Rochester Dining Center
UR closes dining hall due to worker shortage. Here's what's being done
The University of Rochester has closed or scaled back several of its dining options and given students a partial refund on their meal plans, the result of an ongoing workforce shortage in its food services department.
One of the main dining halls, Danforth Dining Center, is closed indefinitely.
Several other smaller options are closed and the catering department has stopped taking new orders so that its employees can be redeployed elsewhere.
UR is also temporarily allowing students to use their meal balances on off-campus meals delivered to campus through the food ordering app GrubHub, and is bringing food trucks onto campus to provide more options.
"We're doing everything in our power to ensure that students continue to have access to a variety of foods that meet their dietary needs," Cam Schauf, director of campus dining services and auxiliary operations, said in an Oct. 3 email to students announcing a 20% refund of their meal plans. "While there is no timeline, we are confident that we can build back up our staff to normal levels in order to resume regular dining services, including reopening the dining locations that have been closed in order to focus on core operations."
UR was at 77% of full employment in food services on Oct. 8, a university spokeswoman said. The UR student newspaper, theCampus Times, reported Sept. 19 that the number then was about 65%.
The factors causing the employee shortage are similar to those affecting restaurants across the country, including lingering health fears related to COVID-19 and a significant number of people who have left the workforce in the last 18 months.
More: Amid a labor shortage, former restaurant workers share why they left the industry for good
More: Restaurant owners hope for a new round of relief amid worsening COVID conditions
Breaking down the labor shortage:: Crunch could partly ease this fall but much of it could take years to fix
Petition aimed at refund
The difference for UR students is that many of them depend on campus dining halls for three meals a day and have paid in advance to eat at them.
Arielle Savoy, a junior, created a petition in September for the meal refund, saying it was "impossible for some students to ever get a meal at the dining hall due to class schedules." It was signed by 360 students and referred to the Students' Association Government.
She said meals through GrubHub are more expensive than the dining hall, and the lines are so long that it's difficult to get food between classes. She also said the small kitchen on her dormitory floor, now in high demand, is not big enough to accommodate the need.
"There are just, like, so many other stress factors with trying to reacclimate to 'the new normal' that worrying about how you're going to get dinner is ridiculous, especially when the tuition here is as high as it is," she wrote in an email. "We're just hungry, and figuring out where and how to eat is another chore at this point."
Food services workers at the River Campus are represented by SEIU Local 200 United. Executive Vice President Dawn Marshall-Hosier said the university's woes are due largely to low wages and transportation issues — expensive on-campus parking for employees and infrequent shuttle bus service.
"The total compensation package needs to increase," she said. "Other employers are increasing their starting wage. That can stop the bleed."
UR has a frequently asked questions website set up to explain in more detail how students will be affected. It predicts the full complement of dining options will not be restored in the fall semester.
Contact staff writer Justin Murphy at jmurphy7@gannett.com.
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Source: https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2021/10/11/university-of-rochester-closes-dining-hall-worker-shortage-refund-grubhub-food-trucks/6051638001/
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