News & Blog

Get to Know Us: How our Dining Crew Gets Meals on the Table

By Pat van den Beemt

While most of us are still slumbering, Broadmead team mem¬bers are already here, making sure we won’t go hungry.

5 a.m. sees an opening manager arrive. The manager opens the Arbor Café, the main kitchen and the four dietary kitchen¬ettes in the upstairs neighborhoods. The manager also turns on all the equipment and gets ready for members of the opening shift to come in.

By 5:45 a.m. a kitchen breakfast cook and a Café breakfast cook are here. The Café cook sets up stations for meal service and the kitchen cook prepares food for both the Café and all four kitchenettes.

6 a.m. is when the sustainability cook arrives to evaluate all leftovers and use many of them. The cook also creates a lunch special, makes meat salads and stays to help serve lunch at the Café.

6:30 a.m. Another Café team member arrives to set up and work in the bakery side, and stays to run the cash register. Some six dietary team mem¬bers show up for the Darlington, Douglass, Hallow¬ell and Taylor upstairs neighborhoods. After setting up their areas for service, they pick up food at 7:15 a.m. and begin serving in the neighborhoods. They then break down and reset for the next meal and restock their areas.

8:00 a.m. One person comes in and fills the dish¬washer with breakfast dishes, sets up the dish room and cleans all pots and pans. The same routine takes place after lunch and dinner. The first Bistro team member also arrives to prepare for the day and is joined by another Bistro person at 10 a.m.

10:30 a.m. is when a lot more activity happens. The Café supervisor arrives, as do two cold cooks and two hot cooks. They prepare for dinner, cut fruit, prepare the salad bar and desserts, and prep for the next day. Four team members also arrive to help with lunch service in the Café, and another four help with lunch in the dietary neighborhoods.

11:00 a.m. is when the Holly Terrace supervisor comes in, as do two Holly Terrace team members. They set and clean the dining room, print menus and answer carryout calls.

11:30 a.m. Two to three additional Utility team members come in for lunch support and cleaning assignments.

12:00 p.m. A closing supervisor arrives, manages the crew and finally closes and locks up Arbor Café at 1:30 p.m. One set of Café workers leaves at 3-3:30 p.m.; the others go home at 7-7:30 p.m.

Whew! We’re only through lunchtime. Onward….

3:30 p.m. Two to three part-time team members come in to support the Café’s dinner crew.

4:00 p.m. Two to three part-time dietary team members come in to support the four dietary neighborhoods.

4:30 p.m. Nine to eleven part-time team members come in to support Holly Terrace.

5:00 p.m. Two to three part-time folks come in to support the dish room for dinner service.

8:00-8:30 p.m. The last per¬son leaves for the night.

Dan Hall, director of Dining and Hospitality, and several other managers normally arrive between 8 and 11 a.m. and are here for at least 8 hours. Dan oversees a staff of 104 and estimates that some 55 to 60 people are working in the dining operations on any given day.

Thank you to our dedicated team members for all of your hard work!