STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERFood is serious business at Washington University-just ask the former General Manager of Food Services Greg Teator. Between 2001 and 2003 Student Life interviewed Teator some 20 times about issues ranging from the University’s number-one rank in the Princeton Review’s food service survey to the controversial Bear’s Den renovations.
This semester Teator resigned from his position, leaving his busy job at the helm of University’s 15 different dining locations to the former Director of Operations for Food Services, Kathy Carmody.
According to Carmody, Teator’s decision to resign was personal in nature.
“I think he just wanted to move on,” said Carmody. “It was a personal decision. He wanted to try something new.”
Now that she too has moved on, Carmody sees differences between being director of operations and her new role as general manager.
“As general manager I deal more with administrative duties,” said Carmody. “I used to spend more time in the field making sure that things were running smoothly on that end of things, but I now I tend to spend more time in the office.”
Still, Carmody said she spends a large part of each day visiting different campus dining facilities.
“Each day is a little bit different,” she said, “But in general I try to get around to all of the different facilities. I kind of mix it up between being out there seeing how things are going and being in my office doing administrative sorts of things.”
Carmody added that the new library caf, scheduled to open in May, currently occupies much of her day.
“Lately, what I have been doing as general manager is working on the space in the library,” she said. “There’s going to be a caf there, and it’s a big project, so it has been taking up a lot of my time.”
The facility will consist of a 24-hour study space and Internet caf.
Teator’s resignation comes amidst proposals regarding changes being made at Center Court and other dining venues next semester. Carmody noted, however, that the changes and Teator’s resignation are unrelated.
“Certainly we try to make small improvements each year,” said Carmody. “But the major changes that are made are more related to a visionary committee, which sets up plans that we work to implement.”
Former Executive Chef for Food Services Rick Turner is also changing job positions this semester due to Teator’s resignation. Turner will take over the role of director of operations, in which capacity he will deal largely with making sure that each facility runs smoothly and effectively.
“As executive chef, I was doing a lot of work with the actual food, but now it is more about the presentation of the food and the venue as a whole,” said Turner. “Making sure that all the food gets ordered properly and that the presentation and workings of the venues are going well are important duties that I have to carry out as director of operations. I’m still getting into the swing of it, but it’s about the same amount of work…It’s just a little bit different.”
Rick Turner and Kathy Carmody are two members of the five-member executive group that works to keep dining venues at the University running smoothly. It is a large task-over the course of a school year, University students go through 45,000 pounds of sliced smoked turkey alone. In Wohl Center, students consume around 640 bananas and 120 pounds of pasta every day. All in all, the process amounts to 220 employees serving 12,000 meals daily, which doesn’t even include all of the microwaveable selections at Bear Mart.