No Power? No Problem! Campus Dining Adapts in Outage
February 23, 2016
An unexpected Ameren UE power outage affected Webster University’s home campus on Sunday, Feb. 21, lasting from 4:30 a.m. to approximately 7 p.m. To minimize the impact on student residents, campus dining staff made extra efforts to ensure student residents had meals despite the power outage.
Sodexo general manager Octavio Pino, executive chef A.J. Miller and their team came in to make sure that students had food available to them. They served students on the Marletto’s Marketplace patio—feeding approximately 100 students—despite having no power in the kitchen to prepare hot food.
“We have a responsibility to students to provide meals no matter what challenges we may face,” Pino said. “Losing power on Sunday was no exception. We would like to thank the students and staff that joined us for brunch and dinner this Sunday.”
“We really appreciate the extra effort from our campus dining staff to come in and make sure that our student residents had something to eat,” said Ted Hoef, associate vice president for Student Affairs and dean of Students. “This was a good example of the dedication they bring to Sodexo’s partnership with the University. I also recall several years back, [catering director] Cheri Hicks slept overnight in the office for a couple of nights to make sure that students got food during a major snowstorm.”
Students who were fed during the outage were understanding and appreciative of the dining staff’s efforts. “This level of caring really means a lot to our student residents,” Hoef said.