Dining Strives To Combine Flavor And Efficiency

Like most Boston College Dining Services employees, Paul D'Anello is not a man who is afraid to get his hands dirty. As the bakery manager, D'Anello hurries about the McElroy bakery at 4:30 a.m., tending to cookie mixes, piping cream cheese frosting onto freshly baked cupcakes, and slathering shallow pans with fresh carrot cake batter. Between arranging petit four platters and stocking cookies presses, D'Anello rushes back and forth to check his e-mail. It is now only 5 a.m., and his inbox is filled with special requests and changes in time and location for catered events.

D'Anello, who has been with BC Dining for 27 years, has grace under pressure, looking to support the needs of his colleagues as well as the student body. On any given day, Dining Services can feed up to tens of thousands of people, and, therefore, all members of the dining team must be in constant communication and perfectly in-step with one another. "We really run a tight ship here," D'Anello said. "We cannot delay on anything."

Helen Wechsler, director of Dining Services, said that BC Dining is proud of its status as a self-sustained department. "Because we are self-operated and work for the University, we are able to embrace the mission of the school," Wechsler said. "We work for BC and not anyone else."

As a result of its self-operated status, the dining department possesses the ability to reconcile and meet the needs of the student body as well as its employees. "We're not like a supermarket or a restaurant," Wechsler said. "People working there are only making minimum wage, and they don't have nearly the benefits that our employees have."

Several chefs in McElroy, Hillside, and Corcoran Commons said that BC has offered them many benefits regarding their culinary development and financial independence.

Jay Silva, a second chef in charge of coordinating the breakfast and lunch shifts in McElroy, navigates between steaming vats of pasta and long stainless steel tables covered with fresh produce. "I did engineering in Brazil, but I make much more money cooking in the U.S. than I did there," Silva said. "I love America, but someday I will be leaving. I want to do my best and get a good life but at the same time think about my future in Brazil." Even with the pay and benefits BC offers him, Silva still works multiple jobs for a total of more than 80 hours a week.

Marlon Mazier, the first chef in McElroy, who is responsibile for the breakfast and lunch shifts in Carney's and The Eagle's Nest, said that he believes his employment by BC Dining has put him in a solid place for retirement. "The pay is very competitive," Mazier said. "The company is very good with us; they give us five weeks paid vacation, and an extra week for Christmas." Mazier said that the job offers him some security. "Sometimes I feel like I would like to do something different, like I need a change. But I would not like to leave this company."

Silva and Mazier, who have been with BC Dining for a cumulative 33 years, are representative of just two of over 30 countries and 35 languages represented and spoken by Dining Services employees. "We're one of the most diverse departments on campus," said Michael Kann, associate director of Dining Services.

Maintaining transparency in everything from the food that is served to their balance sheets is a priority for Dining Services. Questions and myths have risen over the years regarding the financial practices of Dining Services - particularly the $200 restoration fee on pre-packaged foods. While there exists some truth in both of these myths, Wechsler was happy to set the record straight.

"In the past, dining was allowed to charge what they referred to as a 'capital restoration fee,'" Wechsler said. "This $200 fee was assessed against the meal plan and went into buying tables and developing dining halls."

After renovations in Corcoran and other dining halls were completed, the charge was done away with. "At the time, they felt that everything had been renovated and that there was no longer a need for it," Wechsler said. "However, we're back in a place where stuff needs to be updated."

Due to the fact that they are a self-sustaining entity, BC Dining Services must also maintain their own facilities. These expenses come out of their overall operating budget. Often times, there is not enough surplus cash to renovate dining halls as often or as thoroughly as the directors would please. "Because these are lean years and we do not operate at a surplus, we have to try to find money anywhere we can for updates," Wechsler said. "Often times, it's hard to do that."

Frequently, to get the foods that students desire, Dining Services must settle for prices from vendors that are higher than what is paid by a grocery store or a larger company. "We can't always price competitively," Wechsler said. "That is the price of business. However, we try, when we put something on the shelf that is not priced competitively, to then also make up for it with something that is cheaper, that way all students can afford to buy more expensive items."

Vendors sometimes will significantly raise prices of their units by half a dollar to a $1.50, Kann said. In these cases, the directors of Dining Services must make difficult decisions as to what products should remain, and what products are just not worth the price. "If Ben and Jerry's comes to us with a $1.50 per unit price increase, there's nothing we can do about that," Kann said. "But we'll take things off the shelf that we just can't stand to sell at a certain price."

Some of these up charges pad the Dining Services budget and create a bigger cash pool by which to offer employee benefits and upgrades for equipment, specialty foods, and facilities maintenance. Under this system, students are sometimes not able to purchase all of the products they might typically desire. But, according to Dining Services, they've found that students prefer the community feel offered by a self-sustained organization rather than an out-of-touch, outsourced company for dining. "We're here first and foremost to serve the students," Kann said. "We're not profit-making - we look only to break even."