What’s on the Menu?

Written by: Ashley Grasinger

Edited by: MJ Greenhouse

Photo taken by: Shania Lipinski

(Seton Hill, Pa.) – If you are a student on Seton Hill’s campus, you may have heard about the discourse surrounding the food services being offered. 

Logan Hayden, a senior music education major, chimes in “I feel that the food is always repetitive. I know they try to include different cultured foods but most of it, nobody wants. I wish they would include more of the common types of foods seen in your average household.” 

Twitter page @hill_yeet, a student-made page where anonymous comments sent in by students are tweeted, has posted both good and bad reviews of the food offered on campus. One tweet reads, “Would’ve thought an event meal would mean good food…” with an attached video that appears to be hard chicken. 

Another tweet reads, “Please give some praise to the Cove worker who makes the crispy chicken sandwiches, whoever they are, they’re a hero”. 

“Supply chain issues will continue to always plague everybody, that’s no secret,” said Food Service Director, Darren Achtezhn.  “Some things were predictable; now they are not. That’s the world we are living in today. The labor industry is the same way.”

According to USA Today, food services took one of the largest industry hits due to covid. When Achtezhn was asked about the effects of this, he stated, “Early on in the process, I looked at what was not so much recruitment, but retention. How can I retain at least the people that I have? We did some things to adjust wages to hang on to those people.”

It is clear that Seton Hill food services are still being affected by the labor shortage and pandemic. 

“I am still, from when the semester started, 27 people down from where we were,” said Achtezhn. “We have a very competitive wage. We went from an entrance wage of 10 dollars an hour to 13 dollars an hour.” 

Working through Seton Hill’s food service is only an 8-month job, so it is still considered a part-time job.

Achtezhn has also made other changes, “We cross-train every individual,” said Achtezhn. “We all pitch in as a team to figure out how we can cover every single thing.”

When asked about how the student body can help with these issues, he states, “If you want a job, come work for me. I am hugely flexible on hours, meals are included and you can walk to work. There is no skill set requirement; we will train you.” 

There are also other ways that Seton Hill students can help with the issues of food services on campus, like attending Achtezhn’s food discussions.

 “The second session is on April 19th at 9 o’clock at night and the last session is on May 4 at 9 o’clock at night. Come and join me here in the dining hall for food discussion,” said Achtezhn. “You bring your problems to me and I will get you answers or explanations.” 

Food services wants to know the thoughts and opinions of the student body of Seton Hill. 

“You have an open voice. Get to one of us. We are around the open floor every single day,” said Achtezhn. “If you see something that is not right, bring it directly to my attention, and if you see something that you do like, that is important as well, because then I can try to make decisions based on popularity.”

If you go to Seton Hill and have opinions about the food offered on campus, do your part to make a change by sharing your thoughts!