Susan Aiello
David DiSarro
English 104
17 March 2009
Annotated Bibliography
"Chefs, Cooks, and Food Preparation Workers." Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Edition. 2007. United States Department of Labor. 18 Feb 2009 http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos161.htm.
The Occupational Outlook Handbook is constructed so you can look up certain occupations that you are interested in and want more information for. In my case, I looked up preparation workers and it gave me more information regarding chefs, cooks and food preparation workers. Food preparation workers on a daily basis perform the same tasks over and over again. They are responsible for getting food ready for the chefs to cook by cutting any vegetables or fruit that are needed, measuring ingredients, etc. Most food preparation workers don’t require having any training because they can easily be taught on the job. A typical food preparation worker makes an average of $17,410 a year. Not only did this source give me a better understanding of what a food preparation worker does, but it also mentioned how the need for preparation workers is only increasing because of the growing food industry.
This source is really going to help me with finding out more in depth information of some of the employees that work in Lafollette. Through observing, I will be able to learn about the different tasks each of the workers is responsible for doing on a daily basis. When interviewing, I will be able to ask them more questions relating to their job and what they do. Knowing more of their background information will help me get to know them on a more personal level.
Student Employee Handbook: Residence Halls Dining Service. Muncie, IN: Ball State University, 2008.
I am an employee at Lafollette Buffet and in order to work there you have to go through a training session and in that training session you get a Student Employee Handbook. This handbook consists of the different rules regarding sanitation procedures, appearance requirements, training, absences, etc. All employees are required to wear black pants, black soled shoes, and a red shirt, which is provided for you. It also talks about roles of the employees and how employees are expected to maintain attendance, be on time, be friendly, have a clean and neat appearance, perform their duties correctly, etc. The employee handbook also states the residence hall dining services values. They place their values in their customers, employees, excellence, cleanliness and sanitation, communication and respect for others.
I never would have thought of using my employee handbook as a source, but now that I have looked through it, I think this source will be of some importance. This handbook definitely gives me an insight into the certain rules, rituals and behavior that each employee is expected to follow. Some of which, I wasn’t aware of until I read this. Using this source has definitely provided me with a new approach that I can take with my research and observations.
Cunningham, Charlie. "West Virginia U. dining halls teach student workers life lessons." 16 Mar. 2007. LexisNexis Academic. Bracken Library, Muncie. 24 Feb. 2009 <http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic>.
This article is about diversity and culture differences within the dining halls at West Virginia University. Charlie Cunningham quoted many different employees that work at Western Virginia’s dining hall. Many of whom claimed that the reason for working on campus at a dining hall was because of its location being relatively close to their dorm. This article also talked about the pros and cons of working in the dining hall. One student said it was a great way to meet new people. However, the students did mention that some aspects of working in the dining hall can be quite disgusting.
I plan on using this source to help me show others the diversity and cultural differences within my subculture from race, age and background. This source is also very helpful because of the author’s interviews with the employees. He was able to obtain an insider’s point of view to help him better understand their subculture and I plan on using some of their insight to compare with the surveys I took of some of the employees who work in Lafollette. This article helps show that even though these students are from another school their experience is very similar to many employees here at Ball State.
Truant, Patti. "U. Maryland students see dining hall proposal's benefits." 29 Oct. 2004. LexisNexis Academic. Bracken Library, Muncie. 24 Feb. 2009 http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic.
In this article, the author talks about the Residence Hall Association at University of Maryland and how they were trying to encourage Dining Services to hire more student workers and give them priority over full-time employees. Dining Services officials said that if enough students are interested and apply for the job it could come down to eliminating full time employees. Many students were interviewed regarding what their opinions were on the subject and their answers varied from it would be a good idea to we shouldn’t eliminate diversity.
Like many of the other articles that I have read, this one gives many different views regarding diversity within a subculture. This topic regarding student employees versus full-time employees is one I have never really considered on tackling. This article will help me with finding out more information regarding full-time employees and student employees and the difficulties they may face. For example, the increase of student employees could negatively affect some of the full-time employees like in this article. Also, based on observations I have made, there has been frustrated full-time employees due to student employees’ lack of effort. This could also be a difficulty that the different employees may face. Other difficulties could be due to what position their in or how long they have worked there.
Logan, Jesse. "NYU dining halls cited for health violations." 11 Feb. 2002. LexisNexis Academic. Bracken Library, Muncie. 25 Feb. 2009 http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic.
This article was about New York University’s dining halls and how after inspection by the New York City Department of Health they received many health violations. These violations were due to improper food temperature, food contamination, and they did not display a hand washing sign by their sinks. One of New York University’s residence halls cafeteria was shut down due to too many violations. These violations were partly due to not keeping their cafeteria and food sanitary. In my opinion, getting to the point of shutting down a dining hall is due to the carelessness and neglect of the employees. One thing I learned from this article was how the health department is required to check up on all dining hall locations each semester to make sure they are following all the rules and regulations according to standard law.
I chose this article because it relates to the rules and regulations that each dining hall must follow, and it is something that not many are aware of. I definitely want to address this in my mini-ethnography because if the rules set by the Health Department aren’t followed, it could result in a violation, or even worse, shutting down of the whole dining hall.
Berman, Joelle A. "Theft common at Boston U. dining halls." 21 Mar. 2002. LexisNexis Academic. Bracken Library, Muncie. 25 Feb. 2009 <http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic>.
This article explains how common theft is within the dining halls at Boston University. The Campus Dining Hall Services Director Joshua Hubbard talked about how much it costs them when they have to replace what the students have stolen, whether it is food, furniture, silverware, etc. He talked about how it can’t be stopped and that all they can do is look out for those who are stealing and reinforce the rules and policies. On the other side of that, many of Boston University’s students replied that they pay so much money to go here as it is, so it is really not that big of a deal.
After my interview with Renee DeVoe, she talked about how the hardest part of her job was watching out for students who steal and those who try to sneak in and eat without swiping their meal card. Not only to watch out for them, but to confront them once she’s caught them. I found that very relatable to this article because it is so common even here at Ball State, and it is something that adds up when it comes to money that the dining halls have to pay for. I plan on using this to emphasize the hardships that some of the employees go through regarding watching out for those who steal, as well as, the high costs to replace any stolen items. In doing this, it is going to require more interviews with some of the employees and some of the customers regarding these issues.
Friedland, Ann. "45 Tips for Better Buffet Service." Food Management 2008. Penton Media. 25 Feb. 2009 <http://food-management.com/business_feature/fm_imp_3353>.
This article talks more specifically about ways to run a buffet and how to do that. Ann Friedland says that communicating is the key to running a buffet and a great way to do that is by using two-way radios. Friedland also gives tips to help buffet employees when it comes to food preparation such as ways to preserve and keep foods fresh. She also gave tips about setting up a buffet, how to prepare certain foods, ways of marketing, and how to save time and reduce costs. One tip that was mentioned to help set up a buffet was to set up the high cost item foods last. Doing this would help to reduce costs. This article also said that by having employees serve the customers food is another way to help reduce food costs. Having the employees serve the customers allows them to serve smaller portion sizes, which helps not wasting as much food.
At first, I was wondering when or how I would use this article in my mini-ethnography, but later I realized that these little tips are good ways for the Lafollette buffet to improve. The author of this article also covered on how the buffet is flexible and has a variety of food and many responses from my surveys said that the buffet has a wide range of food making it more appealing to others.
Khouli, Gabriel. "Ball State U. dining services give 75-cent raise to employees." 31 Aug. 2006. LexisNexis Academic. Bracken Library, Muncie. 25 Feb. 2009 http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic.
This article was from the Daily Newspaper here at Ball State written by Gabriel Khouli. This article talked about how the number of students working in the food dining industry has significantly increased since the year before and this was due to the seventy-five cent raise given to dining hall workers. Not only did the students receive a raise increase, but the full-time employees received an increase as well. Also, in order to keep students working for dining services a twenty-five cent raise will be given each semester a student works.
I don’t know how I came upon this article, but I did and I am glad because this article has provided me with some valid information specifically relating to Ball State. All of my other articles are about other colleges in comparison to Ball State. I plan on using this article to show others how working in the dining halls has increased year after year and that a main reason why is because of the increase in pay.
Non-Annotated Bibliography
Survey of Lafollette Employees
I emailed a survey out to all of Lafollette dining student employees and out of the 117 people I emailed I got a response from 40 of them. I asked several basic questions regarding where they work in Lafollette, how long they have worked for Lafollette dining and why they chose to work in the food service industry. I also asked what some stereotypes are regarding Lafollette dining, what some regulations they must follow and if they thought that Lafollette provided a healthy selection of food.
This survey will come very beneficial to me because the people who took the survey are those who are considered insiders to the subculture. I got a range of different students from age, race and amount of work experience. Many of their responses will be used to help confirm some of my assumptions and stereotypes regarding food service workers as well as point out some new insights.
Survey of Students in Lafollette
I emailed a survey out to 37 Ball State students on campus who live in Lafollette and 23 of those students responded. Most of the questions I asked regarded their stereotypes and preconceptions of Lafollette dining, where they ate the most, what they thought of the employees, etc. I found that most of their answers were similar to many of the student employees.
I have already gotten many insiders’ point of views regarding Lafollette dining between the survey that I sent out and interviews I have done. The point of this survey was to get an outsider’s point of view looking in of what they thought about Lafollette’s food and employees. I am planning on using this survey to point out some statistics and compare between an insiders and outsiders point of view.
Interview #1
I conducted an interview with Renee DeVoe. Renee works as a cashier at the Lafollette Buffet. She started working at the Buffet in November of 2007. She has one daughter and her daughter is currently a freshman enrolled here at Ball State. It was because of her daughter why she started working here. Being an employee, Ball State gives money towards her daughter’s tuition, which is very helpful for her. After passing the cashiers class, Renee got to choose which dining services she wanted to work for, so she chose Lafollette Buffet because she knew someone who worked there already.
I plan on using this interview to explain what she does and the struggles that she faces as an employee. Also, being a cashier, she is involved more with the students and not so much the employees. This will help me get a different perspective as well.
Interview #2
I interviewed my manager, Edward Landreth. My interview with him was through email because of how busy he is and I figured that it would be easier for him. Also, I know he checks his email constantly, so I knew he would get back to me in a timely fashion, which he did. Ed has been working at Ball State for about five years now. Ed used to be an assistant store manager at McDonald’s down in Evansville before he started working in Muncie. He came to Ball State because of his wife who was attending Ball State at the time. His main reason for working at the Buffet was because of its benefits. Ball State pays for 100% of his college tuition and 80% of his spouse or child’s tuition.
My interview with Ed was very beneficial. It helped me to understand him more on a personal level, but also to help learn more about what he does on a daily basis. I not only got another insider’s point of view, but from a different angle. I now know more from the managing side of things, and I plan on using this interview for my mini-ethnography to explain what goes on behind the scenes that others are not aware of.
