News- Serving season
This article was originally published in the Missoulian (May 13, 2004)
Serving season By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian
UM's catering service working overtime to make graduation appetizing
Its a high-pressure week at The University of Montana, where students are taking their final exams, instructors are hustling to get semester-end assignments graded and campus staff are scrambling to organize commencement details.
Bt few people are experiencing the kind of pressure of UMs catering service, which continues to juggle its 8 to 10 daily catering commitments while planning for 45 additional events it will serve between noon Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday.
Staff members have forewarned their family and friends about their brutal work schedule.
By Monday, they might be recovered just in time to do it all over again for next weeks Law School graduation parties, said Trinda Heaton, UMs catering supervisor.
This time of year we are more than busy, Heaton said.
You kind of shut down everything else and make catering your life, she said. I just tell my family I will resurface when its over.
From the lunch hour on Friday to the dessert hour on Saturday, the catering service will prepare, serve and clean up everything from a made-to-order omelet brunch to cocktail parties to cookies-and-office receptions to an elegant four-course dinner.
When the whirlwind is over, the staff will have fed about 8,000 people and helped make commencement a grand, memorable event.
How does it all get done? Lots, and lots of planning, said Jennifer Pinto, director of UM catering.
In the calm before the commencement storm, Pinto spent Wednesday scrutinizing her lists, checking them twice and making sure everyone on her staff had their cell phone batteries charging.
On this particular event, we have to be so specific and timing is everything, Pinto said.
The 14 student servers are divided into two teams, and each team is given a schedule of events for which they are responsible. Because much of the equipment must be shared, schedules are created for essential items such as the food delivery vans and the giant coffee containers.
Its such a crazy time, said student server Casey Redder. I dont try and understand it all, I just go where they point me.
Keeping track of the servers can be a full-time job, Pinto said. They have minds of their own, she said, laughing. She recalled a time last year when Redder lost his way.
Her cell phone rang and it was Redder asking where he was supposed to go, Pinto said. When she asked him where he was calling from, he said George Dennisons office.
Needless to say, Pinto said she got him out of there in a hurry.
Although the current full-time crew has worked together for the past five years and most events go without a hitch, something is bound to go awry.
Pinto said shes learned to schedule for the unexpected.
Sometimes its a case of forgotten forks or a coffee reception without cups. Or, like last years near-crisis, when student servers misread their assignment and set up a luncheon for the math department in the wrong location.
When the mistake was realized, they had just minutes to repack and haul the food, supplies and equipment from the third floor of the math building to the third floor of the University Center.
Everything worked out and Pinto said she can laugh about it now. But back then? It was high stress.
The one thing they can count on, she said, is fabulous food.
Cranking out the delectables for UM catering is chef Martin Albrecht and his two cooks Nancy Cohen and Laura Sundstad and 12 student kitchen workers.
The 33-person catering team has become so accomplished at their craft, they were recently awarded the highest honor from the National Association of College and University Food Service.
The 2004 Loyal E. Horton Gold Award was given to UM for their work in preparing, planning, developing and presenting an outstanding, unique menu at UMs Cowboy Ball, an annual fundraiser for the rodeo team.
Their entry, which was an elaborately arranged album filled with photos, menus and news articles, won the category of catering-special event for medium-size schools.
Its such a big honor, Pinto said.
But award or no award, for us every event is special in its own way, she said.
Commencement day is one we plan for months, but on the actual day, its an event we put on our racing shoes and truly enjoy what the day brings.
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