Not all communities are blessed with a sense of togetherness and hospitality. Some communities don’t have the desire or the resources to lift each other up. Fortunately, members of our community continue to be examples of how a village can come together in times of need.
Bluffton Dining services contribute to the village’s tradition of hospitality, making an impact on many people in the area. On campus, they’ve worked on providing daily food for individuals left on school grounds. In town, they’ve been prepping daily meals for both the Mennonite Memorial Home and Willow Ridge of Mennonite Home Communities.
Through the university’s connection to Mennonite Memorial Home staff member and former day chef of Bluffton University’s Dining services, Angie Palte, MMH reached out to Bluffton University for assistance.
Their community tragically lost residents this past April and had to drastically change their regular visitation and staffing policies. Bluffton Dining was asked to help with preparing meals for the residents in MMH and Willow Ridge.
John Combs, executive chef, spends about four hours prep cooking Sunday nights. In the early morning, Dana Motter, catering manager and director of operations, comes in to finish getting meals ready for pick up. Michael Stewart, general manager, arrives around nine in the morning so that he can get the food packed into “hot boxes,” plastic boxes that will hold food’s warmth for a set amount of time, and refrigerators.
“We put the warm and the cold food out by 9:45 in the morning,” said Stewart. “Somebody comes from Willow Ridge, picks theirs up and takes it back to Willow Ridge, goes to Mennonite Home, gets their van, comes down and picks [the food] up, takes them up to Mennonite Home. Later in the day, they bring all the hot boxes back and they sanitize them for us. That’s the way it works every day.”
“It’s all ready for when I get here at nine, [because] I got elected to put it outside. Even though I’m the boss, I have to deal with the COVID boxes,” Stewart said. “It’s a very good cause. They have to eat and if they can’t do it, we can do it.”
Bluffton Dining services has been preparing meals based on MMH and Willow Ridge’s menus. Things like sodium count and a balanced variety have been a major priority for them.
“If we fed you guys this food, you’d probably hate us,” said Stewart.
In addition to organizing that assistance to our community, Steward has been busy brainstorming ideas on how to abide by potential new health guidelines in the coming school year. Since nothing has been announced yet, nothing is set in stone. However, Stewart does not want to be caught off guard again.
For example, if social distancing guidelines still apply, procedures around amenities like the salad bar or hard ice cream station will have to be adjusted.
Upon talking to Stewart about his vision for the Commons, he told me he tries to change something each semester. The hard ice cream, the salad bar, the banners hanging in the mainline and pizza area are all examples of conscious efforts to elevate students’ experience in the Commons
The next upgrade Stewart had in mind was to “move [the vegetarian area] out to the grill, and we were gonna use two wells and we were gonna start upgrading our vegetarian and vegan options. We were gonna move the grilled chicken to where the vegetarian is now. Now, I don’t know what we’re gonna do since the COVID hit.”
Caught between innovation and security, Bluffton Dining Services has a few things to figure out for the fall. There is time, and it is relieving to know that problems are trying to be solved before they get here. In the present, the work being done and the support being given by Bluffton Dining services are deeply appreciated.
Kai Smith is program director for 96.1 The Wit.
