Ohio State Dining Services shows President Carter how campus is fed

From soup to nuts, Ohio State University President Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. received a behind-the-scenes look at some of the dining operations at the Ohio Union on Thursday.

The Office of Student Life’s Dining Services manages more than 40 food operations at locations across the Columbus and regional campuses – from Traditions dining halls to Sloopy’s Diner to cafés in libraries and academic buildings all over Ohio State.

Abby Hertzfeld, interim senior director of dining services, and Zia Ahmed, interim associate vice president for the residential experience, introduced Carter to university cooks, servers and staff.

“It was an absolute honor to have [Carter] tour some of our operations and use his very limited time to see our facilities and talk with our students and our employees and really see all the hard work that we do to provide services to our students, faculty and guests on campus,” Hertzfeld said.

Carter sampled food from Union Market, Sloopy’s and Espress-OH. He spoke to student employees and chefs. He also stopped in the instructional kitchen on the lower floor of the Union. The kitchen serves as a living laboratory for students in hospitality and culinary classes.

Hertzfeld said Carter was interested in the dining services team and the 2,000 student employees who support all facets of the operation.

“We rely very heavily on those student employees. We’d love to have more, but we continue to encourage them also to take their academics very seriously,” she said. “That’s one of the best things about our students, is that we help them not only with building job skills, but we also help them to make sure they’re taking care of their academic requirements as well.”