NEWS
Dining Short-Staffed and Under-Resourced Due to COVID BY PHOEBE DOSCHER
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ettysburg College’s Dining Services has faced delays and shortages with food supply in addition to being under-staffed as a result of the pandemic. Executive Director of Auxiliary Services Mike Bishop explained the implications of these challenges and ways that the department has adjusted their operations with all students back on campus this semester. Hiring Challenges OverBurden Current Staff Bishop identified staffing as the biggest challenge at the moment. They are currently working to fill 17 vacant, fulltime positions, and have seen a 25 percent decrease in student applicants, a pool that typically has 80 positions. “Student employees are generally great for us because they can work shorter periods of time,” Bishop said. “It’s very, very short-staffed … [We’re] trying to provide the service that we can, as best we can, without limiting services with the staff.” Unlike restaurants, Gettysburg’s Dining Services must remain open each day of the week in order to provide students with regular meals. Without an adequate amount of staff members, some have to work overtime
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to fill the gaps. Other supplementary solutions include reduced service options—such as fewer entrees, no deli option at Servo during dinner, and limited choices at the yogurt bar. “We’ve tried to bring some of the [service options] down smaller. We haven’t reduced hours really at all, we’re strapped still trying to keep our hours open but that is probably the biggest struggle—trying to staff for longer periods of time,” Bishop said. Not only are kitchen and service employees shortstaffed, but they currently lack housekeepers, leaving Dining to outsource to companies or
use their own cooks to help clean. Servo alone has over ten bathrooms that require maintenance, and the floors need to be mopped each night at close. “Right now we’ve asked our cooks to sweep the floor, mop—things they are not normally used to doing that makes them stay around an extra half hour, an hour sometimes after we close. So it’s all a struggle, it’s just a rolling set of problems.” Reasons for Being ShortStaffed and National Trends The food service industry took a hit during the pandemic across the board. Some restaurants closed their doors
