Every morning Bryan Davis, the general manager of the Sodexo team at Fairfield, arrives at his desk on the fourth floor of the Barone Campus Center and reviews the weekly food schedule.
Throughout the week, he and his catering team oversee the processes by which the food served in the Barone Main Dining Hall is ordered, stored and prepared for students to eat.
Student interests play a major role in deciding what the Sodexo team orders and serves on a daily basis. Students can look at a weekly menu of what Barone serves for them to eat.
Even though students know what their options are for meals, not much is known about what Davis refers to as “post production,” or what happens to the food when Barone closes for the evening.
There are three weekly food deliveries: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Shipments of produce and bread arrive Monday through Saturday, and dairy products arrive twice a week, according to Davis.
Foods are not reused from the previous day unless they are “prepped a day ahead and cooled properly for reheating the next day,” explained Davis. “These are not leftovers. Chicken can be cooked fully, cooled quickly and used at the salad bar for the next day as an example, the same would be true for pasta.”
Davis stressed that foods won’t be reserved unless they are edible. “We will not reserve something that isn’t safe,” he said.
Davis said the Sodexo team uses a food management system to track the number of students who swipe in at Barone. In addition, Davis stated that Sodexo counts the amount of food leftover in order to determine the amount they should order in the following days so they can minimize food waste.
By using the food management system, he and his team are able to prepare around the right amount of food for each meal.
Food that is served for students that cannot be taken back amounts to approximately 10 pounds per night, according to Davis. He said that food items including baked goods, salad bar items, grilled products, cooked pizza and “anything from the hot line main entree station,” has to be thrown away in order to comply with the State Health Department regulations.
Extra food is donated to Prospect House twice a week, and Food Rescue, a Fairfield-affiliated organization, donates leftover food to the Bridgeport Rescue Mission, Davis said.
Prospect House receives donations from Fairfield on Fridays and Sundays, according to Cheryl Bell, one of the organization’s representatives. Last week, Bell said, the University provided Super Bowl food for the [Prospect House] residents to enjoy while watching the game.
Fairfield “always provides fresh quality food,” said Bell. “The [Prospect House] residents look forward to a meal from the University.”
“A lot of other students would be surprised by Barone’s actions in handling the food,” said Dana Lopez ’15. “I think it’s great they are donating food as long as it is edible the next day.”
“We couldn’t possibly keep up with demand in the community without the help of the students at Fairfield University,” said Linda Casey, director of development and strategic planning at the Bridgeport Rescue Mission. “They have blessed us with their hearts and hands, but also with their financial resources with the hunger cleanup group.”
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