The dining hall at EMU, often referred to as “The Caf” by many students, has long been a hotbed of connection and socialization. This environment is created by the hard work of everyone in the EMU dining services, including employees of pioneer culinary services, local community members, and of course, students. While the caf has needed to make a variety of changes in order to accommodate for COVID, the people working there continue to diligently serve and provide for the EMU campus community during these challenging times.
A number of workers from the caf were asked to share their experiences and thoughts from years prior, and their experiences from this unique semester. Junior Jeremiah Yoder, who has worked at the caf for two years, shared that working in the caf has continually been an enjoyable and positive experience, but there have been some challenges along with the changes, which include serving food to students, using far more disposable materials, and reducing communal seating within the dining hall itself.
Jeremiah feels that “They are doing the best they can. It’s not ideal, but the alternative is no food or a bunch of sick people, so I’ll take it.” He also stressed the importance of returning the green containers to keep things running smoothly. He said that the dining hall doesn’t have the capability to manually go around and collect the containers, and that it’s the students responsibility. Contrary to EMU’s normal stance on sustainability, “The amount of unnecessary styrofoam we are using right now is ridiculous.”
As far as the experience of working in the caf, senior Donaldo Lleshi said, “Previously, it was more interactive, less work for servers, more work for people in the back doing dishes while the amount of work didn’t change for the cooks”. He pointed out how students have not been coming to caf with the same enthusiasm as they used to, and that overall it’s been slower. Having to serve every student individually has made it so that there is often more of a back up. With services such as the waffle makers and stir fry station not currently available, it has made the experience more limited. But he still feels that the caf has done a great job at accommodating everyone.
Community member Andrea Daniels, who has worked at the caf for three years, shared that overall, everyone has been responding well to the way things are being done. Overall she feels that students have been patient and understanding about the changes and recognizes the necessity of them. While it’s far from ideal, the situation has showed that the caf continues to be a place where the EMU core value of community shines through.
