downright rude, students. However, we enjoy and love the life that we lead.
Between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., the morning crew arrives to begin preparing your breakfast and the last crew doesn't leave until midnight, after supplying food during your latenight study breaks.
We not only prepare your food, we wash your dishes, wipe your tables, clean your spills (which are usually left unknown to us because some of you seem too proud to let us know you had an accident), we protect you from others using your ID cards by checking the pictures before we scan and (most importantly) we serve your food with a smile (even if you don't say please or thank you ... or are preoccupied on your cell-phone).
This is who we are: We are great-grandparents and grandparents, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives and sons and daughters. We are also nearly 400 of your classmates.
We are not just a function. We love, we laugh and we cry (just like you).
We love what we do, but what we don't love is when people disrespect the fact that we are making an honest living and treat us like the lowest of low.
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