Protect Investment
With a heavy investment in
snack bar facilities and vending
machines (over $300,000, to be
paid back over a twenty year period),
most of which has been
brought about by student demands
for more and better service. Food
Service wants to protect that investment.
That is, Food Service is
under financial obligation to pay
back the money which it borrowed
to provide what students wanted.
A word about Food Service, if
we can lower the rhetoric for a
moment. This is a non-profit organization
within the University, which
makes little or no profit in the
cafeterias, snack bars, or vending
machines. Profits from catering and
concessions at athletic events are
used to make up losses in the other
areas.
Among the many reasons that
Food Service does not provide the
quality of service and food that
most students seem to desire, is
that it employs a large number of
students in jobs which could easily
be eliminated by automation. Likewise.
Food Service employs a large
number of handicapped and lower-income
persons from Charlottesville,
all of which leads to a decrease
in efficiency. However, for a
student body which professes an
idealistic concern for the disadvantaged
in our society, we can be very
insensitive to one area in which the
University has attempted to perform
some kind of service to the
community.
