University of Virginia Library

Food For Thought

Most of us at the University at one time or
another have had to suffer through the
putrid-tasting and horrendous-smelling foods
of Food Services. We've always griped some,
but despite vicious rumors to the contrary,
little was ever done to even mildly
accommodate our complaints. (No one has
ever complained about service, since it has
always been nonexistent.)

Admittedly, Grill hours were extended
somewhat after they had already been
drastically slashed. Granted, students were
finally permitted to sell their meal tickets if
they could find some poor sucker to purchase
them. We are aware that six fruitless meetings
of the University Food Services Committee
were called to investigate, among other less
productive things, the financial set-up and
personnel treatment in Food Services. Of
course, little earth-shaking has ever come out
of these investigations and the same basic
complaints are still bandied about, while
Food Services remains the number one
bellyache at the University.

Until recently, however, it was our
impression that food and service were the
only gripes students had with Food Services.
Most of us never realized or cared that
something else could possibly be wrong. Good
food and decent service is all we asked for.
Well, as it just so happens, there is a lot more
wrong, and it probably has forever been
ignored because, as Food Service Director
Bernard C. Fontana says, "Morale doesn't
appear in a budget."

For those student workers who have been
exploited by Food Service management for so
long, the time has come for their gripes also
to be heard. They have always been most
cooperative in doing extra work, taking on
extra responsibilities for always the same
measly pay–$1.66 per hour. Yet Mr. Fontana
has pitted the full-time day crew against the
student night crew with the hope that he
might get more work out of both. An
ambitious dishroom staff has in the past taken
up the slack for an inefficient daytime crew.
However since Mr. Fontana's latest personnel
cuts, they have been forced to do a job which
they are now physically unable to handle.

And finally, after all this, it is rumored
that student managers and supervisors will be
"phased out" over the summer. In light of all
the past work they have done and the
cooperation they have given Food Services,
they are being stabbed in the back. Food
quality and service have suffered as a result,
and there certainly is no assurance that Mr.
Fontana's plan of attack will do anything but
worsen the present situation.

Tonight at 8 in the New Chemistry
Building Auditorium an informal forum will
be held to hear compliments (sure) or
complaints concerning Food Service quality
or shortcomings. We strongly
encourage interested or implicated members
of the University community to participate
since the minutes of the meeting will be
transcribed in order that the University Food
Services Committee might
become aware of and/or act
upon any recommendations.

We have little faith that Food Service will
change drastically over-night let alone initiate
any mild reforms. Quite possibly a
forum of this sort is not the most effective
way to encourage change. But at least it
cannot be said later, "If only they had
worked within the system, through the proper
channels" –when something far more drastic
is done.